Repetitive rooms

[Bryan Thatcher]

What is the best way to model repetitive rooms, groups, families? And would I encounter any clean up problems? Thanks.

[Scott D Davis]

Groups, definately. That's what groups are for. You can actually model a room in a separate file, and then insert it as a group in your project. There are tools like "Exclude from group" where you have duplicate walls overlapping.

[Bryan Thatcher]

I'm not sure that's what I'm looking for. I want to be able to edit one and have them all update. I've tried saving them as a link, but for it's bringing in elements that weren't selected. For instance, i need the a door, but not the wall it's in, but it's bringing the wall. Also, can I control visibility in the link with worksets instead of elements? Thanks.

[dhurtubise]

Depending on the project size group is option 1 and if the project is too big, linked files is option 2.
One nice thing will linked files is that you can use Design Options. One bad thing with Groups is that they dont play too well with Worksets so beter be careful.

[Bryan Thatcher]

Is there a way to get multiple instances of the same group to all update when edited?

[dhurtubise]

Is there a way to get multiple instances of the same group to all update when edited?

Thats the concept behind groups. You edit one they all get updated.

[Bryan Thatcher]

that's what I thought, but this morning that's not what appeared to happen. I had mirrored a group and there was a wall conflict. I fixed it. Then copied the original group to the next bay and had the same conflict. Let me try again.

[dhurtubise]

that's what I thought, but this morning that's not what appeared to happen. I had mirrored a group and there was a wall conflict. I fixed it. Then copied the original group to the next bay and had the same conflict. Let me try again.

Ahh the joy of groups :-)
Like Scott mention be careful with the Exclude from group.

[twiceroadsfool]

that's what I thought, but this morning that's not what appeared to happen. I had mirrored a group and there was a wall conflict. I fixed it. Then copied the original group to the next bay and had the same conflict. Let me try again.

Groups arent hard lines in the sand. Theyre allowed a bit of flexibility from one to the next. Wall joins is a big one of those flexibilities. They can be a royal pain like that.

Regarding hosting... Be very careful. I wouldnt put a Hosted object in a group or a link, without its host. It will only work correctly in the instances where the Host happens to exist in the right place. Otherwise, youll get some unexpected, unanticipated behavior.

We use a lot of Links and Groups. Theyre both fantastic tools, when you know what to expect from them ahead of time. When you dont, they have an innate tendancy to swiftly kick you in the nuts.

[wmullett]

You said you mirrored the group and had a conflict that you fixed. Did you really edit the group or modify an instance.


I really don't like mirroring groups. I would rather un-group / mirror / and re-group as a different handed group.

[Bryan Thatcher]

OK. I created a group out of the interior walls within the red box in bay 1.

I mirrored them into bay 2 and had to edit the group to fix a wall overlap warning created by the perpendicular joint to the exterior wall in the green square.

then I copied the original group from bay 1 into bay 3 and got the same overlay message at the purple circle.

Should have editing the group the first time I received the error have fixed it? Why would I get the same error again unless the original group didn't update.

[Bryan Thatcher]

I modified the mirrored instance. Then when I copied the original group and had to fix it again I got the idea it hadn't updated. It acted like mirroring it created a separate group, but they are the same. Thanks for everyone's response.