Hangar door Parameters for airport (Please help solve!!)

[kchristol]

Here's what I have so far on this door. 

There are 2 family types for the door alone. (D1, D2)

At the moment I am working with only D1. (might want to use the preview visibility for clarity)

I have 2 different families representing each of the two motors. (2d and 3d)

For the most part all of the above mentioned are being constrained properly while flexing the door.

Onto my main issues, the "Chain and Pully" family represented on the left side of the door in plan needs to rotate from the intersection of the two ref planes represented in door ref plan (CHAIN CTR HOR, CHAIN CTR VERT) 

I've been trying to use an instance parameter in the door family (rot x) for the chain and pully but it gives me remove contraint errors every time.

In the chain and pully family itself I have height and length parameters that seem to work (would be nice if those instance parameters showed up in the model from the nested family after all this is said and done)

If any of you could both help with this issue and critique my family modeling for the future it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

-Kyle

PS: IF EDITING THE MODEL PLEASE USE RVT 22 OR OLDER.

[barthbradley]

you have a number of issues happening here. I can address a couple.  

First of all, the Chain and Pulley is not hosted properly as I described n great detail on your other thread. 

Second, you have a Chain and Pulley Pulley Family nested into your Chain and Pulley Family. A circular reference.  Delete the Family in the Family.

Third - but not final - you need to constrain some Ref. Planes to other Ref. Planes. You do this by pulling a dimension between them, zeroing out the dimension and LOCKING it. 

See if you can learn anything from the attached  RFA.  Note the "Rotation" Parameter.  

[barthbradley]

Full disclosure here: I have no idea how these components are supposed to interact with each other.  Frankly, I need a schematic diagram to figure it out.  Got one?  😉

[kchristol]

I don't have a schematic for it. I tried mocking your family from the last post for a couple hours and still couldn't get it to work right. I had my 22 and your 23 open right next to each other with a couple work associates involved and we still couldn't get it. The motor, the column the motor moves up and down on, and the chain and pully are all supposed to be locked to the door opening or where ever I placed those locked parameters on the floor plan. The cable is supposed to be both locked to the motor (isn't yet) with the ability to rotate on the axis of where I have the chain set. (with the height and length parameters as well). There is another family involved in this that I haven't even gotten to yet which is a counterweight and another chain and pully that hopefully I will be able to set the same parameters as this chain and pully. This is by far the furthest I've gone into family editing. The amount of moving parts here are colossal. This will be a typical family in our hangars so I'm trying to make it right so that my superiors are able to just type in what angle height length etc they want to in the model to make the family behave properly. 

[kchristol]

Here is the counterweight and other pully. If you have any recommendation on the best way for this to work please tell. 

[barthbradley]

So, what you are saying is that you can't even reverse-engineer what I sent you before on your other thread?  If that's the case, then it’s nearly impossible for me to advise you. I have no idea what you can comprehend.  So, sorry, but I'm going to have to bow out of this thread.   Good luck to you though.  

[kchristol]

Well I appreciate you trying! Thanks for everything! I wish it was as easy for me and my colleagues to reverse engineer whatever it was you sent and how you did it as it was for yourself. I tried for several hours once again to get all of those parameters to work together but was unable to succeed, even after you sending me that. I'm sorry for frustrating you. I feel your pain...

Is there anyone else that has the ability to help with this issue? If so, please do so as well as critique me on anything I'm doing right or wrong with these families. I'm not a master at this, I'm simply a drafter trying to get this to work. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

[barthbradley · Accepted solution]

You didn't frustrate me. No pain here to feel either. I just don't know how to communicate advanced information to a beginner - and especially how to condense that information into a typical forum-length reply.  That's what books do in hundreds of pages and thousands of words and illustrations.  

But, having said that, I think you need to think "WORK PLANES". I think if you can wrap you brain around WORK PLANES and understand that everything is on a WORK PLANE, then you might have a "come to Jesus moment".  Go back to what I gave you before and notice that I made the Chain and Pulley Family a "Work Plane-Based" Family.  By doing so, that made it so that the family could be hosted to any Work Plane (such as a Ref. Line Work Plane in your case) - and stay on that Work Plane even when that Work Plane is moved vertically or horizontally - or rotated, as in your case.  

So, with that above information, do the following series of illustrations bring you closer to that "come to Jesus moment"?  NOTE: "My Work Plane" is a named Reference PLANE (not Reference LINE). 

 

That help your understanding at all?  Chapter 2 gets better. There's nudity and violence. Promise. I'll send you a copy if I get around to writing it. 😉   

[stefan_gokstorp · Accepted solution]

this should work. you had forgot to check in the pully family as workplane.