Flip Control for Groups (or mirror)??

[michaelf]

In the multi-family projects I work on, we often times have to mirror units several times throughout the buildings. When I do that sometimes, I get inconsistencies in my groups, especially when I have nested groups with in the mirrored group. My question is: Is there a way to add a flip control (similar to how a window flips face or a door switches hinging) for groups? Or is mirroring the only way to go, and i'll just have to live with the inconsistencies of my groups? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Mike

[aaronrumple]

Groups are not families and cannot contain a flip control. Mirror is the only option. You may want to consider a right hand and left hand version of your units to avoid the miroor issues.

[michaelf]

Groups are not families and cannot contain a flip control. Mirror is the only option. You may want to consider a right hand and left hand version of your units to avoid the miroor issues.

Not the answer I was hoping for :) Nonetheless it is what it is. How would you recommend a quick way to repicate the mirrored unit? We sometimes have these units mirrored four ways (both x & y axis). I'd prefer to not have to draw the same unit 4 times.

[Rick Houle]

One left and one right hand group is enough for all instances (with the help of rotation). I'm seeing on the forum that a lot of folks shy away from mirrored groups. Does the majority agree on this..?

[aaronrumple]

I use a little different workflow. I use linked files during schematic and design development. This allows me to work faster and keep models smaller. Then as I need the walls to interact for cleanup, I'll then cconvert the links to groups (bind). Each release for Revit has done better at mirrored groups. So I try not to use left and right hand versions unless I have a real problem that can't be solved otherwise. But you do need to keep relationships as simple as possible.

I imagine that future releases of Revit will favor the linked aproach. And I expect we'll more parametric relationships between linked files. It is about the only thing they can do right now to improve performance on large models.

[ejc]

When using groups, the most important thing is to have families that do not tie themselves to anything. This includes planes! (ex. cabinets that attach to walls or floors)

We do a lot of work in the hotel industry. I finally just made all the guest room families so i don't have to worry about weird stuff happening!

When you mirror a group that contains a "constrained" family, werid stuff is bound to happen. Usually random groups will have the offending family rotated 90degrees into the corridor.

Hope this helps,

ejc

[aaronrumple]

We also do the walls as one group (architectural), the casework and furniture as another group (interiors). And then finishes as yet another group. This allows us to have one unit with different interiors just by swaping out the casework and funiture. The walls remain.

[michaelf]

We also do the walls as one group (architectural), the casework and furniture as another group (interiors). And then finishes as yet another group. This allows us to have one unit with different interiors just by swaping out the casework and funiture. The walls remain.

Is there any issue with worksets using this method?

[Rick Houle]

"But you do need to keep relationships as simple as possible."

"most important thing is to have families that do not tie themselves to anything."

EXACTLY..!