Shelf and Rod

[guitarchitect7]

So I created a Shelf and Rod family that I can pull into my projects. My thought was to set the actual elements to hidden in plan view and use symbolic lines to represent the system in plan view. Well apparently I'm an idiot and don't know how to do it right because once I pull my family into my project, nothing seems to show. Elevations are correct, but my plan view is not. I've even set my family cut plane to 72" and that seemed to make no difference.

I'm baffled, please help.

[guitarchitect7]

All this might be my lack of experience with building models, but when trying to create this family, it apparently automaticly adds an elevation height. I'm a little annoyed because the elevation is taken off the bottom most of my family instead of the top of my shelf. I try to add my own parameter, but that has no effect on my family.

[Steve_Stafford]

This family requires the "old invisible line trick".

[guitarchitect7]

This family requires the "old invisible line trick".

Thank your for the feed back. This did solve the visibility issue, and also seemed to add relevance to my parameter shelf height. So I thank you for that.

I want to publicly say this is absolutely the dumbest work around. Or what I mean is that fact that we have to use this method to just get what we need. How the heck do the out of the box Upper cabinets work then? Is it because they are being cut by the 72" cut plane that is preset? I thought the purpose of symbolic lines were for a way to symbolically show something in that view no matter the cut plane? Maybe this is a bit of frustration coming out after too long of trying to figure this thing out, but I find this completely ridiculous.

End rant.

[Steve_Stafford]

Casework category will work without the trick. The issue is that most don't want the shelf and rod in the casework category. There are many seemingly "little" decisions that the developers made upon early feedback from architects that still nip at our heels today.

[guitarchitect7]

Double check for me if you will, but try using a masking region for the shelf itself. No invisible line in elevation, just a masking region in plan view that outlines the shelf unit with the line type that you prefer. I believe this also solved the issue.

This issue seemed to also happen in almost every catagory I assume. I tried it with generic model, and Furniture Systems. Both still had the same issue.

[Steve_Stafford]

Yep...will "work" but not if you don't want the shelf to mask the floor pattern or some other element beneath it?

[guitarchitect7]

Yep...will "work" but not if you don't want the shelf to mask the floor pattern or some other element beneath it?

Good point! I did notice that on a lighting family that I had been struggling with. So I guess the invisible line is the only true trick.

Thanks again for the heads up.