'Base sketch for extrision is invalid'

[Anonymous]

This is the third time I'm attempting to post this - the others just vanished and I stupidly didn't copy what I'd written.

I am taking the opportunity or the virus lock down to trey and learn Revit.  I have Revit 2019, and I am an architcect with over 30 years of experience in Autocad - from 9 (DOS) to 2020.

I have created a family of a shopfront with sliding doors.  The family flexes beautifully - the overall with and height of the shopfront, the with and height of the doors, and the position of the doors inside the shopfront.

But when I load it into a project it gives me a message "base sketch for extrusion is invalid", and just deletes the doors themselves.  So I have a shopfront with just an opening in it.

I tried to make the doors with sweeps in the family, but I cannot find out how to lock sweeps to ANYTHING.  So I gave that up and made them out of extrusions - which was an annoying exercise because I couldn't just mirror the door, as it would then behave extremely erratically, I had to draw each one separately.

I will next try to create a nested family of the doors, but I'm not holding out much hope - I tried a nested family with a wicket gate within another gate and I could not get it to move with the rest of the gate so I had to give up and just create a single width gate.  I must find out how to lock the insert point of the nested family, and also make sure the its width and height flex.  So far, my impression of Revit is that it does what it want to, and not what you want.

I know that many people think Revit is a great programme, but so far the reason why that should be so is a mystery to me.  However, I am prepared to accept that my finding it unbelievably cumbersome is hopefully down to a lack of experience.

I have searched the web for answers to the question of why the base sketch for the extrusion is invalid, and although I've found many others with the same problem, I haven't yet found a single answer - but I am being hopeful...

Anne Coventry

KwaZulu Natal

South Africa

[Anonymous]

Sorry about all the spelling mistakes - I recently lost the use of my left hand, and I'm still getting used to typing with one hand...

[barthbradley]

Way too many words for me.  Post the Reader's Digest Version please.  

FWIW: You can skip the editorial filler n the future. 

[Anonymous]

How do you resolve 'base sketch for extrusion invalid'?

[barthbradley]

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@Anonymous wrote:

How do you resolve 'base sketch for extrusion invalid'?

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Very  tenderly. Post something and I'll show you.   

[Anonymous]

It's okay thanks, don't trouble yourself - I'll look elsewhere for a solution.

[barthbradley]

@Anonymous: all I'm asking you for is some illustrations or the Revit file you are having issues with. I'll be more than happy to help you troubleshoot.  I can think of several causes. One cause might be that a Profile Family you are using has an overlapping line in it.  We could go back and forth guessing, but I don't want to.  Maybe someone else will.    

[emabarnes]

I am having the same issue. However my issue comes from trying to edit someone else's family  via the family editor in an already existing project. When I go to reload the family in the project (with or without the modifications) I get the message

"An error occurred in family "Sgl-F-DDRU-Butt" and was automatically resolved, but may require review by the family creator.
Error Information:
"Base sketch for extrusion is invalid""

[bin]

I would rather download a new one or model one from scratch tbh.

[Anonymous]

I tried to make the doors with sweeps in the family, but I cannot find out how to lock sweeps to ANYTHING.  So I gave that up and made them out of extrusions

You might be missing the align tool.  I a sweep, you can align the line (normally to a reference plane) and you then have the option to lock it.  Same with nested componenets - align and lock them to a reference so that Revit knows where it must go.  Start with that and come with further questions or problems that you encounter. 

Regarding your extrusion problem, post an image of what you're trying to do.  It could be overlapping lines, or might involve lines that are too short. Or post your family.

[emabarnes]

The family is attached to the reply above