Forums >> Revit Building >> Technical Support >> Articulating Arm Revit Family Help

fr0z3nsky

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Joined: Tue, May 19, 2009
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Im having a hard time making a family that can be rotated on the X, Y, and Z axis. I need an arm (well two) that can be controlled to any angle.

I can rotate the arms to rotate on their own horizontally, or vertically, when they are in seperate files. But once I combine them, the angles dont listen to me and do weird things like rotate, or the angles add together.

Attached is my arm thus far. Any help would be really appreciated.

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itsmyalterego

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Joined: Thu, May 28, 2009
829 Posts

I'm having a somewhat hard time imagining the end product. 

Something like an automobile welding robot??

A drawing might be helpful.

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revitape

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Joined: Tue, Nov 13, 2007
111 Posts

i did something similar (i think) for a task light i had to create for a client. bring it into a project and you will see two instance parameters that let you adjust the two angles of the light arms.

for this i actually created a sweep which is controlled by reference lines locked to points- which are probably the most important part of the family. this might not be the exact thing you are looking for but might get you on the right track. good luck.

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fr0z3nsky

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Joined: Tue, May 19, 2009
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No, the arm basically has to be able to move 3 dimensionally. Look at my sketch I just made on paint. Thats exactly what im doing...

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alfmedina

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Joined: Wed, Sep 26, 2007
162 Posts

Perfectly possible. There are, at least, 2 solutions:

• In the standard family editor, with rotations based on nested families and reference lines
• In the adaptive environment, with rotations based on points hosted on points.

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dgcad

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Joined: Thu, Mar 17, 2005
1231 Posts

Definately use Reference 'Lines'. Not Planes.

I have never successfiully had an element have the ablity to rotate in x, y, and z planes parametrically.

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WWHub

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Joined: Tue, May 16, 2006
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I doubt that you need to rotate in all axis because you can rotate one or more in the model.  This is also true for nested families.  The nested family can be rotated in one axis, and the nested family can be rotated in the other axis.

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