Wall-hosted families in a link cutting the wall in the host file?

[patricks]

We have a prototype bank project, which will have a couple of locations to start out. One location has the plan mirrored. However, due to the way the bank equipment, drive-thru tellers, etc. work, that portion must stay the same whether the building is mirrored or not. To do this we created a separate Revit file with all the teller stuff (walls, doors, millwork, equipment like the vac tubes), and then linked that into the prototype file.

Then we have a site file where the building will be mirrored. The prototype building is linked in to that site, and mirrored. Then the teller equipment file is linked in separately so that it keeps the same configuration (not mirrored).

It all seems to work pretty well, except for 3 pieces of wall-hosted equipment that cut through the building exterior wall - the transaction drawer, the ATM, and the night deposit vault. My question is, can I get that wall hosted equipment into the Teller Equipment RVT file, but still have it cut the exterior wall of the prototype building file?

If that equipment is in the building file, then it doesn't work in the mirrored building site because some of the equipment overlaps walls that are in that Teller Equipment file. I might could use a thin wall in the Equipment file to host that equipment, with part of the equipment sticking out past the outside face of the building's exterior wall. But I don't think the equipment in a linked file will truly be cutting the building's exterior wall, and the problem is that the building wall has a sweep (brick shape) that needs to be cut/interrupted by the equipment.

Any suggestions?

[davidcobi]

Did you try two design options for two teller windows in the host file?

[patricks]

Oh lawds no I stay as far away from design options as possible. :p

I think I'm going to just have to place a wall in the teller equipment file, and then hide that one wall individually in the other files.

[MikeJarosz]

You are in a little discussed problem area: Families hosted on linked objects. What happens when the link is removed?

Consider this scenario. I send my plumber a floor plan. The plumber links it into the plumbing plan and adds a wall mounted drinking fountain, mounted to MY wall, which is a link. The plumber also has links to the structural, mechanical. electrical and others to make the plumbing plan look complete. All the consultants do the same thing.

Now, the plumber sends me the plumbing file with all those links still in it. True, they are overlays and "disappear" when I link the plumbing file into my architectural file. In essence, the old architectural has been recirculated back to my current architectural. Soooooooooo, I was cleaning up the consultant files and removing their links when I discovered that there is a category in Revit for.........

orphaned families!!!!!

Orphaned families are face based families that have lost their host. This happened the day before 100% CDs, so I undid the cleaned up consultant files. My fear is the an "orphaned family" is also an invisible family. I started thinking what other objects fall into this category. Am I losing life safety objects like sprinklers? I didn't have time to figure out what was happening then but now I have some time.

Anyone out there have any insight into these orphans? Do they disappear? Do they show floating in space? I saw tools to work with them but at the time , I had no time.

Help, please!

[patricks]

So I ended up splitting the wall in the main project file and leaving a "hole" as it were, and then filling in that section of wall in the linked file containing the banking equipment. The wall and split wall are centered equally from the building CL so it works great when the floor plan is mirrored.

The only thing that bugs me is the line showing where the wall in the each model come together. I obviously can't join geometry between live and linked model geometry. I can get rid of the line itself on the wall in elevations with linework, but for some reason the lines on the wall sweeps will not go away.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Why not just create an opening in the host model wall and keep that coordinated with the elements that go through that wall? Same way you might coordinate openings with mechanical grilles in exterior architectural walls. That would allow you to control the sweeps in the host and keep your teller window family simple.

[davidcobi]

Oh lawds no I stay as far away from design options as possible.

lalalala... can't hear you... lalalala

[patricks]

Why not just create an opening in the host model wall and keep that coordinated with the elements that go through that wall? Same way you might coordinate openings with mechanical grilles in exterior architectural walls. That would allow you to control the sweeps in the host and keep your teller window family simple.

Because the equipment going through the wall is wall-hosted. And because the equipment must maintain the same exact layout, even if the building is flipped, all that equipment must be in a separate model, and must have a wall to host that equipment.

I've got it working pretty well now.