"Nesting" Flip Controls

[phyllisr]

Is there a way to get the controls in a family to flip only certain elements in a family? If not, is there a work-around anyone has uncovered?

Example: I have a door family with a particular casing detail on the exterior. The door will be used on the exterior only, not the interior. However, the swing may be different in different locations. In this case, it happens to be a wood trim piece at the top of the door for a condo project. I would like to be able to flip the swing of the door panel itself and not flip the casings.

I can add all kinds of visibility parameters and force it to work with different family types. I can create duplicate families. I can also create a separate generic model for the wood trim (wall based) and align the center with the door center. But if I can manage how the flip control flips different objects, I do not have to create extra steps for our users.

[Chad Smith]

Sounds unusual. Are you able to post a screen shot of the exterior of the door to clarify what you are after?

[Steve_Stafford]

Sorry...in my experience the flip controls lose out to the hosting family and the whole family will flip. So you can't accomplish your trim conditions with a simple flip. In some cases I've actually been leaning toward leaving trim out of doors and window families because more often than not the same window is used but the trim is what sets apart the design aesthetic. So it is extra work to place trim and keep it aligned with windows and doors but it proves to be the least work when trying to express different fenestration through trim only.

You've probably already considered that too by now. If you really want to keep it intact then either putting copies of both kinds of trim on either side of the wall and using the visibilty parameters you mentioned would let you toggle the correct condition into play. If they are instance parameters and not tied to type then you'd have fewer iterations of types to permit the switch? The same could be done with the door panel and swing representation but it would affect the From/To negatively? I'd probably lean toward the trim since it doesn't factor into the From/To equation.

[phyllisr]

In some cases I've actually been leaning toward leaving trim out of doors and window families because more often than not the same window is used but the trim is what sets apart the design aesthetic.

Ultimately, this is how I decided to do it. I would have prefered the option to control the flip for a variety of reasons (specific cases) but generally, since these trim pieces could be stone, wood, or something else (maybe Play Doh?), I can do this with a few generic shapes and sizes with instance materials. At this time, both the interior and exterior trim for windows have visibility parameters (because we have clients who value-engineer trim and casing out of a project in favor of drywall returns or we may have some windows with exterior trim and the same window in a masonry wall with a setback) so all we need do is turn off the exterior trim and add an extra piece for the decorative head.

Not elegant but until I determine a better way, we will live with it. As you noted, just means more constraints and more objects - with a 15 story mixed use condo project and lots of windows, it is not insignificant. If wishes were dollars...