Help Please: Adaptive Element Orientation

[Anonymous]

I am making a curved bridge. I created an I-beam cross section as an adaptive element (Image 1 attached) with 28 reference points as this is the same number as my bridge has. However when I assign the elements to my bridge (Image 3) the cross section of my element is twisted (Image 4). I need the cross section to remain vertical at all times.

I have tried changing the "Orients to" properties of the points within the adaptive element and reloading to project aswell as changing the "Rotation angle constraint" of the adaptive point in my project but neither appear to do anything.

I am new to revit so may be missing something obvious but any help would be greatly appreciated.

[martijn_pater]

You could try using a nested family with the profile, which is set to "always vertical" (should it always be vertical here though?)

[RDAOU]

@Anonymous 

At one point or the other and when past a certain tolerance, any beam that long will buckle whether that is in real life or in virtual world; 28 placement points is a lot! Not sure there are beams that span that long! 

The orientation of the final form is driven by

• the orientation of the profile (in-place sketched profile vs nested adaptive component)
• Where the profile is hosted (@ nodes of divided curve / @ the Adaptive points / @ points driven by the adaptive curve)
• how that profile adapts to the changing curvature of the beam
• how the formed beam adapts to the curvature of the surface it is being hosted on.

To tackle the above, I would use a nested profile with 1 adaptive placement point...however, not knowing how you modeled the family, I can only assume that the main issue is the profile which seems to be making the family not as adaptive as it should be (probably you used in-place model lines or nested a non-adaptive profile).

Another easy but tedious way out is to model the adaptive beam family using 9 adaptive points oriented to Host XYZ and host it on a divided surface similar to a panel.