Is there any way to make a line-based sweep family follow a curve?

[patricks]

On some projects we have need to catalog and schedule areas of building damage. This could be wall damage, could be linear objects like sealant joints that need to be re-sealed, etc. I originally made a face-based model with a rectilinear shape, which could be modified for length and width based on the object needed, i.e. a square or rectangular area for wall damage, or a long and thin area for a sealant joint (either wall or sidewalk). Problem is I also need one that can follow a curve, and also report the length of that curve - specifically for curved sidewalk joints, or curved EIFS joints, etc.

I know that structural beams contain a sweep, and can be placed with a curved line. But they cannot be face-hosted. Line-based families can be face-hosted, but cannot follow a curve, not that I can tell. Is there any way to create something that can be face-hosted AND follow a curved line?

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Can't be done with a line based family. The easiest workaround is probably a handrail.

[DaveP]

That'd be a nifty idea for a new type of Family.
Sort of like Line-based, but Sketch Based.
Just like a Handrail, you would define a Sketch, and have your family (profile? element? nested family?) do all sorts of fun stuff along the Path.

[patricks]

That'd be a nifty idea for a new type of Family.
Sort of like Line-based, but Sketch Based.
Just like a Handrail, you would define a Sketch, and have your family (profile? element? nested family?) do all sorts of fun stuff along the Path.

I mean that's basically what a sweep already does. Just need to be able to host it to any surface, and have the length and width able to be scheduled.

[Alfredo Medina]

... Is there any way to create something that can be face-hosted AND follow a curved line?

It is possible, as an adaptive family, in which a section is extruded along a spline of three points. The 3 points can be placed on a curved surface in the project, following the curve. The section of the extrusion can be scheduled. The length of the curve can be scheduled, too, but as an approximation, as the sum of two straight segments, not as the true length of the arc.

[antman]

Maybe if you could schedule the volume, and divide by the cross-sectional area? Or does that return inconsistent units?

[patricks]

It is possible, as an adaptive family, in which a section is extruded along a spline of three points. The 3 points can be placed on a curved surface in the project, following the curve. The section of the extrusion can be scheduled. The length of the curve can be scheduled, too, but as an approximation, as the sum of two straight segments, not as the true length of the arc.

well poo... why would it not schedule the actual length of the curve?

[antman]

Maybe if you could schedule the volume, and divide by the cross-sectional area? Or would that return inconsistent units...?

[contact.andrewk968454]

well poo... why would it not schedule the actual length of the curve?

You can get the actual length to schedule if you include all of the necessary trig formulas in the family (as instance parameters) and input the values of the formulas to calculate the arc length of the circle sector.

[Alfredo Medina]

well poo... why would it not schedule the actual length of the curve?
Well, because if we make a curve in a family, such as a specialty equipment family, with a spline, when we go to create a schedule of specialty equipment, there is not any parameter there such as "length" of the specialty equipment. So the only way to estimate the length of the curve is to measure the distance between point to point, in two segments, with shared instance reporting parameters, because there is not any other type of dimension that can measure the length of the curved segments of a spline, and needs to be a spline, not an arc, because arcs don't work well with adaptive points.

[kieran.grayken988098]

i know it has been a long time since this thread was being discussed. but any chance a solution was found. I am wanting to make a family for the office to use and this would be the ideal solution. it is for curtain track family, but the line based family I have created up to now will do a separate model for each line that is drawn. as mentioned in one of the above comments, it needs to be more sketch based as per railing families. but even these use profiles that are loaded into the model rather than a loadable sweep, which I suppose is the nub of the issue.

[Yna-Db]

Hi! Interesting topic. I have tried the Dynamo approach for this kind of purpose. While it's possible to create a wall-hosted family element along a curve using the FamilyInstance.ByGeometry node, one must still insert a length parameter afterwards, and the whole process remains far too complicated IMHO. I wonder now if a simple wall-sweep might not do the trick.

[david_peterson]

If you draw an inplace sweep and use the pick line tool, you can align and lock the sweep sketch line to the base of the curved wall.
Is that what you're looking to do?