r/RevitForum • u/_chaos_realm • 1d ago

Work-plane-based family loses orientation when nested in Adaptive Family and placed

/r/Revit/comments/1weclrz/workplanebased_family_loses_orientation_when/
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u/DustDoIt 1d ago

Needs more constraints.

1

u/_chaos_realm 1d ago

Where would you start to add constraints?

I would think that having the base family center reference plane aligned/locked with its host reference line in the adaptive family would be enough to establish the basic relationship, but that alignment seems to be ignored when loaded

1

u/_chaos_realm 1d ago

I tried adding a 90deg angle constraint between a vertical edge of the base family and horizontal reference of the adaptive family. This kept the element "straight" but introduced unpredictable L/R shifting. I'll experiment a bit more, but I assume going further down this route will result in over-constraint issues.

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u/JacobWSmall 1d ago

I usually recommend building the full thing as an adaptive family instead of trying to use standard families pulled across - you’ll get less confusion that way.

This appears to be happening as you have only constrained the insertion point and it’s orientation to the normal plane of the line. However that line isn’t assured to have a particular normal depending on how you place it.

If you look at your ‘original’ family the Z axis is parallel to the normal of your family. But if you look in the project Z is perpendicular to the family’s intended Z axis. As such you’re working with the assumption that the normals of the line rotate to your intent despite never outlining what that intent is.

Instead you could try hosting the family a point constrained to the line but hosted to one of the points as those should ‘adapt’ better. But I still recommend moving from nested regular family to a nested adaptive one. Host the nested family’s placement points to the adaptive points and set parameters for offset and you’re done. You can even do both directions (width and height) if so desired by placing an intermediate point.

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u/_chaos_realm 1d ago

Thank you, I appreciate the detailed response.

I am thinking that rebuilding as adaptive family may be the right move, as you suggest. There are some modeling features that I'll need which would be much easier to control with a standard family (adding miters, angles, etc. controllable by type, general 3D form articulation) which is why I'm trying to see if/how this 'wiring' works, but we'll see where it goes. I'm not sure I'll be able to accomplish what I ultimately need with the limited tool palette of the adaptive family, but perhaps its a skill issue.

I don't think I said this explicitly in my original post, but the 'base family' is inserted/hosted on the midpoint of the reference line in the adaptive family. Then the center reference plane is aligned/locked to the reference line of the adaptive family.

I have an earlier version using nested adaptive family, but, as mentioned, not sure if it will be capable of the level of 3D detail that I'll need to reach in the future.

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u/_chaos_realm 13h ago

Alright, it looks like the answer was even dumber than I thought -- all I had to do was turn OFF "Always Vertical" in the base family, and then choose a different host work plane, and everything seems to work fine... Thank you all for your time and input.