Hello,
My name is Tomas and am learning Revit so bare with me. Im working on a project from a book called No Experience Required and am on chapter 4, working with the autodesk revit tools. Its telling me to make the ref planes, which I did, place the window, did that. Now check the array button in the modify tab and up comes my options in the bar above. I enter all thats asked and I get a message saying, 'Instances not cutting anything - another one is, ' cant place inserts outside of hosts - these elements wont be copied. Im using the 2015 student version and am reading the pdf 2014 version of book. Is it this fact or can anyone see a glaring mistake on my part?
Thanks for your time, and remember, I'm a student, go easy!!!
Tomas
Screen shot attatched just for interest.
The window family is a wall hosted family. In other words, you can't place one unless there is a wall there to place it in. With the array, you are trying to get Revit to make new copies of the window in places that there is not a wall for it to be in. So it fails. The error message SHOULD say, "Hey, I can't put that window just floating out in the air like that." Either define the array so that you know all new instances of the window will be within it, or make the wall longer/taller to accept whatever array values you have in mind.
Related Note: Don't worry about use "going easy" on you. We were all struggling at some point, and there is always more questions with Revit, no matter how expert one becomes.
Unrelated Note: Hahaha, I got here before Constantin!
What do you mean it doesn't seem to work. Let's do a practice array. Select your window. Click on the array tool. In the options bar make sure that: Linear button is selected instead of Radial button, the option to Group and Associate is unchecked, the Number field is set to 2 (this is for practice), the Move to options is set to 2nd, and the option to Constrain is checked. Now click somewhere near your window to establish a source and click somewhere else along the wall to establich a destination. Bingo, new window there.
Since we only did 2, and they were not grouped, our result was pretty much exactly the same as if we had copied the window over.
Now try the same thing with 4. Be aware that the Move to: 2nd option will string numbers 3 and 4 out even further, and that the Move to: Last option will crunch numbers 2 and 3 in between. So if your wall isn't long enough, or if you try to do them too close together so that they overlap in the wall, you're going to get an error.
Yes, that is the way it should work. Please see this short screencast video I just made and confirm that you're basically doing the same thing. If you are doing the same thing, and it isn't working, I cannot think of a reason.
Had a look at your video. I still cant get it to work, I dont know whats going on. Its befuddling.
Thanks for the replies.
Tomas
Are you able to at least copy the window up four times? Or do you get the same error?
@Darragh98 wrote:
No. I think a re-install is in order.
Wasting time re-installing the software just because you can't make the array is not going to help in anyway.
Below is the same image that you attached to the original post. Notice that the option "2nd" is checked, and "last" is off. That contradicts what you said in another post, that you were selecting "last" as the method for the array. If "2nd" is what you're using, Revit is trying to create 4 windows, with that distance "d" that I am indicating on the image, as the spacing, which means that the 2nd window will be at the second reference plane from top to bottom, and all the other 3 windows will be out the building. Try again, but this time make sure that you use the "last" method, and click from the first reference plane above, to the second reference place below. On top of that, I think you are going to need more space between the reference planes and the outside faces of the wall. Otherwise, even with the "last" method, this can fail again.
I un installed it and re installed it with a few updates. Open up my saved project and tried it but still not going for me. I made a new wall outside the building I was doing with a different make up. The window array worked ok for me then. Basic wall exterior.block on metal stud:R9 is the new wall I made.
The wall I'm using that I cant array in is Stacked wall,exterior, brick over block with metal stud. Would the wall make up have anything to do with not being able to array?
Thanks
Even if I put a window in at the far left of top wall and try to array 4 windows if does not work. Ive tried all the permutations with the buttons and its no good.
On the image you posted, you were using "2nd". That is not going to work. If you use "Last" that might not work either, because the reference planes are supposed to indicate the distance between the first and last window, but at the same relative point of the window, meaning, left edge to left edge, or center to center, and the reference planes are too close to the exterior faces of the wall anyway.
Something else that might be happening is that the wall and the windows do not intersect at all in elevation. Maybe the sill of the windows is too low or too high, or the wall is too low, etc... that cannot be seen in plan view, and you need to double check this in 3d view.
Make sure your source point click and your destination point click are not actually ref.plane to ref.plane, because then of course even with Move to: Last selected, you would be asking Revit to put the bottom of the fourth window at the upper reference plane, and that means it's going to be hanging out above the top of the wall.
Source click = some snap point along top edge of window.
Destination click = upper reference plane.
Did you try the practice array I suggested earlier, with just 2 instead of 4? In an elevation view, just try to array a second window over horizontally a few feet. Of course if you're only making an array of 2, then the Move to: 2nd and the Move to: Last doesn't matter because it's the same thing. First make sure the wall is long enough for the new window to be created. What is your result?
Can you attach a copy of this project file so I can download it and take a look?
Hi Chris,
Wont let me send it, too large. I'm going to **** this computer out the window in a minute. I want to start the lesson again but if I dont know what I'm doin wrong now I'll just repeat it next time. Is there a way for me to send the file?
Can you upload it to Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, or some other place? Make it public and give me a link to it?
Hmmmm.... there is indeed something very wierd going on. If you try it on a smaller scale, you will see the wonky results that are causing an error for you. When you click the destination position for the last instance, Revit is creating one beyond that. Look:
It works correctly if you first change the wall to any regular type.
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