Creating Nested Window

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone,

I am new to Revit and am trying to create a 'nested' window.

I have watched a couple of videos but they appear to be 3 or 4 years old and possibly don't have the same problem as I am having. I am using Revit 2017.

1. First of all I have downloaded a manufacturers window family. These have come as top and bottom units (which is why I want to create a nested family).
2. Next I start a new family in Revit 'Metric Window.rft' (I want to load in each family rather than have a window as host, so I have the flexibility to tag/schedule all units if needed). 
3. After I have set my opening width and height, I load in the window families.
4. Then I add the window family by going to: 'Create' - 'Component', and selection the top & bottom window units (roughly placing them on the wall).
5. This is where I then have a problem - the first unit can easily be positioned in the correct opening I have created (point 3.) but when I align the last window in the opening, I get an error message saying 'Instance(s) of Velfac200Energy_window (bottom unit) 1022.5 x 900 not cutting anything.'

Am I doing this the correct way? is there a reason why I am getting this message for just the last window placed in the opening ( I have even tried the same for a 4 panel/unit window and get the same error.)

I have attached a screen shot with 3 images showing: a larger opening with the windows sitting in fine/ The first (bottom) unit in the correct opening/ The error message I get when I align or move the last (top) unit into place.

Thanks in advance for your help

Ben 

[Sahay_R]

It looks as though the top unit has not been constrained / locked to reference planes as the lower one is, which is why it is not obeying the same controls. 

Can you share a file that shows the behavior?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the quick reply Rina,

This might be the reason, but whichever I place first is ok (top or bottom). it is the second unit which causes the problem.

I have attached the file.

Regards

Ben

[Sahay_R]

OK - here's the issue - too many opening cuts. The second window had its opening cut trying to cut out of the parent family's opening cut, which meant it was cutting through nothing. Yeah I know it sounds super confusing.

Attached is my solution. Hopefully it fulfills all your hopes and dreams - which I fail to understand, but am treating this as a learning exercise. What I did was delete the opening cut from the parent family and constrain both windows to the reference plane. Voila! Both windows are cutting through walls and are happy as clams!

[Anonymous]

Thank you, This is very helpful.

The reason for grouping these window units is so that on a large building I, A) don't have to move 2-4 individual panes per window if there are changes and B) so that the window is treated as one opening on my schedule rather than counting each individual unit. (see attached jpeg - left hand side = nest window, right hand side = single units). Although I did notice I cannot add 'Acoustic' & 'Glazing' into the nested schedule - is this because the families are not shared?

Is this not the correct way to work in Revit?

Ben

[Sahay_R]

IME windows are scheduled by opening, not by unit. If I were creating these windows, I would not worry about scheduling each part of the window and leave that for Remarks / spec.

[ToanDN]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thank you, This is very helpful.

The reason for grouping these window units is so that on a large building I, A) don't have to move 2-4 individual panes per window if there are changes and B) so that the window is treated as one opening on my schedule rather than counting each individual unit. (see attached jpeg - left hand side = nest window, right hand side = single units). Although I did notice I cannot add 'Acoustic' & 'Glazing' into the nested schedule - is this because the families are not shared?

Is this not the correct way to work in Revit?

Ben

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Nesting child families in parent families is a normal practice. 

If you need to report the information of individual child families in project, they need to be "Shared".  For windows, we usually report the whole assembly, not individual panes (those are takes care of by window elevation legend should I need to dimension them, or indicate different glazing for different panes).

So, it depends on what you want to report.  Either ways are possible.