Dimensioning to structural HSS column RANT

[levberez]

I'd like to ask the engineers who wrote the software what they were thinking when they created the structural HSS column family and made it impossible to snap a dimension line to the OUTSIDE FACE of the column???!!!???

Why on earth would you make the dimension line snap to the INSIDE FACE of a bloody closed tube shape? Who in their right mind would ever use that dimension????

I get that most of the time you can dimension to the center line, but as architects, we often need to specify a particular offset between materials, so we want to call out a F.O. to F.O. dimension.

The fact that the Revit family DOES NOT ALLOW that is beyond ridiculous.

I had to find a forum from 2005 to get the work around, which means Autodesk has known about this issue for some 20 years!!!  WTF?

Why is it up to us, paying customers, to edit each structural family and change the outside faces from "not a reference" to a "weak reference"???

There are no words to describe the shear stupidity of this ongoing issue.

[barthbradley]

No issues here. Are you sure nobody is pulling a prank on you there?  It is Friday.  

[levberez]

Nope ... I wouldn't go on my mini rant if it had.

I simply tried to snap a dimension line to the outside face of a HSS column and it wouldn't do it. Kept going to the dashed hidden line / face. Then I tried drawing a drafting line by picking the outside face, and it wouldn't do it. But it had no problem when I hovered over the dashed hidden line.

I then opened the family to edit it and, sure enough, the reference lines to which the outside face was locked to had "no reference", which I changed to "weak reference" and everything fell into place after uploading into my Revit model.

This model was started in Revit 2020, so that may be the cause since the original structural family was probably loaded back then. But one would think that when you're updating to the latest Revit release, the accompanying Family Libraries would follow suit and all elements / components in your model get updated along with the new release.

So, the only prank being orchestrated is by the Autodesk software engineers.

But yeah, it is Friday, so that's a good thing.

[barthbradley]

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@levberez wrote:

So, the only prank being orchestrated is by the Autodesk software engineers.

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I don't know why you would blame the software engineers.  Clearly, if you are able to fix it, the software is working fine and dandy.  If you want to blame somebody, blame the creator - or the last modifier - of the family.  Or, better yet, drink beer and get happy.   TGIF! 😉

[levberez]

I think you're missing the point ... this is a standard family from Revit's library. It hasn't been modified by any of us. It's an issue that's been around since the beginning because it was set up like that by Autodesk. Not me, not any of my colleagues. Why would anyone go into a family and edit away a reference so dimension lines stop snapping to it? Think of what you're saying. It doesn't make any sense for anyone to do that.

But yeah, I found the work-around, like one seems to have to do every other month when using Revit and I'm onto beer #2, so life ain't all bad.

[barthbradley]

Sorry, I can't relate. I have no like issues.  

[levberez]

Except for the beer.

🖖

[TBeauseigneurAJRQM]

Change your display detail level to medium. If it is in coarse or fine, it will not work but it will in medium detail.

[Karol_Piroska]

same actually happens to few OOTB families where outer reference planes of beams and columns are set as "not a reference". Easy fix obviously by changing them to weak or strong references. Loading back to the project you might get some warnings and errors. 

[botspammer550]

Dimensioning to a structural HSS (Hollow Structural Section) column can be tricky due to its rounded corners and unique wall thickness. It's important to factor in tolerance and welding constraints to ensure accuracy in load distribution.