Nested adaptive family doesn't move with reference plane or aligned dimensions

[felipe.dias_]

I'm having an issue where I created an adaptive family consisting of a rectangular surface whose dimensions are controlled by 2 family parameters (length and height).

When I nest this family inside another adaptive family and try to lock it to a reference plane so I can make it move parametrically with the plane and control its distance from another plane, it gives me an error related to the constraints and it won't let me move my surface, as shown in the attached screencast. 

I've already tried using only length parameters attached to the borders of the surface to control the dimensions or using reference lines instead of reference planes but it keeps giving me the same error.

There's the option of creating a normal generic family with a simple extrusion and a next-to-zero thickness but I wanted to make sure there was a way of doing what I want while keeping the adaptive family.

 

[michael_coviello]

Hello @felipe.dias_ 

Thank you for posting to the forum.   I understand that constraints are not satisfied in this condition.   
Can you post your family file to this post?   Are there potentially other parameters in this family which control the same geometry in this direction?

Are you able to add the reference plane in the host family and drive the change by changing the value of a parameter?

[barthbradley]

Post the family.  We can figure it out much faster that way.  A lot easier than guessing and waiting for your reply.  

[felipe.dias_]

Hello @michael_coviello , thanks for the reply.

I'm attaching the host adaptive family with the other adaptive family nested inside. It's a Revit 2019 family.

I've tried everything I could think of - controlling the dimensions of the surface family by the aligned dimensions alone (even deleting all reference planes), attaching the form to either 4 reference planes (one for each border) or only two reference planes (upper and right border) and then using the same mix of techniques when I nest it in my host family - all combinations failed. I've only added one constraint consisting of locking one of the nested family borders (or one of its reference planes) to a reference plane in the host family.

What bothers me is that it works flawlessly if I use normal generic families (with an almost zero thickness so that it is almost a plain surface) instead of mass/adaptive families. If you have any idea of why it works for one kind of family and not another or how to make it work for adaptive/mass families, please let me know.

[michael_coviello]

Hello @felipe.dias_ 

Can you provide more context into the design of this family and how it is being used?

It would be very helpful to upload the family and mention exact steps we can take to see the problem.

Can you help us to understand why Parameter name: Longueur BDP (report) is a reporting parameter? Is Parameter Longueur BDP involved in this problem?

The attached family and nested instance are both Generic Models.    

Should both of these be adaptive families?   Reveal Constraints shows a constraint on this reference plane.

[felipe.dias_]

So basically I work for a company that rents temporary structures for events, and we're creating a library of all our products in Revit. One of the products that we rent is tents, which are based on modules (wall modules, roof modules, floor modules...) in which a single piece can only be placed on specific positions.

In this case I have a base module consisting of a door and 2 canvas panels that enclose the door, which is the most basic configuration. The idea is to define the good dimensions/parameters so that I can move/add other elements to specific positions which are controlled by the family parameters alone (in this case the host family, which corresponds to the module). I decided to draw these canvas panels as adaptive families so that they are represented as a simple rectangular surface in revit instead of an extrusion.

The "Longueur RCP" parameter serves no purpose in what I'm trying to achieve, it's just been leftover after I deleted other useless parameters. It can be deleted.

The problem is that I try to attach the borders of these panel families to reference planes and it throws an error when I try to move these planes, as can be seen in the screencast I attached to my original post.

The host family has to be an adaptive family if I want to nest other adaptive/mass families inside... 

[michael_coviello]

Hello @felipe.dias_    

I'm trying to understand more of why you chose this template type vs. a door template.

Have you considered using a door family for this purpose with a nested door?   

I'll post back with more details from investigating this problem and wanted to ask if there are specific benefits of using the generic model adaptive template in this case.   

The adaptive families are made to 'adapt' to the host and placing a constraint in this example may be counter to the designed behavior.   

Thank you.

[michael_coviello · Accepted solution]

Hello @felipe.dias_ 

I'm checking back in with you on this issue.   The problem is that the constraints that are being made are in conflict with the adaptive points in the family.     One way that you may want to investigate is to use a generic model (not adaptive).    

More information on how these are designed is here:  https://help.autodesk.com/view/RVT/2020/ENU/?guid=GUID-CC00A524-B561-493B-80C9-2972B5A472F2

Since an adaptive family has constraints based on the points, adding newer constraints in a project or host family over-constrains the geometry.

Please post back to help us understand if this helps you.    Thank you.

[felipe.dias_]

Hi @michael_coviello 

Thanks for the answer and sorry for the delay on answering. I ended up having other issues related to the use of adaptive families for my object, so I just gave up and used a generic family with the minimal extrusion depth possible instead.

But now thanks to our explanation I can better understand how constraints work with adaptive and mass families, so thanks for that!