Roof hosted family - help needed

[ejburrell67787]

I have created a Monodraught windcatcher model to use on a job - a kind of natural ventilation chimney for those not familiar with Monodraught (they make Sunpipes too). At this point I have not attempted to make it flexible so it has no particular parameters.

However.... :wink: with someone's help, I would like to be able to include a parameter for how high above the roof it is because although the generic roof family template indicates a flat roof (?!?!), in this case I want to use it on a sloping roof and at present it gets a bit cut up by the slope... see the image and it'll all make sense I hope.

Essentially the bit of the body below the louvres is the element I want flexible. Ideally I would like it to be locked 15mm clear of the roof and to be a minimum of 370mm high and to be cut to the slope of the roof... can I set out a reference line locked parallel to the roof? (I have the family locked vertical)

How can I achieve this???

Is there any way to flex the roof slope in the family editor?

Help?

(Sorry if this is in 'general' I meant to post it to 'families'... :( )

Thanking you all in advance.

[PeterJ]

Pretty flower

This case has been discussed elsewhere in Zoog before, for a different family, but one which was roof hosted and needed to respond to pitch. I can't recall how it was done but will have a look for you later.

Nice looking family otherwise, judging from the jpg.

[ejburrell67787]

Thanks Peter, I look forward to your reply.

Elrond

[PeterJ]

Take a look here (http://www.zoogdesign.com/forums/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2957&highlight=roof+pitch) and you should find what you want.

I started to play with your family but don't really have the time to today. Your top section will not move freely in a vertical plane so I set it aside but if you edit the roof in the family editor (you have to unconstrain it first) then you can work with a sloping host which may be easier than beegee's suggestion.

[ejburrell67787]

Thank Peter, I have tried playing with the sloping roof host and I have had a look at the previous post from Beegee. Doesn't help me though - or I haven't understood something... How can an extrusion of any sort be constrained to the top surface of the roof slope and say to a horizontal ref line above? Every time I try to make a simple extrusion that stays vertical and attached to the roof when I flex the roof pitch I get lots of error messages saying constraints not satisfied... and then of course it won't let me do it unless I remove the constraints and then my extrusion isn't on the roof any more... I'm working with a simple rectangular extrusion for this not the more complex windcatcher model...

Am I missing the point somewhere here???

:banghead:

help...?

Elrond

[aggockel50321]

I've tried what you're trying to achive, and don't think imho that it's currently possible.

What I did was to set up a roof curb box with the bottom set (one direction only) to align with the roof pitch once you open the family properties & enter the rise of the roof.

Open the family & you can figure out the other variables, base height, curb projection, etc.

Once set in place I then cut the roof opening with the opening tool set to cut the roof vertically.

Chances are (I didn't flex it) if you set the rise to zero, it'll blow up...

[ejburrell67787]

Thanks Andrew,

Unfortunately you are using Revit 6.1 at a guess...? And Revit has no backward compatibility capabilities!!!!!! :evil: :evil: :banghead:

Perhaps you could give it another go in 6.0 and repost it?

I guess the other option is to model it at the pitch of my project's roof and forget it being parametric... Sounds like an AutoCad solution not a Revit solution though....!!

Where are the Revit designers out there... any help you can offer?

Elrond

[PeterJ]

So download 6.1!

[ejburrell67787]

Peter,

I have been told not to use 6.1 by our software supplier - they even provided us a CD-ROM copy of a downloaded version to install but then came back and said don't use it because it might still have bugs in it and it hasn't been officially released yet.....

Any word on bugs and problems with 6.1??

However, I just checked and realised I still have 6.1 installed so I will have a look at the family thanks Andrew.

Elrond

[PeterJ]

You should perhaps refer your software supplier to Autodesk. 6.1 is in wide use and the bugs that were present initally are laregely now dealt with - a prehighltighting issue and an installer issue being the two main ones.

[ejburrell67787]

Well I am working around this by making the Windcatcher a non-parametric model that simply sits on top of the roof... well my 15deg roof anyway!

I've attached it in case anyone wants to have a look at it... borrow it... alter it... make it parametric...? :roll:

Thanks for all the helpful comments along the way, Elrond

PS... :twisted: And I am still curious if the Revit designers think it is actually possible to have the bottom parametrically adjust to suit the roof slope...

[gregcashen]

your reseller sucks. they are depriving you of one of the main benefits of the subscription model. i almost always upgrade to the latest version immediately. 6.1 was an exception because there was a specific issue that I didn't want to deal with in terms of upgrading a project, but in general, I upgrade right away...or rather I install it side by side and save a backup of the previous version project files I am working on then I start them in the newer version. If the files has no problems (usually doesn't) then I proceed. If it does, then I send it to support and they fix it. If they can't (hasn't happened yet) then I'd go back to my backup. So far, no problems and I am on top of the latest releases.

[Dean Camlin]

Elrond,

You might check out a church steeple I posted on RUGI some years ago. That used a pitched roof & I haven't heard of any problems with it.

[ejburrell67787]

Thanks...

Greg - thats good to hear, I prefer that approach rather than holding back on old versions (?!?!? :screwy: )

Dean - I can't see any steeple on RUGI, I did find a cupola that is to sit on a roof ridge though which uses a cut extrusion to create the bottom shape... was your steeple similar?


Elrond

[beegee]

Dean - I can't see any steeple on RUGI, I did find a cupola that is to sit on a roof ridge though which uses a cut extrusion to create the bottom shape... was your steeple similar?
Elrond

The RUGI Church Steeple is under "Specialities". I suspect its construction is the same as the cuplolas.