Element cannot be mirrored or rotated in a manner that changes its angle relative to the ground.

[ConstantineC]

I have downloaded a wall or face based ((not sure which one is it)  picture poster family but it does not correctly attach to the face of a wall. It is inserted on a a standard view angle and when I try to change its work plane I get this error "Element cannot be mirrored or rotated in a manner that changes its angle relative to the ground

Is there something wrong with the family reference planes?

This one is positioned vertically while another similar family that works on any wall  I found its positioned horizontally on the reference level.

Is there a simple way to fix it?

I have attached the family as well

Here on the right side is a top Reference Level view  of  this family with the issue while on the Left is another similar family that works correctly

[pyaezoneas]

Can you just press space bar after selecting that family?
Normally it will rotate.
Or do you want to change the workplane inside the family itself?

[ConstantineC]

@pyaezoneas I want to change the workplane but actually there is something wrong it it because it should automatically attach parallel to any wall face. I think it is built facing the wrong plane, not sure how it can be solved besides rebuild it on the horizontal reference plane?

[ConstantineC]

I think I found the issue is pretty clear. The face based families need to have the face that is attaching to the host parallel and horizontally on the reference plane.

For example here is a family that correctly attaches to the wall face, you can see its thumbnail is horizontal

 

And here is a family that does not attaches correctly to the wall face and its being built vertically.

 

The question is now if there an easy fix to change the families orientation from vertical to horizontal reference plane?

[pyaezoneas · Accepted solution]

Hi @ConstantineC 
As you stated, it seems that the problematic family is entirely work-plane based. As far as I know, there is no way to directly convert the work-plane based family to face-based family.

Even though there is an option inside family editor where you can change work-plane into face, there is no face to even select inside the family editor.

Also inside the Family Category and Parameters, the "Host" value is nothing. So, seems like there is no way to add a face into that family.

I think the best way might be to create a new one with face-based generic model.

[ConstantineC]

Yeah so I was afraid there is no quick fix. They need to be rebuilt as a face-based family

Or I could just use the one that works and change the texture to whatever picture frame I want.

[pedruccioli]

I didn't open the file, but from what I understood, could you create a face-based family and nest it inside? This way you would use the workplane of the face-based family.