Families and Formulas ---- help

[j_starko]

Hi, here's the story.

on the Curtain wall of myproject, we're having concrete and metal forms projecting beyond the face of the glass. The manufactuer has said they will be hollow, so I made my face based component have a hollow profile as well. now comes the complicated part.
there are some situations where these panels are not only projecting out from the face of the glass behind it, but they also extend beyond the edge of the building. In those situations the panel will be solid, as it would look funny having a hollow cavity visible.

in the facebased family, I made the hollow part, with a void form, constrained with 2 parameters. and side flange thickness, and a face thickness . these just control the size of the void form behind. to create the solid panels, I was thinking of having it use a boolean type of equation...
for example

if panel (solid) then (face depth = 0 ) { so that there is no void being cut out }
else ( face depth = default ) { the standard void gets cut out making it hollow }

"solid" would then be a yes/no check box for them in the properties window.

I thought this would be more elequant, as it would still be the same family the design team is familiar with, it would just have another feature.

is this a fruitless endeavor, and should I just make a whole new family that doesn't have the void form at all ?

suggestions .. tips please .thanks.

[Ning Zhou]

what do you mean face based family? is it curtain panel family or stand alone GM? uploading images or family / project files will be great, my feeling is that using curtain panel family should be enough.

[j_starko]

we chose to use a generic model face based component instead of just modifying the curtain wall panels, because that's how it will be built in real life.

also, having used the curtain wall panels instead of the component we are using, would have looked bad. These extra panels extend further than just one mullion grid , meaning that in our elevation, we'd have seen many extra lines where the mullions would've been. it would have complicated the mullion design more than need be to work around that...
also, the facebased components are easier for the design team to manipulate. there are nice little pull tabs for the extents of the panel.

the first picture attached shows the panels on the curtainwall, at the place where they extend past the building . the panels are shown right now with a concrete and metal section hatch..... the second picture is the backside of one of the panels, showing the hollowed out portion that I'm working on filling .

[Steve_Stafford]

If I understand you post, and I'm not sure I do... you can push/pull a void so that it cuts and doesn't cut a solid. A void remembers it is supposed to cut a solid even if you alter it so that it doesn't anymore. You can can't make the void "nothing" or turn them off. If you want to remove material from the solid optionally you can either make two solids and toggle them on and off or push/pull a void so that it cuts or doesn't cut. Add some reference planes and constrain their position based on your push/pull needs. Then lock the void to them so that it will move into and out of position when you change types. Make sense??

[j_starko]

yeah I think you understand, I understood your explanation of your understanding ! ha ...

I ran into that problem, Revit kicks me an error when the depth of the void is zero. I was hesitant to give control of the void shape on all the panels. I can see that getting messy in the drawing pretty fast, if the correct handle isn't grabbed.

Is there a way to have the void tabs be controlled by a yes/no check box ?

for example,, by default all the panels would have the void controls turned off, therefore showing the normal void.... and once the box was checked off, you could have control of the void handles....

maybe the simplest is to just make a solid panel family, seperate from the hollow one.

[bulletproofdesign]

As Steve suggests,
You cannot control visibility of voids with yes/no parameters. You can however have a void that cuts nothing. I have attached a simple family to demonstrate how to do this with a yes/no parameter.

Personally, I prefer to use a void as it keeps the family size down.

Peace.

[twiceroadsfool]

You can have the void "move," as Steve is suggesting. That will work fine. You can also cut the void from the solid, and then have another solid that is the same as the first, but without a void, and use Visibility parameters to control which one is visible when... And the if statement can drive that. Of course, it can drive the offset that pushes the void away as well.

Ive done it both ways, and they both work.

[j_starko]

bim Tim , I like that example and might take that Idea and play with it more. I agree, less families makes the browser easier to navigate..

twiceroadfool, I'm scared about giving too many handles and controls for the componenet.


in trying to stick with KISS, I'm going to try the on/off for the void... or may just stick with a solid family to complement the hollow one.

writing the formulas and booleans reminds me a lot of JAVA . I like logic engines !

[twiceroadsfool]

You cant on/off a void, you can only MOVE the void off the solid. Thats what were saying.

[j_starko]

sorry, I typed that wrong. I meant yes/no as bimtim was referring too.
not an on /off