Brick shelf at the top of a column?

[kgatzke]

How do I make a brick shelf at the top of a square structural concrete column?

Here's the dilemma.  There are 14" x 14" concrete columns in a foundation wall with 12" concrete grade beam walls in between.  There is a continuous 6" deep by 8" high brick shelf running over both walls and columns.  There doesn't seem to be a way to make voids that can be turned on and off by parameter.  When I created a layer of extra material to fill in the mass behind the brick shelf (see attached family) the additional portion does not appear in the project. 

The visibility parameters for this additional portion are - as far as I can tell - identical to the main mass.  In the project I only see the main mass.  What am I missing here?

[SteveKStafford]

A void can't be turned on/off if you only consider it's nature being visible. However if you recognize that a void isn't really visible, except to us the creator, rather it alters/cuts solids. As such you can simulate the on/off behavior if you think of it as cut/don't cut, more specifically Push/Pull.

Change the size of the void; push it so that it interacts with the solid to cut it and pull it away so it no longer interacts with the solid (doesn't cut). Revit remembers when a void has been told to cut a solid so if the void is moved away from it and then back again it will resume cutting the solid.

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

The top part of your column wasn't constrained properly to the top Level and the reference plane.  Revised family attached (pic 1).

By the way, I wouldn't modify the column family just to add the shelf.  Simply join the wall and the column and reverse join order if necessary and the column will be notched to fit the wall (see pic 2)

[kgatzke]

Thanks.  I couldn't see how the part was not constrained.  Now it works just the way I'd hoped.

I had joined the upper wall to the column originally, but the shelf depth and brick layer depths don't match so it was an imperfect join.

[ToanDN]

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@kgatzke wrote:

Thanks.  I couldn't see how the part was not constrained.  Now it works just the way I'd hoped.

I had joined the upper wall to the column originally, but the shelf depth and brick layer depths don't match so it was an imperfect join.

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You can test the flex in the family by changing the upper level height.  When I did it in the original family the part did not move up with the level.