Constraining Pipe Inlet/Outlets

[RevitNinja]

We are working on building a cooling tower family. The front of the tower has three Pipe outlets- one for make-up, one for overflow, and one for the condensate drain.

I'd like to be able to change the location of the outlets via parameters, but I don't understand how to attach the extrusion that I am using for the outlet to the reference plane that is driven by a dimensional parameter. When I change the value of the parameter, the reference plane moves but leaves the outlet behind. Any ideas?

[Jmickledesign]

I don't want to insult your intelligence but did you try locking the outlet to the ref. line?
If you could post the family I'd take a look at it for you, and see what I can find.

[RevitNinja]

When I sketch a circle at the intersection of the two reference planes, there is no lock icon that appears. Same goes for when I sketch in extrusion mode.

What I did find is that I can drive the location of the extrusion by assigning a parameter to the center of the circle.

I'm open to suggestions though.

[Jmickledesign]

You could also set a reference plane at the top and bottom tangent of the circle and then specify the distance. the distance will then dictate the dia. of the circle. If you still want to control the circle from the center you can set equality constraints form the center point and set your dimension off that.

You might also have to set a ref. plane on both sides of the cirle and lock the quadrants to them as you did the top and bottom. like I said if you can post the family I would love to get into it a little better for you.

[RevitNinja]

This is the version where I have assigned dimensional parameters to the centers of the extrusions. Have a look.

[mwiggins121466]

In the properties of the circle there is a check box for Center Mark Visible. You should be able to constrain to that. Will that help you?

[RevitNinja]

yes, locking to the center mark worked great. thanks!

[Jmickledesign]

I didn't think about that. Aligning the centermark to the ref. planes should definately work.

[RevitNinja]

...and for some reason, I don't remember being able to do that in RMEP 2008.