Steel shape constraints in families

[Bryan Thatcher]

(sorry for the repost) I was trying to use an HSS member locked to reference planes at each end. But I couldn't control the length of it, I kept getting the error that the constraints couldn't be met. This happened both while modeling in place, and in a family. Any ides why this is happening, thanks.

[david_peterson]

I ran into the same problem. Depending on which orientation you are looking at, you're missing a reference plane in the family. For some reason, they forgot that an HSS has 4 sides and could be rotated 90 and still look that same. I can't remember our exact fix, but I know it involved fixing the OOTB family.

[Bryan Thatcher]

Can anyone chime in here?

[Bryan Thatcher]

I'm still struggling with this is anyone has a solution. Thanks.

[brendan.225840]

I'm having the same problem with C Channels. It's got me pretty ticked off to be honest...

[captjim]

Bryan,

Model your HSS short of the reference planes, then use the align command to align the HSS end’s shape handles to the reference planes. Here’s the drill: Align command/ pick ref plane/ hover over HSS end (context box says “blah blah : Reference”)/ press tab until context box says “blah blah : Shape Handle”/ click/ lock to ref plane.

Hope this helps,
Jim

[Bryan Thatcher]

Without opening the file and trying that, I believe that the whole HSS member would move over to the other reference plane. Then I would get an error saying the constraints were broken (it would move away from the other side). I'll go through your Drill later today and see if that works or if I was missing something. Thanks.

[david_peterson]

Without opening the file and trying that, I believe that the whole HSS member would move over to the other reference plane. Then I would get an error saying the constraints were broken (it would move away from the other side). I'll go through your Drill later today and see if that works or if I was missing something. Thanks.
That's what I've gotten in the past. I've had to go in and manually adjust the start end offsets to get them to where they need to go. Align one end to where you want it, lock it, and then adjust the start end off set to get the other where you want it. When you're done, don't move it. If you must, you'll be doing it all over again.

[captjim]

That's what I've gotten in the past. I've had to go in and manually adjust the start end offsets to get them to where they need to go. Align one end to where you want it, lock it, and then adjust the start end off set to get the other where you want it. When you're done, don't move it. If you must, you'll be doing it all over again.

If you align from the ref plane and click on the beam's end reference, it will behave exactly like David says. As I noted in my previous post, you have to hold your curser over the end of the beam then TAB until the context box says ". . . Shape Handle". If you do this the visual representation of the beam's end will follow the ref plane if you move it, but the beam itself will not move.