Forums >> Revit Structure >> Technical Support >> ? Passing parameter values either between hosted families or nested families ?

daimion21

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Joined: Fri, Sep 17, 2010
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My Modifications: (to date)

Added Grout and leveling plate options to the baseplate family, and adding a shared parameter (Assembly Thickness) that sums the thicknesses.

In a column family I have added another referance plane just above the Lower Ref. Level, and locked the extrusion lower ref plane to it.  I have dimensioned the new referance plane off the Lower Ref. level, and assigned it a instance length Parameter (Assembly Thickness) that is a shared parameter also used in the base plate family to define the thickness of the base plate assembly.This allows me to give a column the base offset the same value of top of foundation, and enter the value (Assembly Thickness) of the specific or sum of (base plate / leveling plate / grout) thickness. This offsets the column extrusion from the foundation the exact distance to allow for the thickness of the HOSTED base plate type between the column base and top of foundation in the project.My example situations:  (What I would like to be able to do)1. By hosting a base plate type to a column.  I would like to pass the Assembly Thickness vallue from the base plate to the column.  So it places the baseplate in the model at the correct location without me haveing to manually figure out and enter the Assembly Thicness into the column properties.  ie. and update automatically if there is a base plate type change.

or2.  If the baseplate famly is nested within the column famly, also passing the base plate thickness parameter value to the column thickness parameter value, result being the same as example one.

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lunchtrayrider

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I like scooters. and motorcycles.

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Mr Spot

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You won't be able to associate the "assembly thickness" parameters as long as you have it as formula driven in the base plate family.  You can link and associate the "Thickness" parameter of the base plate to the column and this will in turn drive the "assembly thickness" parameter as that is dependent on the thickness.

If you want to be able to tag and schedule them separately then yes make the base plate family "Shared" as suggested above. 

You may want to also be able to turn the base plate off all together if you don't need it, so add a visibility parameter for that. Could also make a rule that if the visibility is off, column offset is 0.

I also note you haven't actually placed and constrained any instances of your nested family in the column family?  You will need to do this and constrain it by its original point in all 3 planes.

I'm not exactly sure of your experience level so if you require additional direction just let me know.

HTH.

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Chris.

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daimion21

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Joined: Fri, Sep 17, 2010
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I was initially wondering if the parameter could be associated through hosting.

I have built the column family with the baseplates nested within.  I also added a parameter to change the baseplate type as an instance in the column properties.  The baseplate types show up in the instance property pull down, however it does not govern the baseplate instance in the model. the baseplate that is modeled it seems is governed by the type properties in the column that i created to associate the column with the base plate "Assembly Thickness".

Not sure if i'm going about this the right way,  I know that column attach to footings, and changing the elevation offset of either the footing or the column causes the attached other to follow.  Essentially i'm trying to make this work with the baseplate added between them, and revise instantly if one of the three thanges in any way demensionally.

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Mr Spot

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Joined: Mon, Jan 12, 2004
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Having the base of the column start at the top of connection by parsing through the assembly thickness was easy.  Just link the Leveling Plate and Grout Thickness parameters through to the host column family.

However, as you may have noticed the footings attach at the wrong point of the base plate.  They incorrectly read the nested base plate bolt families extents and attaches at the end of the bolts instead of where the base level has been located in the column family.  Unfortunately this is unavoidable and is simply something that Revit is doing incorrectly.  As such I'm unsure if you will be able to achieve the functionality you are after.

I'll have more of think about it and see if I can come up with a workaround...

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Chris.

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