Edit Family Symbols

[Anonymous]

I am trying to modify the way a light fixture appears on my drawings.  It is a 4'X2' light fixture, but it appears that no matter how I edit the views in the family, it still appears as a 0'-6" X 4' rectangle.  I'm just wanting it to appear as it should, a 2'X4' rectangle. How to edit?  What am I missing?

[RobDraw]

Without the family, any answer would be a WAG.

[MuirEng]

You should be able to figure it out with by taking these steps:

in family editor select the family type you are having trouble with

open the ceiling plan view

set lower settings same as your project (scale, detail level)

turn on preview visibility

now you can debug it within the family editor.

good luck!

post the family if you are still having trouble.

[MuirEng]

testing signature

[Anonymous]

Here are the families.  Also see attached family for a duplex receptacle.  I'm trying to just turn the symbol around to where the prongs face out instead of to the wall, and can't for the life of me get it to work right. 

[MuirEng]

I don't have time to look at all of these now, but I did look the light fixture. This family has some serious issues. Look at your 3d view in family editor and switch between types. Nothing changes. It is a 6" wide rectangle always. You need to draw n reference planes, dimension them, assign the dimensions to parameters, and then lock the geometry to those reference planes to create a 3d form that flexes with your family parameters.

There is a detail item loaded , presumably for plan view representation. I believe the consensus is that it is a bad idea to nest different family types together. This leads to weird behaviour in project with VG settings.

respectively, I suggest you need some training on family design. Try the Lynda course by Paul Aubin.

Our firm is planning to release content libraries for electrical engineers on a subscription basis. Is this of interest to you?

[Secttor]

The sad part is that rfa's are saved in Revit 2018. 

[MuirEng]

Yes, the OP will find it harder to obtain direct support on RFA files if they have used 2018 versus an older version.

[Anonymous]

What about the duplex receptacle?  Any ideas as to why it's impossible for me to rotate the way the symbol appears on the drawings?  It seems like the families that come with Revit have several issues.  I'm having a hard time figuring out why it's so difficult, I have to be missing something.  

[MuirEng · Accepted solution]

I assume you are hosting this receptacle on a wall? If so you cannot rotate it. Otherwise you would rotate the electrical box out of the wall. Turn on fine view and see what I mean. If you host this family on a level then you can rotate it.

Here is your family with the symbol rotated. I did this by editing the nested generic annotation.

We use a symbol for receptacles that is symmetric. What's the value in showing the tails on one side or the other?

[Anonymous]

Awesome, I finally got it to happen!  Yes, the purpose of putting the tails out is, in our area, 99% of the time the architects and engineers prefer to see them facing out.  

A little background to what our scenario is, we took a training course in Revit a good while back and our first project just came through, so it has been little items here and there shutting down progress.  

[RobDraw]

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@MuirEngwrote:

What's the value in showing the tails on one side or the other?

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Not only has it been an industry standard, it actually has a basis in representing the device. Those "tails" represent the prongs of a plug.

[MuirEng]

Ok, good luck moving forward.

[Anonymous]

So, the big debate I have been seeing is which way to show the prongs, are you saying poking out or poking in is the industry standard?  Like I said, in our area standard is poking out (I will admit I'm a bit naive to what goes on outside of my little commercial market). 

[RobDraw]

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@Anonymouswrote:

So, the big debate I have been seeing is which way to show the prongs, are you saying poking out or poking in is the industry standard?  Like I said, in our area standard is poking out (I will admit I'm a bit naive to what goes on outside of my little commercial market). 

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As far as I'm concerned, there is no industry drafting standard. There are tons of them depending on the industry, location, personal preference, or any of a number of other factors.

Being from the MEP design side, the vast majority of the drawings that I've seen have them pointing towards the wall. Every electrical drawing that I've produced had them that way. So, your not showing the receptacle but rather the plug. The receptacle would be in the wall.

[MuirEng]

I have no interest in entering into a debate about what is best and what is
industry standard. I'll just leave it that we show a symmetric symbol and no
one has ever complained to us about this. The symbol is purely symbolic, and
easily modified, so you can do whatever you think is correct and per client
expectations.

[Anonymous]

Well thank y'all for your help!  Hopefully I can learn a good deal as I navigate the waters of Revit MEP.