Instance of family not cutting anything

[thredge]

So, I made a ganged clad wood window based on a single clade window family by nesting the single window into the family and copying that around to make it work. This seems to work OK, but I keep getting an error message that says 'Instance of the family not cutting anything.' Many times I can just click OK and the window still works fine, but other times the warning grays out the OK on the dialog and I either have to delete it or not do it.

The problem seems to be that the nested window has it's own opening and the parent family has an opening as well that they get crabby about. If I remove the parent family opening however, I get a checkerboard opening cut in my model as every other window doesn't want to cut it's opening anymore.

The only work around I can think of is that the nested window needs to be a generic model type template instead of the window hosted one, but wasn't thrilled about the idea of remaking the family.

So this is really a best practices question, should I be using windows in windows or should I make most nested families generic families? Is there a way to keep nested windows from trying to cut the opening in the wall or get it to not care that it isn't cutting anything?

Thanks.

[Scott Womack]

So this is really a best practices question, should I be using windows in windows or should I make most nested families generic families? Is there a way to keep nested windows from trying to cut the opening in the wall or get it to not care that it isn't cutting anything?

Create a special version of the window family to nest. In that version, delete the opening. Nest it into the other family. Now in the family, one is nested into, edit the opening to encompass the original, and the nested. Now it should work, and not complain.

[thredge]

yeah, that would be the quick dirty way. Makes it hard to edit the original window being hidden in the wall after that. I finally got the window that wasn't cooperating (kept deleting one of the ganged windows when I would finish lining the opening up) so it is working, still with the warning message. Seems like if I want to nest families though it should be a generic model template to start from.

[Scott Womack]

yeah, that would be the quick dirty way. Makes it hard to edit the original window being hidden in the wall after that. I finally got the window that wasn't cooperating (kept deleting one of the ganged windows when I would finish lining the opening up) so it is working, still with the warning message. Seems like if I want to nest families though it should be a generic model template to start from.

Be careful with Generic Families. Starting with them, and changing to a Door, does not necessarily add all default door parameters to the family. This might cause the door/window to schedule differently.

If you take the parameters of the nested window, and hook them to the appropriate parameters in the mail family, it will be flexible. In the case you are describing, I'd actually put two nested version of the "sub-window or individual window in. I'd make some additional parameters calculating half, or half minus mullion, etc. in. I'd hook the nested parameters to those.

[twiceroadsfool]

One other issue here, is nesting HOSTED items in to other items. Remember, a Window family that is created from the default window template, requires a wall to be present. Youve got the Parent window file, that has an opening, and youve got the Child (nested) window family that has an opening. The Child file is looking for the wall to cut, which may or may not exist depending on the location of that window families origin, and where the opening is from the parent window file.

When i want to nest windows to make complex windows, i start with an unhosted GM family, switch its catagory to Window, and load it in nested/shared. Now it schedules like a window (if thats your desire) and it wont look for a wall host. I lock it to the wall in the Parent file, and im good to go.

Actually, i build all my windows that way. Much easier to constrain. :)

[Mike Sealander]

Another thing to look out for with wall-hosted objects is that the wall provided in the family may be about 8 feet long, but a parameter for the Opening Cut may be 10 feet long, therefore ending up wider than the host wall in the family. This situation can return the "Not cutting anything" error.