Revit Families: Room Aware

[rbcameron1]

I made a paper towel family. It is not wall based. Specialty Equipment.rft out of the box Revit template. It has three vertical reference planes, and three horizontal reference planes, and is just a box that is recessed into the wall.

When I place it in the model, the schedule I created recognizes it, but doesn't fill out Room Name/Number, however it does on other families I've placed in it.

When I moved the paper towel family just past the center of the wall, farther into the room, the schedule recognized its room awareness and updated its Name/Number.

What do I need to do to make it so I can have it recessed but still be room aware in the room I placed it in? Is there something wrong with my reference planes? (strong, weak, front back center?)

I always thought the origin defined what room the family belongs to, but apparently that is not the case....

see attachments -

thanks in advance for any help!

-ryan

[tomnewsom]

place an invisible line on the 'room' side of the family?

I'm going to test this out...

[tomnewsom]

Yes, this works.

[rbcameron1]

So the families are based on the center of actual drawn elements in the file and have nothing to do with the origin...?... Isn't that a little goofy?
That's fine, I guess its just one more little "trick" in Revit.

Thanks for verifying!

-ryan

[Scott Womack]

So the families are based on the center of actual drawn elements in the file and have nothing to do with the origin...?... Isn't that a little goofy?
That's fine, I guess its just one more little "trick" in Revit.

In non-hosted model elements, it seems to make a difference what "quadrant" from the default pair of center lines you are creating geometry in. Off hand I cannot remember the "most reliable" quadrant I found to create geometry in. That would be my take on your paper towel family that prompted the post. Although the geometry does come in looking properly when you place it, it seems that one direction will pick up the room information, and others won't.

I discovered this several years ago, when the firm I was with at the time, was helping a major retailer recreate their store fixtures as Revit families.