Visibility for MEP Connectors

[niteshpanchal]

Hello Experts,

We are creating family for and that required visibility parameters to pipe connector. We have tried our best but unable to do it. Here are the attached couple of family.

Sink-Hand-BKResources-APHS-W1410 – This sample from client and they have applied visibility to connector, but I am not getting it how they have done it.

Dishtable-JohnBoos-EDTS8-S30-xxUCx – This our family where I like to give visibility to connector along with sink. It will be great help from you guys if any one can explain me how it is possible or what our client have done in their sample please.

Thank You!

Nitesh Panchal

[Sahay_R · Accepted solution]

This is a screenshot from the Family Types from the Sink family - 

The boxes are for the visibility parameters - namely, if you check or uncheck them, something will show or hide.

[SteveKStafford · Accepted solution]

Sorry, visibility of connectors remain an enigma. They remain visible regardless. Autodesk has heard from family editors, far and wide, that we want to be able to optionally include/exclude connectors so multiple configurations of families can be provided without separate files.

One technique I've seen used to get around this involves using an Array where the count will result in fewer host surfaces and a host connector. The host disappears and the connector does too. I haven't tried this myself with 2017 or 2018 so I don't know if it is still working. It is also possible to place a connector on the face of a form and then nest that connector into the host family. The problem is the connector is never visible and users have to know it is there somehow.

Autodesk needs to work out how to make connectors active/inactive and correspondingly visible or not.

[Anonymous]

I'm developing for air conditioning corporate and without the visibility or without the possibiliy to disable them I have to duplicate and duplicate families (one winth 4 connectors, one with 6, one with 8)

[randy_compton3JKYE]

Has this defect not been solved?  We need to be able to see and use the MEP connectors in the model in which the Arch model is linked.  How were these connectors designed to be used? - only within the single Arch model?  That will rarely ever happen.  The MEP design is done in a separate MEP model.  When we have to place our own redundant fixture families, that defeats the process of parametric data flow. 

[HVAC-Novice]

Randy: this hasn't been resolved. But what SteveKSTafford said may work better now since R2025 can have zero-arrays. Previously an array needed at least one member. I'm not using R2025 yet, so this is just a guess. 

Using arrays still sounds like an awkward workaround. And no, I have not tried it out myself. 

[RSomppi]

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@randy_compton3JKYE wrote:

We need to be able to see and use the MEP connectors in the model in which the Arch model is linked.  

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We have been doing it without this functionality for a decade and a half.