Forums >> Revit Building >> Technical Support >> Voids

Dan7777

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I have a seemingly peculiar problem. I edited a cabinet in order to have custom profiles on the doors and in doing so I needed to create a void extrustion to trim off some unwanted door. The void cuts perfectly fine in the family editor, some cut automatically others require me to use the "cut" tool in combination with the void but regardless everything works fine. BUT when importing the edited cabinets into my project some show exactly as edited in the family editor and others show as if no void extrusions had been applied to the cabinets. In addition the "cut with voids when loaded" option was infact selected each time to no avail.. Out of desperation i even tried applying voids in place in the project to see if that would work instead, but when applying the cut geometry tool, after selecting the void, it doesn't allow me to select the cabinet.... My hands are currently tied and revit is making zero sense to me. Someone please help me, this is driving me insane, and wasting SO much time.. 

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WWHub

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Joined: Tue, May 16, 2006
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Without seeing the family, we may not be able to help.  But here is one possibility.  Revit's families are kind of dependent on the view in the family.  If this void is above the plan cut in the family, it may not show up in the project.  This is really screwey and hard to explain when or why this happens.  It just does.  If it cut correctly in the project and the family was loaded correctly, then it should work.  Test in a new project where it was not previously tested.

As far as a project void cutting a family, this also sometimes does not work.  I use a hosted void (face based) family to cut other families.  I'm not sure about non-hosted voids in the project but I would have thought it would work.  Sometimes the in-place family needs to be in the same category as the family you will be cutting.

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Dan7777

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Thank you very much for your reply. I tried changing the cut plan and reloading into the project but it did not work. But I might be doing something wrong. I have included the family here so perhaps you can help make more sense of this issue im having. And I would like to learn how to host a void so perhaps I could just go that route. Thankyou.  

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WWHub

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I believe your problem is the visibility settings in the family for the individual elements.  If you want elements to cut, you need to check  "when cut in plan/rcp for each element.

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Dan7777

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Thank you for looking into it for me. Your suggestion didn't solve the entire problem but has helped me make more sense of things and ensure that the visibility settings are proper so things do work properly. I have found the problem to be the result of a couple of things that i wasn't doing. For one, when applying the void, i created a reference plane which i associated it with, this reference plane caused problems with the constraits of the family itself causing it to not flex properly. So what i did was associate the void with planes already in view, what this did im guessing, besides preventing problems with flexing, is create a void that was permanently apart of the cabinet thus when importing it into the project it remained(this worked every single time for me). Im figuring this is the case because when associating it with my own plane the void didn't immport properly in every case. Also on another note i realized when flexing the cabinet in the project the void didn't follow the change in flex but if you lock the void to the desired edge (edge not plane) it flexed perfectly with the void each and every time. 

For the record Im not sure if I have explained my findings sufficiently or if im interpreting things properly but what I have explained above I believe to be correct to my understanding. 

If anyone can explain to me why using my own plane doesn't work to properly flex the void with or why using your own plane causes flexing problems even when it is unassociated with the family i would be very interested to know why. 

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WWHub

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We would probably have to really evaluate your family to see what causes your problems with this plane but I do have some suggestions.  Download the families guide from the autodesk site.  It was written for 2009 Revit but it is still completely applicable for process.  That will teach you a lot that you can't find elsewhere.

When you start a family, always add your reference planes first if possible.  Revit associates elements, lines and sketch lines with other elements and reference planes that are already there.  Even without dimension locks.  So if your reference plane is there and you add something, it may associate with this plane instead of other elements that you thought it would associate with.  

This is a big problem with wall hosted objects.  The elements often associate with the wall face or centerline rather than your reference planes.  I always add a reference plane well of the face of the host wall and build my object around that plane then add a dimension to move this plane and the objects to where I want them in relation to the wall.

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