Door Family

[tmcguire17]

I have created a door family for a hollow metal frame I have made the panel a component so I can have several different types of panels in the family and control via visibility toggle. When I go to insert my second panel and align the center is gives me a warning that the instance of the panel is not cutting anything. What am I doing wrong?

[rdmanns]

Try creating the door panels as a separate family, nesting them into the frame and creating a parameter that allows you to select which panel family you want as an instance. Make sure each panel you create has the same respective front/back/left/right and center line locations.

[greg.mcdowell]

To add... make the separate families as generic models first and then change the category to doors.

[tmcguire17]

Other than creating them as generic models first which gives me some ideas I did create each one seperately and instance them in. I fiddled with awhile and did get it to work but don't know how because I didn't do anything different.
Thanks.

[mthurnauer]

Greg,
When you change them from generic models to doors, where are you doing that? Are you re-opening the door family and changing it or are you changing the family type once they are nested in the other family? Also, I have read a thread where people were talking about the advantages of nesting the door into the other families, call them frame families. Is there a way that you can then globally change a door style once it is loaded into a project?

[rdmanns]

I actually advise against making the panels apart of the door category... it has presented problems in the past where the door gets scheduled twice... once for the frame and once for the panel.

If you make the panel family parameter a shared parameter you can schedule the frame and list the panel as a parameter of that frame.

[Scott D Davis]

What am I doing wrong?

Seems like you made the panel using the door template, right? Well, the door template is a wall hoted element, and therefore needs to cut a wall, or be hosted in a wall to work. When you are nesting this into the frame-door family, the opening for the frame is cutting out the wall, leaving no host for you to place the panel.

That is why others have suggested making it as a genric non-hosted model element, then nest into the frame-door family and use parameters to control visibility. No need to change the door panel to a Door category...once its nested into the frame-door family, it will be of the door category in your project.

[twiceroadsfool]

Exactly what Scott said.

Make it a Generic Model... Unhosted. Then you will not run in to the "not cutting anything" issue.

Now, i DO change the catagory of mine to Doors, but our Door schedules are set to Filter out the Door Panel Families automatically. There are tons of ways to do this: The panels will have parameters that the "Frames" dont, and so on.

Something else to be aware of: When i personally make mine, the Panel FAMILY is NOT VISIBLE in the Plan of the overall "Door." I use Symbolic lines/regions, etc. IF THE PANEL FAMILY IS VISIBLE, when you use Tag All Not Tagged, it WILL TAG BOTH. This behavior changed, i dont remember if it was in 2008 or 2009... Kelly Cone can chime in and tell you when, lol. :)

Another plus for changing the catagory to Door: it will respond as a door, for both Visibility Graphics, and lineweights. If you leave it as a generic model... A generic model it is. That can be a pain when youre turning catagories on and off.

MTH: Yes, you can do just that. From the project, i can change properties of every PANEL called "Glass Lite- 23" without having to reload it in to any of the families. This is also the reason why Nested families can only have instance properties driven by parent families. The length and width and height becomes "instances" driven by the "Type" from the parent door family. Then when you access the TYPE properties of the PANEL from the project, you cant change the size.... because theyre all incidental from the door theyre hosted in.

[david.kingham]

As long as the panel is not set to shared it won't tag or show up in schedules

[twiceroadsfool]

As long as the panel is not set to shared it won't tag or show up in schedules

I may be wrong about this, but if its not set to Shared, im pretty sure you could have different panels in different door families.... IE they wont be manageable as Panels, which i think is the reason most of us do it...