Why do my sweeps want to become walls?

[DanielleAnderson]

I am curious if anyone else has had this problem, becuase it happens to me in Revit all the time:
I will create a sweep that is a beam, for example. I will then go on to create a series of walls, some solid, some curtain. Then, I will go to add another sweep and get an error message saying that my project already has walls. If I ignore the message and create a sweep anyway, when I look at my sweep in 3d, it is no longer a solid object, but is instead composed of a floor, 2 curtain walls and a roof. It does not seem to be a consistent problem, it occurs somewhat unpredictably, but my process for creating these buildings is exactly the same each time. Also, these sweeps that I have been creating for this project are totally outside of the building itself (they are monorail beams), so I know it's not an issue like when columns that intersect walls take on their properties (another annoying thing).
If anyone out there has encountered this I would love to know if there is a work-around or a solution.

[hand471037]

Sounds like you're using the wrong tool for the job. Are these sweeps you're using the ones from the massing tab? Because then they would break down into walls, floors, and roofs rather than remain 'monolithic'.

What you want to do instead is create an in-place family.

Which it sounds like you might have done at some point, due to the error that you're getting with the 'already have walls in project' message- one of your inplace families is already called 'walls' and therefore you can't name another one 'walls' as well- you have to go to the orginal 'walls' and edit and add to that one or give your new sweep a different name.

[DanielleAnderson]

Interesting...I thought using the massing tool created "monolithic" objects. I am using sweeps to draw beams that monorails travel on. I'll have to investigate the in-place family idea.

[hand471037]

No, massing makes big freeform bits that can become buildings later. It's meant for preliminary design. Read the little tutorial about massing, and you'll understand everything that you're running into.

In-place families let you model anything in 3D/2D that you don't want to, or that would be silly, to make as a 'real' family. That's what I would use for your Monorail track.

[Scott D Davis]

The massing tool creates 'monolithic' elements, that atuomatically convert to walls/roofs/floors. Like Jeffrey said, more for prelim design, so you can quickly put some shapes togeter, hit the "Show Shell" button, and the 'masses' become building components.

Your monorail definately needs to be an in-place family, created by sweeping a profile along a path you define.

[JamesVan]

My recommendation for something like a monorail track is to create a profile family for the typical monorail track section, then load that into your project. Next, draw a series of model lines along the path of the track(s) in the 'planes' that are required. Keep in mind that 'planes' can be sloped reference planes drawn in elevation or the faces of walls or other objects in your model.

Next, create an In-Place Family as a sweep. Use the Pick Path option to pick the model lines you drew in the previous step. After you finish the path, select the profile you loaded in the options bar and adjust the X, Y and rotation of the profile as required.

[DanielleAnderson]

Thanks, that works!
We never discussed in-place families in our Revit training sessions. I didn't even know the command existed and I've been using this software for over a year now.

[adegnan]

Thanks, that works!
We never discussed in-place families in our Revit training sessions. I didn't even know the command existed and I've been using this software for over a year now.
Make sure you run throught the tutorials then! There may be a lot that you've missed, and you'll never know it!!! Good luck.

[Wes Macaulay]

Thanks, that works!
We never discussed in-place families in our Revit training sessions. I didn't even know the command existed and I've been using this software for over a year now.Doh! Guilty as charged... too bad we didn't get to do the Advanced course: this and creating families outside the project are covered there.

Not that you can cover everything in training. Sigh.

[Wes Macaulay]

Oh - if no one's mentioned it... to create an in-place family, go to the Modelling drawer on the design bar and choose the "Create..." tool at the bottom of the drawer.

The category you choose will give the object certain behaviour befitting an object of that type. So for your roof, walls and curtain walls will attach up to it.

[hand471037]

The new 6.0/6.1 AOTC training manuals try to cover basic family creation in the Basic class. However, they also try to extent the class to four days, which is too long for most people. We had to break ours up into more managable 'chunks'.