Strutural framing family with upper level constraint

[KalilFiestas]

Hi There, 

I am trying to create a family that is inserted in the model as a regular structural framing family, were you select start point and end point and stretches the structural member but at the same time, it will attach to the level it is inserted and reads the height of the level above (or the one I select manually), similar way a column family would do. 

is there any work around?

At the moment I have a parameter set for the height but i would rather have it automatically adjusted if I change the levels.

Thank you very much.  

[jay_colcombe]

The simplest and quickest answer is to use a Brace as this will adjust with Levels and you can pick Structural Framing Families for the Profiles etc.

Alternatively you could use the Two-Level based Family Template for if you want them to be driven this way.

Alternatively you could try Aligning and Locking the end of the Structural Framing Family to the Levels which will be adjusted however sometimes Structural framing does not like to be used like a column and you will get a warning.

[KalilFiestas]

HI Jay, 

Thanks for your answer.

I tried using the Two-level based family but then I loose the ability of inserting the family by clicking on the start and end points of the structural member.

The family I am trying to build includes some nested families. 

some are horizontal members that stretches horizontally

Then I have a diagonal member that stretches horizontally and vertically.

See picture below:

 

The way we use this family is on plan by clicking on the start and end columns so it is attached automatically to them and if any of the column moves, the member stretches together. 

The only flaw is that the height is a family parameter and I want it to read the height of the upper level so it adjusts automatically. 

So basically I need a mixture of the structural framing - beam and brace family and the two-level based family. Not sure if we can achieve this. 

 

[Mike.FORM]

Create a global parameter (reporting) between your levels in a view and then assign that parameter to the height parameter (instance) of the family.