Door Offset

[sjsl]

Is it possible to have a parameter that places the door so many inches/feet from a wall or partition at insertion? Can't seem to lock this down or find it anywhere.

[guitarchitect7]

The one thing I can think of is changing your point of origin within your family from center of door to outer edge of door at so many inches from the door jamb. Put a dimension parameter on this distance.

[jeffh]

You could also use a reference plane in the family to use for alignment with an adjacent wall face.

[sjsl]

Tried the ref plane to one side. The problem is you cannot lock the ref plane to anything such as another ref plane, it will overconstrain the model. We need another wall at a right angle to lock or dim to.

[patricks]

You need to make the family so that the door and opening are offset from the center point by some distance, instead of centered on the left/right and front/back reference planes. This will make it so that you would click on the corner of your wall face to insert the door.

[guitarchitect7]

You need to make the family so that the door and opening are offset from the center point by some distance, instead of centered on the left/right and front/back reference planes. This will make it so that you would click on the corner of your wall face to insert the door.

This is kind of where I was going with it, but probably stated better. Thanks.

If you notice when you input a door, your pointer is always in the center of the door, by changing the the centered input origin to and side origin, then you could click on the corner of the wall face as stated above.

Attached is a little test door opening I made. The hard part about the offset is once you get too close to the adjacent wall, it automatically tries to put the door on that wall instead. So when you have a door offset of 6", you might actually be putting it in at 7" off the wall. But it works!

[Calvn_Swing]

I think this is something better managed in the project by having a working view (Doesn't ever make it to the sheet set) and dimensioning from the wall edge to the edge of the door and just adjusting those dimensions by selecting the doors.

While I'd love to be able to set a parameter like that in the family, you can't establish a relationship to a non-host object in a hosted family any more than you can give a parameter to a dimension within a project. (Which would also be nice BTW, or at least in a group for crying out loud!).

Other alternatives?

Make dashed symbolic lines in the plan view of the family that represent the clearance required for a door to be in compliance. Make a new subcategory in doors and call it code compliance. Make those lines using that style (or switch them to it if already drawn). Now, when you load your doors into the project you can turn that subcategory off or on as needed, and use your align tool to align the edge of the doors clearance area to a wall. If you're brave enough you can even lock the constraint. Then, turn the lines off in any views you don't want to see them and viola!

Or, if you're really set on this placing the door from a wall edge despite the issues raised above and in previous posts, you can create a new reference plane call it door center and dimension between the "Center (left/right)" plane that is set to the origin point. Label that dimension center offset or something similar. Now, construct your door family off that new door center ref. plane you made. Now. you should be able to change that parameter value to 0" and make the parameter an instance. So, the default value will be 0. When you place a door you'll still place most of them by their centerline. But if you really want to offset one from a wall you can specify a distance from the family center to the door center by changing that dimension to something else. Viola.

My take, good luck!

[Neil Osher]

I would like to see this issue resolved by a default project setting. I hate to admit this but, ADT {or as its called now "AutoCAD Architecture"} takes care of this with a setting in the Options. Place doors "centered" or "6 inches from.....".

By moving the door off-center in the family, you are essentially working around it.



-----------
Neil Osher

[milton.huertas]

Solution from Ideate

Thank you for contacting Ideate Technical Support. I think what you are referring to is the Temporary Dimensions. Go to the Manage tab>>Additional Settings>>Temporary Dimensions. In the Temporary Dimension Properties dialog box change the Doors and Windows section to Openings. Now temporary dimensions will measure to the "jamb" of the door.
Thanks
Ron Palma
Ideate Technical Support