Void Extrusion in Nested Family

[Irich]

Hello,

I am a newbie to Revit and am having lots of issues with void extrusion!

My top level family is name Edited Family. 

Inside there I have multiple pieces of a plywood family that has varying sizes and varying cuts called LNL Bracket Cutout. So my presumption and research has led me to using a nested void extrusion so I can control them independently. I have done all that. Check the boxes for shared and cut with voids when loaded. I cannot for the life of me get the void to populate up to the top Edited Family. I have only gotten it to show inside the plywood family.

[Revit_Whisperer · Accepted solution]

I attached the two families used in the video...let me know if these work for you and if you have any other questions  😃

https://www.screencast.com/t/a60CCnLX995

[Irich]

This is fantastic! Thank you. That has gotten me 90% of the way there and now I can proceed with the next step. 

Now I must be doing something wrong because I am trying to recreate it; even using the notch_void family you shared but I can't get it to populate! The only difference I can find from what your void does and what I am doing is the now the identity data solid/void option in my properties window. I don't know why that would make any sort of difference though!

[Revit_Whisperer]

Are you saying you can't place it on the plywood?  Do you have it set to place on Face on the ribbon?  Can you copy one of the other ones I already placed?

[Irich]

No. I used yours on the plywood and so far that works great.

But for my own knowledge base I am trying to create a void extrusion in your notch void family. 

[Revit_Whisperer · Accepted solution]

You have to cut the solid with the void...this should help

https://www.screencast.com/t/y8J0XJlijb

[Irich]

 

Thank you!!! Now I can finally move on with my life and onto more thoughtful things!

[Revit_Whisperer]

=)...happy to help!

[Irich]

New question on this front! 

A different hole but same concept.

How could I put a hole in the plywood that then change # of instances/locations based on a different family?

Let me try to break that down a little more....

Family 1 - Plywood (with void extrusion) 

Family 2 - Component that requires hole in the plywood based on size and location. 

Family 3- Plywood and components put together for final assembly.

Inside Family 3; Family 2 will drive the void extrusions in Family 1. 

[Irich]

Actually as I am thinking about this. If there is another way get the end result (Family 2 driving the hole going through Family 1) it doesn't matter to me where the void extrusion "lives". 

I don't know if that helps simplify how to get there or not!

[Revit_Whisperer]

can you show me an example of the end result you want...I'm not certain I am following 😃

[Irich]

This first screenshot show the hole I need. I need its location to be driven by the location of the small oval bodies (there is a hole you can't see that will be the driving force).

This second screenshot shows that I have multiple pieces of plywood that will all need to have the holes.

This last screenshot shows the total number and location of the bodied/holes that I need to locate. 

[Irich]

Any luck so far on figuring out how this would work?

I come from the SolidWorks world where I can easily make a hole's size and location in context to something else so trying to re-learn that trick is really messing with me!

[Revit_Whisperer · Accepted solution]

I haven't had a chance to get back to it...=/

[L.Maas · Accepted solution]

You could make the oval object family face based. In that family you could then create a void. You will have to make sure that the void is deep enough to reach the plywood panel.

Do not compare Solidworks to Revit. It is a total different program with different purposes. Solidworks compares more to Autodesk Inventor. In general Revit is for large(r) structures while Solidworks/Inventor are more product modelers. In general the level of detail in Solidworks/Inventor is much higher than in Revit. In Revit you will not model all holes and screws and many objects will be in simplified form. In the project you will show the general shape in relation to other objects. You will use details to show more information about the object. If even more details are needed (e.g. to get a single object production ready) than you would develop it further in software like Solidworks/Revit.

So, do not overmodel your families. Otherwise you will have a bad Revit experience.

Too many arrays and too many voids will hav a an impact on Revit performance.

[Irich]

Thank you for the private message with the solution that gets me on the right track! 

I have the next challenge that I am working on...stay tuned.

[Irich]

Thank you! Between this input and the files I received from Revit_Whisperer I was able to get over this hurdle in some amazing ways! 

I follow what you are saying on the the more detail the less stable the model will become. I personally have experienced it a little bit. But I am the messenger and have volunteered to take on this battle so I got to try. 

One of these days I will get it all worked out...my next challenge is how to have multiple hosts. If you look at my previous screen shots I have multiple pieces of plywood that I am using. How would I get the hole to show in different hosts when I am using an array of the face based family? When I choose the initial host the hole show up perfectly and the move the way they should with my global parameters. But when I try to array it across it won't let me because it is not cutting through the host. Likewise, the next vertical  piece of plywood doesn't show the hole either. 

Now as I type this out I am thinking that I may have to create another family that contains all of my plywood and have two nested families inside my top level family. But then how would I drive the necessary parameters to adjust plywood sizes (length and width) and positions (various driving factor that need to be considered during project cycles; i.e. never standard) as needed in the top level family.  That is just me thinking out loud through my challenges. It helps me solve issues doing it this way but please feel free to weigh in and teach me more!

I really do appreciate all of the help both of you have offered!! You have helped me get so much further than I was and I will soon conquer this conquest whether with a stable model that my superiors think we can get or in a ball of flames and they decide to stick to the SolidWorks world where we are already masters!