"Elements were deleted" error when copying/mirroring custom families

[revitnewbie]

I finally am getting the hang of making some families! Yay! However, I just copied a detail made out of my new custom families and I got the error "Elements were deleted". I also got that error when I mirrored one of them.

What is that all about? Help please!

Thanks

[Craig_L]

Families are associated to reference planes or levels, when you mirror or copy them, sometimes they lose their assosciation to these references and revit can not construct them without this reference so it just deletes them. Instead of just copy and paste, use the copy and paste BUTTONS in revit, Ctrl+C and ctrl+V do work in revit BUT they will not keep the references in tact so I recommend not using it, unless it is simple text or 2D objects you are pasting.

Also try "copy to selected level" and that should solve some of your problems. Same with mirroring, it can break the reference so your object can end up being unhosted, or just disappear entirely...copy and paste are things you should be wary of in revit, and same with mirror just be aware that these often cause issues with breaking references and make sure you read warnings that flash up when doing these tasks.

[jeremy.l]

How are you creating the families?
If you choose a specific "hosted" family, ie. Generic model wall based family, these will require a "host", in this case, a wall.
If the host is deleted, copied or mirror (essentially when it is given a new element ID) the family will not recognise the host

Try building families as "face based", these will remain even when the host is deleted, and you can simply re-host to new elements

[revitnewbie]

They are just detail families, not modeled elements.

How are you creating the families?
If you choose a specific "hosted" family, ie. Generic model wall based family, these will require a "host", in this case, a wall.
If the host is deleted, copied or mirror (essentially when it is given a new element ID) the family will not recognise the host

Try building families as "face based", these will remain even when the host is deleted, and you can simply re-host to new elements

[david_peterson]

If I had to venture to make a guess I'd say you created something that can't be mirrored. Depending on how you've constrained the family, and what flex functions you built into it, you many have done something revit doesn't like.
Instead of using a mirror command, see if you can add a "flip" function to it.

[revitnewbie]

Thanks Dave. I was just messing around with it in a test file, copying/mirroring things to see how it reacted. I will go back and look at it..

If I had to venture to make a guess I'd say you created something that can't be mirrored. Depending on how you've constrained the family, and what flex functions you built into it, you many have done something revit doesn't like.
Instead of using a mirror command, see if you can add a "flip" function to it.

[jeremy.l]

Post up the family, and im sure someone can help!