Combining families and making them rotatable using rotate in program

[Anonymous]

Hi All

First time posting here so apologies if this is something that has been answered previously, I searched for similar topics but didn't come up with much.

So my issue is this: I have 2 families I want to combine, a pipe clip and a beam clamp w/ threaded rod. I need to be able to rotate this nested family using RO rather than having a parameter based rotation. The clip is functioning correctly in terms of rotation but I can't figure out how to combine both families while retaining the rotatability.

I have attached both families and was wondering if anybody could help me out combining them. I don't have the time, or the knowledge to be honest, to start from scratch.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Aidan

[dzanta]

If I understand correctly, you want to be able to use the Rotate command in Revit to rotate the nested family within a family.  I tested this on a simple family and the Rotate command will not "drill down" into the nested family.  Using the Tab command, it too will not see the nested family to rotate.  I do not believe what you want is possible (not because of how you build the families, but because of the Rotate command functionality).

[robert.klempau]

Hello @Anonymous,

I agree with @dzanta.

It is not possible to rotate the shared nested family with the standard rotation functionality in Revit. 

But when you prepare your family good it is very easy to place the clips, rotate the rod and align the top clip.

see below:

[Jacob_United]

Hi Aidan,

You can in fact rotate nested families within the family editor, I've been doing it for some time but it can be quite tedious. Refer to the below steps:

• First of all open up your nested family and uncheck 'Always Vertical' and check 'Work Plane-Based'. Both of these options are visible in the properties panel when you have no elements selected.
• Load the altered nested family into the appropriate family and place the nested element somewhere. Now go to the elevation that you want to rotate the nested family in.
• Select your element and up the top of your screen you'll see the option 'Pick New'. Select this and then click on the 'Work Plane' option that just lit up.
• Click somewhere in the model space and voila you can now rotate the object in this plane.

You can change the work plane as many times as you want/need, so you can rotate the family in multiple planes if required. This method is quite tedious, but it's the best one I've got. 

Good luck, and let me know if you run into any issues.

[Jacob_United]

This was meant to be an edit/addition to my previous reply but I didn't make the change soon enough and the timer expired. 

Anyway, please find attached your family with the pipe clamp rotated and aligned to the bottom of the rod, it's probably not exactly where you want it but I'm sure you've got from here. I did this only using the method I explained above.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everybody for your help, much appreciated.

Luke

Thank you it seems you've understood my issue. Unfortunately I can't open the attached family as I'm using Revit 2016. Appreciate the effort, thanks.

Aidan

[Jacob_United]

Ha! My apologies, I did indeed misinterpret your question. In that case the two posters above me are quite correct and there is not a way to rotate a single nested component of a family in the project environment using only the RO command.

I'm curious, what would be the problem with having a parameter instead of using the RO command?