By Martha Hollowell
Thank you everyone who attended the webcast the other day. For those who didn’t make it or want a refresher here is a link to the video. I’ve answered several of the questions that came up below. The questions themselves have been edited for context and clarity.
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Question: When creating family elements (forms) are you limited to 2 profiles?
Answer: Yes, within the standard Family Editor you are limited to two profiles. You can create Conceptual Mass families with more than two profiles as shown in the graphic but they are created and used in different ways.
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Question: If you insert a row of the bookcases and later decide to change the width, can you control the position of the next bookcase? If so, is this done in the family editor or within the project? I ask because I notice the family scale from midpoint.
Answer: In the example shown in the webcast the origin is the center of the bookcase. Therefore if you change the width of one of bookcases the distance between the bookcases also changes. There are probably ways you could control this both in families and in the project but it would take time to figure it out.
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Question: Should we name the Reference Planes to avoid confusion?
Answer: Not all reference planes need to be named. But I would name the ones you might need to use to set the workplane in a separate view as shown in the graphic. Sometimes it could help as well to name them to avoid confusion as you are creating the family.
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Question: When you align & lock to the bottom reference plane, what's the rule of thumb for using the reference plane vs. the Ref Level?
Answer: This questioner has a sharp eye! As I was doing this in the demonstration I did it without thinking. I know someone told me to do this and I think it was to make the family Autodesk Seek compliant which requires every form to be locked to a reference plane. I’ve sent the question out to our Autodesk Seek expert and I’ll post what he has to say in the comments when I find out.
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Question: When creating a parameter, are the discipline parameters a set standard, or are they user definable ie: electrical has their own set and mechanical has their own set?
Answer: The discipline parameters, as shown in the graphic for Electrical, are pre-set by discipline with the list for Common parameters used in all disciplines.
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Question: Is there a difference in the R1 & R2 version of 2015 that will or will not work with Families?
Answer: Our training guides are designed using R1. The R2 version has some nice features but none that will compromise working with families. In fact, a new button called Load into Project and Close (or something like that) can make life a little easier.
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Question: Regarding the demonstration sample, if this was a chest rather than a shelf, how would you attach the back to the frame? And how would it be locked to the size parameters?
Answer: In the full practice in the BIM Management: Template and Family Creation training guide, we actually show how to attach a back to the frame.
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Question: How do you set/lock dimensions to symmetrically enlarge an object such as a (2) door cabinet as you change its size if the doors meet at the center of the cabinet?
Answer: You would use appropriate reference planes to set this up. Take a look at the Casework>Wall Cabinets> Upper Cabinet-Double-Door-Wall.rfa (shown below) that comes with Autodesk Revit.
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Question: If I want to keep the Width as a key-in dimension when you put the family in a project, is that easy to do?
Answer: The questioner answered it himself – You make it an instance parameter just like I did with the Material parameter in the demonstration.
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Question: Can you add a min and max to a parameter so the user cannot key in a length to larger than can actually be manufactured?
Answer: The easiest thing to do in this case is to create types for all of the typical manufactured sizes of a family and make sure these dimensions are type parameters only.
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Thanks for attending. If you are coming to AU please look me up at the ASCENT booth or sign up for my class. For more information on that click here.
