Forums >> Revit Building >> Technical Support >> Custom Beam Help
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Joined: Thu, Feb 16, 2012
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I work for a canopy/awning manufacturor and one of our major clients is requiring us to use Revit. The other designer and I are now the proud users of the full 2012 Building Design Suite and are struggling through some basics before they send us off for some training.
I'm trying to create a custom family of the custom canopy frame extrusion that our company uses on all of our flat canopies. At the guidance of a CadClip video, I started off creating a family using the "Generic Model" template, set reference planes, imported the CAD profile of the canopy extrusion, traced and extruded it, created family types for beam width and material (both set to Instance), dimensioned the ref planes of its width and set the label to Beam Width, aligned the edges of the canopy extrusion to the corresponding ref planes and locked them, yada yada.
When i went to "Load into Project", it is loading it in as a set size. The CadClip video showed them being able to place the "beam" like they were creating a line, following their click points.
What am i doing wrong that is constrainging the size to what was set in the family base file?
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Joined: Tue, Apr 24, 2007
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YOU NEED TO USE THE STRUCTURAL BEAM TEMPLATE RATHER THAT THE GENERIC MODEL
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Joined: Thu, Feb 16, 2012
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Okay, I'll give that a try. Just wondering why the example in the video was able to do it, when I wasn't. Maybe a version difference? The tutorial video was of Revit 2009 and I am on Revit 2012.
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Joined: Tue, Apr 24, 2007
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can you please post the link?
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Joined: Thu, Feb 16, 2012
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Okay, I'll give that a try. Just wondering why the example in the video was able to do it, when I wasn't. Maybe a version difference? The tutorial video was of Revit 2009 and I am on Revit 2012.
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Joined: Tue, Apr 24, 2007
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link?
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Joined: Thu, Feb 16, 2012
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Here is the tutorial location:
http://www.dgcad.com/FreeCADclips.htm:
Left Side Menu -> REVIT 2009 - Arch'l Beam Family
Video 2 and 3 are my main reference points.
Thanks.
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Joined: Tue, Apr 24, 2007
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HE USED "GENERIC LINE BASED", I'M ASSUMING YOU USED GENERIC MODEL.
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"GENERIC MODEL LINE BASED"
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Wow, not sure how I missed that. Would you still recommend using the structural beam template? I would be using this family to define a perimeter structure for flat canopy systems.
Thanks for the help, Manny.
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Joined: Tue, Apr 24, 2007
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what type of profile/section do you need, how big is your system?
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Height is 8" with a 3/4" vertical flange at the top interior. Top body of the extrusion is 2.5" deep and bottom body is 2" deep. Its connected with a .125" wall. We typically run 12' max width and projection from the wall anywhere from 1' to 8'.
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Making progress. I was able to insert the family like I needed with "Place on Workplane" and as a chain. Now my next issue is at the corner intersects. When I try and join the families, it says "Can't cut joined element." If I try and unjoin and then repeat the command, it says the same thing.
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Joined: Fri, Sep 22, 2006
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Think you are heading in the correct direction, try the miter tool. or stop one short, how do you do it in practice, do you have a special part that fits that corner?
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this is why using Structural Framing template is better or you can create a profile section of your beam and do a sweep.
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