extrusion and face hosted nested family

[mwiggins]

I would like to nest this family into a lighting fixture family and control the width, height and depth of the larger extrusion (8" x 1"). I can get the width and height to work but when I map the parameter for depth it gives me an error saying “Can't make type "Corp_Device Box Typical"” and a warning saying the “Highlighted geometry no longer determines a plane”. Is it not possible to control the depth of an extrusion in a nested family when the family is face hosted?

Any help would be appreciated. If you need the family I am nesting into let me know and I will post.

[kyle.bernhardt]

Margaret,
I had no problem placing that nested family on an existing family and mapping all of the parameters. Perhaps you can upload the host family as well?

Cheers,
Kyle B

[mwiggins]

Here u go!

[sec-k]

Margaret,

Did you ever have a chance to look at the modified families I sent you?

When I created the “depth” parameter in the Corp_Wall Mtd Exit Light.rfa fixture family, it defaulted to 0-0”. Then when I tried to link that to the depth parameter in the nested family, I got the same errors you did. However, if I created the depth parameter and set it to a value other than 0’-0” (I used 6”), THEN linked it to the depth parameter in the nested family, it worked. For some reason, the value has to be greater than zero.

[mwiggins]

Jason,

Your the best! It did work! Sorry, I've been swamped. Thank you for looking at this!
:mrgreen:

Margaret

[james.klatt]

I have a question what would be the purpose of nesting the 2 families together as opposed to just creating an extrusion with visibility parameters in 1 family?

I have a fairly decent understanding of parameters and families, but I do not have a good grasp of nesting families together yet.

[Andre Carvalho]

I have a question what would be the purpose of nesting the 2 families together as opposed to just creating an extrusion with visibility parameters in 1 family?

I have a fairly decent understanding of parameters and families, but I do not have a good grasp of nesting families together yet.

I'm not sure why the user want to nest on this particular case, but but among others, nesting is very handy if you want to schedule different elements included into one family. If you share the family before nesting it into the host family, you can schedule it (and tag it) separately.

Nesting works great too f you want to switch families inside a host family (like switch a door panel in a door family)...

Also, if you have repetitions in your family, it is better to nest one family and repeat than creating the element directly into the main family and repeating it there.

Etc, etc, etc,...

Andre Carvalho