Families shift position when redefined

[pashley]

Perhaps this has already been covered but when I redefine certain families, adding new material parameters only, the positions of the existing objects change when I bring the component in again with the new definition.

It may be possible that someone has monkeyed with the positioning of the objects in the family itself without my knowledge, but I don't think so. How is the AutoCAD concept of insertion base point handled in, or thought of by, Revit?

By the way, I am using 6.1 and many of these families were created as long ago as version 3 or 4.

[beegee]

That certainly should not be happening.

I suggest you run a couple of tests to confirm what is really going on.

The family insertion point is usually the junction of two reference planes, the center left/right and the center front/back, but you can change that to be a reference plane for the side (left/right).

Many families that are wall, floor or roof based will automatically associate with that object, so they don't need an insertion point. Revit will use the center of the object in that case.

[Scott D Davis]

I found through my experimentation with balluster families, and from Phil Read, that Revit recognizes the original intersection of left/right, front/back as the insertion point. If you move the front/back or left right planes, the insertion point remains at the original location. (which could be floating in space!)

[sbrown]

good tip scott, so basically find some way to use the original crosshairs as your origin or at least your "flip around" point.

[Scott D Davis]

I've been locking the front/back, left/right ref planes as a first step when building a new family. (or should I say 'pinning' - the tool changed to a push-pin symbol in Revit 6.0)

Now they can't accidently be moved.

[pashley]

Thanks for the help, guys. Some of these families are pretty old and have more than likely been manipulated by several people. I wouldn't doubt that somewhere along the way, the elements in the family were shifted from their original position.

I will soon be writing a spec for how our equipment families are to be created and I will definitely experiment with the idea of pinning the planes.

[neh]

That certainly should not be happening.

I suggest you run a couple of tests to confirm what is really going on.

The family insertion point is usually the junction of two reference planes, the center left/right and the center front/back, but you can change that to be a reference plane for the side (left/right).

Many families that are wall, floor or roof based will automatically associate with that object, so they don't need an insertion point. Revit will use the center of the object in that case.

Is there any way to have a set insertion point for a wall based family? I'm using Revit 9.1 and I have a shutter system which will need to be shown in a range of open positions. The window family seems to be working fine, except that when the shutter is open it makes the overall window larger and therefore shifts the position of the entire family along the length of the wall. Any ideas?