nested family with lots of parameters

[j_starko]

Hey,
I'm trying to make a complicated family.

we have a curtain wall that is curved in plan , and angled in section, so In elevation the panels are a trapezoid and not a square.

the curtain wall is held together not with a tradition mullion, but with a corner clamp system, and that is what i'm trying to model.

I wanted to model the clamp itself, and have it nested into another family that would hold a vertical array of the clamps.. and then I would use this to have the mullion clamps populate the drawing.

I was going to have a parameter to control the angle and some parameters to control the clamps height in elevation.

I made the one side of the clamp as a separate family ( a generic component ) and inserted into the array family. but Revit isn't letting me align it with the angle of the curtain wall.

so my first hurtle to get over is to create a clamp family that can be nested into another family, and then rotated and aligned in section to be at the same angle as the curtain wall.

anyone have any pointers ? or have any of you tried to solve similar problems ?

[twiceroadsfool]

1. Use a face based family.
2. Use a work plane based family, and use a reference line as the workplane for the family.
3. More nested families, "one for each new parameter/constraint direction for the array." One for single object, one for array (count and spacing), one for the entire array to turn at an angle. Etc.