Demolition of parts of a wall modelled as loadable family

[francisco.berenguerPBR6T]

Hello, 

I am currently working on a project where I have received the survey from a 3rd party. I need to open up a wall during the demolition phase, but there is an element (the window sill board) which is a loadable family categorised as a wall that I can't seem to demolish as I want.

I have tried using a generic family made of a void extrusion, which I have used in the past to partially demolish walls by cutting the portion of the wall I want to demolish without having to split the wall, but it just cuts the family, even in the existing phase. I have also tried the splitting tool, however, it didn't work with this element.

I have opened the family and I have even tried with the Cut with Voids when loaded parameter, but still it is not possible to cut with an empty void the same way that you can do with walls, floors, and roofs.

I could duplicate the family and slice it as required, but that would increase the amount of work to do and also, this is not the only element that is modelled this way on the file I have received.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions about my enquiry.

[barthbradley]

Huh? A "loadable family categorized as a wall"?  There is no loadable family "Wall" category.  

Post you file here and let us take a look and see.  

....FWIW: the "Wall" Family was probably originally created in a Project Environment.  

[francisco.berenguerPBR6T]

@barthbradley Thanks for your reply. Please see attached the family. It looks like it is made of separate sweets, and that it was set as a wall using the Family Category and Parameters dialogue. Let me know if you have further questions

[vancikv · Accepted solution]

I am familiar with the problem and I can tell you this:

- Partial demolition is possible for system families, at least for categories Wall and Floor. I haven't tried others. When you cut a void into a system family after its creation (in terms of phases), you're basically asking Revit to treat a subregion of the family geometry independently of the rest. Revit reacts by cutting out the main geometry and creating an element called "void infill" to represent this subregion. which will be shown in phases preceding the creation of the void and hidden in later phases.

- I think this functionality is not available to loadable families and your only option is, as you stated, to divide the geometry into multiple families. I'd very much like to be proven wrong, but I'd be very surprised.

[barthbradley · Accepted solution]

Instead of using this Family, Create a Profile Family and use it for a Wall Sweep in your Project. Then "Demo" the Sweep sections you need to.  

[francisco.berenguerPBR6T]

Hi @barthbradley I will follow your advice, thanks for looking into this.

[francisco.berenguerPBR6T]

I see your point. I will "slice and conquer", @vancikv