Can a family control a floor?

[jspartz]

I don't think this is possible, but can someone verify this? I created a floor standing urinal family. As you know they are recessed in the floor. Is there any way I can have a family cut through the floor. I tried a void, but a void in the family does not carry through to the model it's dropped into. I think the only way is to edit the floor slab in the model itself.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Make sure that you Cut Geometry in the family editor before you save the family. It should cut the host floor.

[Steve_Stafford]

A floor hosted family will. A face based family will. A wall hosted family will not.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Just to clarify what you are saying Steve, a floor or face hosted family will cut the floor but a wall hosted family won't.
You're not saying that a wall hosted family can't use a void to cut the wall.

[jspartz]

Cool, I never knew you could do that! But a normal void didn't work, because it voided out the objects that I want recessed also. So, I made a solid extrusion and then changed it to void in it's properties and cut that, and that leaves my objects visible. Do you know what the difference is between a void and a solid turned into a void? Are there any other differences?

Wall based walls can cut walls, but I guess it has to be floor based to cut a floor. That's fine with me.

[dbaldacchino]

In summary, Voids can cut the family's host. If it's wall hosted, it can cut the wall, floor hosted can cut the floor, etc. If it's workplane based, it can cut the object that it has been hosted on, unless you host it on a workplane (then there's nothing to cut).

[Calvn_Swing]

What if you have a family that needs to cut BOTH the wall and the floor? Are you saying this cannot be done? Just curious. I'm thinking a complex elevator family might need to cut both, or even the urinal mentioned above - some models cut both the wall and the floor. Just curious.

Thanks

[jspartz]

I guess not. I thought I would be able to do that by taking my floor hosted family and then nesting it into a wall hosted family, so I could do both. It let's me load the family in but I can not place it anywhere. So, I'm guessing you can't do both.

Before I was asking what is the difference between creating a void and creating a solid and then turning into a void. I made both the same way, but they act differently. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this.

[dbaldacchino]

I don't think there's any difference. You can also create a void and turn it to solid. What behavior are you talking about? The only thing that happens if you create a solid and turn it to a void is that it doesn't cut automatically but you have to use the Cut Geometry tool.

[Steve_Stafford]

In the case of an elevator the Modelling > Opening > Shaft Opening is much more effective since it can cut floors, ceilings and roofs that it comes into contact with. Then just put the elevator in the hole like they build em.

For slab depressions under plumbing fixtures you can make them floor hosted so they cut properly. If you need both a wall and floor, pick wall and then make a slab depression family that is just reference planes and a void to cut out the depression. A slab edge only plan would benfit because you'd only need to see the void to see the depression.

The real difference between a void and solid turned into void is how it will cut other solids. Check out my BLOG article for an explanation.

A face based family that has a void can cut any host families in the project (or in a host family) as long as the void is told to cut the host object in the family. It can cut multiple walls as in a corner for example but it can't cut two different host types.