Constraints on end to end Geometry

[DrakeCanyonArchitecture]

What is the best way to constrain multiple instances of a nested object? I have locked them one to another end for end and applied formulas to them, I have created reference planes and locked the geometry to the planes then dimensioned them, etc. These instances changes in length, it seems that no matter what I do, I get errors.

[Ilic.Andrej]

You should only lock the origin of a nested object (the planes that determine its position). Then, associate the parameters of the nested object with the parameters of the host. That is how a host family drives the length of a nested object. To see how to associate family parameters, take a look at this video,

An opposite way is to keep the dimensions of a nested family independent from its host. These kind of nested families should be marked as shared. Their type parameters should drive their dimensions. When you open up a project and load a family that has some nested shared family in it, that shared family will be loaded into the project as well. Then, by using the project browser you will be able to access type parameters of a shared family.

// edited: I edited this reply 5 times cause my English is terrible.

[DrakeCanyonArchitecture]

I think you may have cleared a lot up for me. The first comment "You should only lock the origin of a nested object" is huge. I will mess with this for a while and see if this does the trick for me. Thank you so much!

[Ilic.Andrej]

You 're welcome. Keep us posted on the progress.

[barthbradley]

Are we talking about Arrayed Nested Families?  Almost sounds like you are describing this phenom: 

...see what happens to the Linear Array when I change "H":

There's a remedy, if you are interested.  

[DrakeCanyonArchitecture]

I do have an array but it is behaving well for me. This is for the stud wall that I have been working on @barthbradley . The studs are in an array but I have the double top plates and bottom plates placed in the family and have tried a whole bunch of combinations of things to make them work and have not been able to. So now I am down to making sections of wall at various lengths such as a wall that stretches from 16' to 32', 32' to 48', etc.

Originally, I had a family that was a studwall 63' long. The top plates are Multiples of 20' and the bottom plates are 16'. I had the wall built so that as a plate was reduced to nothing, the visibility shut off then the constraints on the next plate would take over. I kept getting a lot of errors, mainly because I was constraining everything wrong, but I was also getting messages that the extrusion could not be made because it was too thin and was deleted. 

I toyed with the idea of arraying the plates, but I don't know how I would constrain the lengths as the wall gets longer or shorter. What I have built so far is coming together exactly as I imagined it, I just keep running into obstacles here and there. The long wall is/was my biggest challenge, everything else as far as walls go is usually 20' or less.