Can you convert an in place family to a mass?

[3dway]

Can you convert an in place family to a mass?

The modelling tools are the same.

I have an in place family using it as a curved roof flare. I need it to be a roof, so it will accept a fascia. Is there an easy way to jump these 3d solids around from being a family, to something else like a mass? I would like the voids to go with it.

[davidcobi]

You should be able to copy to clipboard both solids and voids. Then paste them into an empty mass family. Then finish the mass family and create roof by face. Select the face of the mass for your roof and select the create roof button in the options bar.

[Steve_Stafford]

If the work planes used vary you may not be able to copy/paste in one operation. You may have to copy some and then copy others and you may even have to copy solids and then voids. Copy/Paste usually results in voids that don't cut solids. You just have to use Cut Geometry to fix that. From your other thread it looks like you've just used solids so you may be alright.

Oh, the answer is no...you can't just change to another category from Mass or change to Mass from another category. It's "wired" that way.

[3dway]

Sounds like it's a wishlist item. There would be time savings in just selecting a solid modelled family, and say, right clicking and do a "convert to". I think of Max and converting geometry from mesh to 3d poly, to whatever. They all look the same but the tools to work on them are different.

In revit this would be useful for things where you want to create one object based on another object's shape. The only think I can think of is roofs. I'm sure more experienced users can think of examples and obviously have used this "paste to mass family" method for creating other geometry since more than one person has suggested the method. It's something that people use, so it seems like a streamlined process would be prudent.

Thanks for the help everyone.
I started fresh this morning working on the rest of the building; not the roof; and the frustration was gone. I can actually feel a workflow developing, instead of pausing to think of the tool I need to use, I'm thinking about what form the model should take. We getting closer to YOU being relieved of my frustrated posts.

So, thanks again.