Rotation in Any Axis

[Bob_Zurunkle]

Is it possible to create a family that can be loaded in on any view, and rotated in any direction?

[Alfredo_Medina]

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@me1a wrote:

Link is missing

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Which link, where?

[Anonymous]

this link is broken the solution is void now

[Anonymous]

Why create two families for a simple extrusion, one for horizontal, one for vertical? Why not allow simple extrusions to be rotated, regardless of axis?   

[ToanDN]

There is no need for two families. Create one family workplane or face based, place it on a reference plane in project, then you can rotate it in any directions.

[rbh1]

It seems like this link is broken

[d.blokland]

Yeah, the links are all broken again. Would it be an idea to copy-paste the text of the blog post (if you can still access it) on this forum for future reference? Much appreciated. I'm running into the same problem. 

[Anonymous]

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture-forum/rotation-in-any-axis/td-p/3344679/page/2

It seems OK to me

[d.blokland]

Thank you for your reply.

This is just a circular link that leads to the forum, did you accidentally copy-paste the wrong content? 

The planta1 blog links from this thread are all inactive for me, as is the enclosed YouTube video:

http://planta1.com/forum/entry.php?12-Rotating-a-Revit-model-family-in-3-different-axis-by-parameters 

http://www.planta1.com/blog/rotating-an-object-in-3-different-axes-by-points/ 

http://www.planta1.com/blog/rotating-a-revit-model-family-in-3-different-axes-by-reference-lines/ 

https://youtu.be/3IWum86W-zo

I guess that's what the other users are also reporting. 

This reply has been edited by the moderation team as the legacy links were no longer valid

[ToanDN]

Just change the family to Mechanical Equipment category and check Always Verical, yes check that even though it sounds odd, then you can rotate it freely in project.

[d.blokland]

Hey ToanDN, thanks for your suggestion.

I'm happy to report.. It works! 😎

So to change the family category, open the family and in the create tab select "Family Category and Parameters", change to "Mechanical". I had to uncheck ''Work Plane-Based" and check ''Always Vertical", which indeed sounds very odd, to get it to work.. But it does, so I'm going to experiment with this strategy in the future to see how it can integrate in my workflow. We mainly do mechanically engineered objects anyway, so it might be a good option to switch to Mechanical Equipment families from Generic Models entirely.

Do you have any insight about other behavioural or structural differences between these categories?

[curtisridenour]

I tried this out with nested Mechanical Equipment families and it totally works. Confusing, but it works. Then i saw that you can host to the 4 reference planes that define a reference line. Now I don't need to use the Mechanical equipment trick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhbkjStGvbg&t=197s

I am only posting this because I saw this video and it helped me out. I wanted to share it along to the rest of the community.

[carl.heintz]

Btw what solved this issue and many others for me was to realise that adding (and naming!) reference planes will help with many of the issues that comes with this. If you add a bunch of reference planes you should be able to work it as you want and I realised naming them something is important otherwise they will not show up.

It should be a lot simpler though as this is so easily solved with other 3d software where you can just use a gumball to rotate things in any direction you want in any view.

[jeremiah_sears]

The response that you should model something in the correct orientation to begin with is what I find so infuriating about rivet. As if it were written by an engineer who can't understand imperfection. Due to the nature of rivet I have to download models from third-party websites, which are imported in the wrong orientation. Why would anyone ever want to rotate an object in access other than Z? Because life isn't perfect, even if an engineer can't understand that.
I was the lead animator at Sega and Atari using Maya, which has the most logical modeling and hierarchy tools. The restrictions and hidden parameters on third-party objects is infuriating. Your comment on just modeling something in the correct orientation to begin with verifies the feeling that this program was written by engineers who had never used a 3-D program before. Why the restrictions why can't we rotate or scale in any access we want?

[Sahay_R]

To start with - Revit is not Maya. Both programs were written to serve entirely different purposes with different thought processes and workflows. Please stop thinking Maya-thoughts when working in Revit. 

Readymade families from the web will not give exactly the desired results for your project and way of working. Accepted practice is to use them as a basis to be adjusted to suit the project and company standards.

To address the issue of incorrect element placement- Using the space bar can rotate family instances in the horizontal plane. The Align tool can also help fine tune the placement of the family. Placing flip controls in the family are also helpful. To control vertical orientation of the family, appropriate controls can be set in the family or the family can be created to host to walls, floors, faces, and ceilings. 

[jeremiah_sears]

Do you work for Autodesk? Sounds like it. I was proficient at Maya and find Revit totally lacking, not only in the modeling and texturing tools, but miss the logic of the "hypergraph." Every objects parameters are different. Hidden parameters? Restrictions that prohibit texture changes? Maddening. It completely stifles my creativity. Instead of creating the building I've envisioned in my head, I end up settling aesthetically on everything in my scene.
Everything ends up looking like Sim City.

[Sahay_R]

Most of the responses that you see on the Forums are from industry users - like myself - of the software. 

For quick visualization, I would suggest a tool like Sketchup. Revit’s strengths are more in the areas of creation of intelligence driven construction documents and reporting of compiled data for scheduling and estimating purposes. 

[mhiserZFHXS]

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@jeremiah_sears wrote:
Do you work for Autodesk? Sounds like it. I was proficient at Maya and find Revit totally lacking, not only in the modeling and texturing tools, but miss the logic of the "hypergraph." Every objects parameters are different. Hidden parameters? Restrictions that prohibit texture changes? Maddening. It completely stifles my creativity. Instead of creating the building I've envisioned in my head, I end up settling aesthetically on everything in my scene.
Everything ends up looking like Sim City.

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Oh this is a good one.

Revit is not a game design program. No crap it feels like it was built by engineers. Its USED by engineers (and architects). And you know why all of YOUR objects parameters are all different? Because you download all of your stuff from the internet instead of creating it yourself.

I'm not sure why you are jumping into an AEC program when it appears your only concerns are visual. Revit is primarily a documentation program. The visuals are largely a means to an end. Part of me thinks you are just in the wrong place.

[curtisridenour]

Revit is a database with a fancy GUI

[ToanDN]

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@jeremiah_sears wrote:

Why the restrictions why can't we rotate or scale in any access we want?

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Let's start with scale restriction:  In reality, you can't just scale a wall, or a steel beam, or a microwave.  You need to build a smaller wall using different type of framing and composition, you have to buy a smaller beam or a different microwave.  Yes it is restrictive but it adheres to the logic and feasibility of the real world.

Regarding rotation restriction:  anything you can rotate in reality and still make physical sense you can do it in Revit.  For example: you can rotate a beam in any direction OOTB, you cannot rotate a casework out of the level OOTB because it doesn't make any sense in reality. 

But there are always workarounds to overcome the restriction and I honestly think the solutions provided here aren't the best one.  If you want to know more, start your own thread to refresh the topic.

[h.g.j.8991]

Hi, i have the same issue but link is down, could you update the article please?