Reference Plane in Family template

[cadman6735]

Good day guys

I am following up behind an Architect on a family he created to modify it to our company standards.

I have encountered a Reference Plane that has been named to "left" and another one named "right"

I have never named my Reference Planes before and really didn't know that I could except for a vage memory from when I was in training. I am unable to delete the referenc planes.

What benifit (except for the obvouse Name) does nameing these Reference Planes?

How do I delete these reference planes assuming that the name has something to do with it. I can't delete the dim that is attached to it either??? A little confused..

Learning something new everyday... Love Revit

Thanks for your time.

[SCShell]

Hey there,

As far as the practice of naming reference planes.....It is really useful when you are creating a plane which will host an item.
Example:
You have a roof beam and/or joists which slope. Place a reference plane (in section view) which has the proper elevation and slope and then click it's properties and give it a unique name, like "Roof Slope Plane". Then, when you place a beam or joist, you will be prompted to select a work plane. Simply pick the "by name" option and then, from the pull down list, you will see all of the project's Levels, including your newly named reference plane. Select that one and you are ready. Every beam or joist will be placed on your new sloping reference plane. You can do the same for your ceiling and roof elements.

Hope this helps a bit.
Steve

[cadman6735]

Thanks Steve.

Yes sir. I understand the level planes in the project. My question is for family templates.

We are creating a new family type and the Referance Plane that you lock the element to and then supply a dimension to give it a label parameter that gets added to the Family Types to modify the element in the project.

The green dashed lines. These are the line in question. They have a name of left and right when highlighted and I can't delete the lines or the dimension attached to them.

Steve thank you for your reply and help.

Just for the sake of saying it. I copied and pasted to a new family type and started over with my parameters to get it done...

But I am still very interested in knowing what and why so I can be more educated.

thanks

[patricks]

Those lines are hard-coded into the template, and cannot be deleted.

Certain templates like casework, doors, and windows have such planes built into them. Others only have the center origin-defining reference planes by default. If you don't need or want those left and right RP's in that particular family, you'll have to create the family in a template that doesn't have them.

[SCShell]

Hey there,

When you are in sketch mode, in the family editor, you still can use the method I described. When creating an item, you somtimes need to identify the work plane on which to add the new geometry.

And yes, a lot of the reference planes are hard coded; however, I have heard the "gurus" discussing this subject and saying that you can save any template out as an RFA or RVT file in order to gain access to certain dimensions and reference planes which were originally hard coded, and therefore, off limits. I just haven't experimented with this.
Good luck,
Steve

[cadman6735]

Patricks

your answer I understand and this make sense because it is a casework family and I have never worked with this family before and now thinking about it and what you said I can see what you mean.

Steve.
your little trick that you suggested about saving it out worked very well for what I wanted to do.

Thank you both for your help and education.

[trombe]

Good day guys

I am following up behind an Architect on a family he created to modify it to our company standards.

I have encountered a Reference Plane that has been named to "left" and another one named "right"

I have never named my Reference Planes before and really didn't know that I could except for a vage memory from when I was in training. I am unable to delete the referenc planes.

What benifit (except for the obvouse Name) does nameing these Reference Planes?
How do I delete these reference planes assuming that the name has something to do with it. I can't delete the dim that is attached to it either??? A little confused..
Learning something new everyday... Love Revit
Thanks for your time.

Actually you can delete reference planes in base templates at any time although for a variety of reasons, it is not necessarily good policy until you are really well versed in the family editor. If they cannot be deleted in your template / family, there is a good reason.

I urge you to check out everything you can on Family Editor use, including web videos, Help and the family forum threads here on AUGI because there are some very clever people here as well as lots diverse problems and questions and lots of very generous help.

regards
trombe

[clog boy]

Don't forget Revit is database driven. Families have a database too, and it's base properties are used by the program code to display it on screen properly when you place it. Else what 'length' would it have on screen, or what orientation?

Workplanes in families are a really useful way to constrain objects. For instance, if you want to make stuff move back or front with a ref plane, just make it the object's workplane! It's what I do to make an entire window move front or back when I enter the distance between window and wall exterior.

Ref planes have a purpose, making them a workplane extent it's purpose and it's also a good way to document your work even if you're the only one using it.

[tomnewsom]

Don't forget Revit is database driven. Families have a database too, and it's base properties are used by the program code to display it on screen properly when you place it. Else what 'length' would it have on screen, or what orientation?

Workplanes in families are a really useful way to constrain objects. For instance, if you want to make stuff move back or front with a ref plane, just make it the object's workplane! It's what I do to make an entire window move front or back when I enter the distance between window and wall exterior.

Ref planes have a purpose, making them a workplane extent it's purpose and it's also a good way to document your work even if you're the only one using it.

When creating complex families, named ref planes are essential if you want to keep things sane. You want to create an extrusino that's aligned to this particular geometry, but the geometry may or may not actually be there in a particular type? Ok! Create the extrusion on a ref plane. Now which one do I need? Click pick plane, and omg I have 50 ref planes, some overlapping, hang on which view should I be in? Much easier to have sensible names like "front of casing" or "midpoint of LH door". Same goes for parameters. Descriptive names may be a pain to create and look at in the properties dialog, but they reduce confusion.

Hmm, I think this coffee's strong, I typed way more than I though I would

[Mike Sealander]

Reference planes shipped in families are also pinned. Unpin them, and then they can be manipulated.