Line based families moving together

[chughes]

Is it expected behavior for line based families to move together, almost as if it were two lines joined and moving together?

I have a line based casework family.  Works great, very flexible, does what I want *except* when I have two families end to end.  When I move one, the other comes along for the ride.

I *think* I get the logic, in that Revit sees the family as a line and lines are often treated as joined.  If this is the case, is there a means to prevent the joining treatment?

[barthbradley]

Strange behavior.  Does Reveal Hidden Constraints reveal a Padlocked Dash Line between them?  

[chughes]

Negative.

They are definitely joined, as Select All Joined Elements selects multiple elements

[barthbradley]

These are two instances of the same family in the Project???   

[chughes]

Correct.  And it happens with 2 instances of different line based objects.  Casework category, if that matters.

I experimented further.

If I draw them as two independent objects, they move independently.  That is expected.

If I move them to where they touch extrusions, but the 'line' doesn’t touch, they move independently.

If I align the 'line' without touching extrusions, they move independently.

It only occurs when the 'line' is aligned and endpoints are touching.  They tend to join and move together at that point.

After the join, even rotating one family with maintain the join condition, through the rotation and subsequent move commands.

Family is attached.  This may be expected behavior for line based families.  If it is, it would be great if there was an option to disallow join for families.

[chughes · Accepted solution]

More research shows that this is an old problem(?) with line based families, with no way to prevent the auto-join condition.  Time to start an Idea post...

[bin]

When you use the move or rotate command, uncheck the "Disjoin" option.

[barthbradley]

I tested and tested … took a break and then came back and tested some more. I can't get to a place where the behavior is annoying or peculiar to me.  I tried hard too.  Maybe this means that Autodesk has won. They've finally beaten into mindless submission.  Dunno.  

Stay strong and keep up the fight, @chughes.

😉

[bin]

Other than the Move with "Disjoin", you can also use Trim/Extent command.

[chughes]

This works.  It adds two extra steps (start Move, select Disjoin), but it works.

Why can Revit just give me what I want?  I don’t want to give Revit what it wants! 

[chughes]

It is more of an issue when rearranging the families to create new layouts.  Creating a new layout and tweaking the lengths, it wasn’t a big deal.  When I wanted to grab a few and drag them off to the side to rework the layout it was getting in the way.

However, I think I am going to rework the concept with instance length based families and move away from the line based.  The new ability in 2021 to create yes/no void parameters opens up better/more possibilities for these anyway.

I appreciate you taking stabs at it, though.