Nested family problem

[Alfienoakes]

Good morning..

I am trying to create a door with a side light. I have had a quick look at nested families, and understand that I need to create 2 separate families, one of the door, and one of the window. I should then, insert the window along side the door, within the door family.

I then save the door and side light as a new family, and insert into my model.. When I try to insert my new combined family into a project, it starts the insertion process, but then stops with this error:

"cant cut instance of Type 01 out of wall" Type 01 is the actual door.

Now, I am assuming this is something to do with the door not being able to cut out a void in order to insert itself into the wall..?

I have used void objects in my side light and in my door to cut the wall. So on insertion of my combined families, I should have 2 separate voids to cut the hole. But its not working, and Im not sure why..!

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, it would be greatly appreciated...

Many thanks..

[Munkholm]

Alfie, could you post the family ? Would make it a lot easier to troubleshoot

[Alfienoakes]

ok yes.. Here it is..

like I say, its a side light, added into the door, to hopefully operate as one entity.

There maybe a better way of doing it (of this I am sure..!)

Many thanks..

[Munkholm]

The simple solution: Make the nested side light family "Shared" - Then it works right away...

The problem you´re facing, is that you´ve not adjusted the opening in the parent family to fit both the door and the side light... is this family for a "one time use" only, or will it go into your library ? If the later, there´s a ton of things that you should consider adding/correcting (Like flexing and aligning the size of the side light)

[Alfienoakes]

Hey Klaus,

Yes, I would probably like to use it for other jobs as well.. I have really tried to find some good tut's on nested families, but nothing seemed to suit what I was doing.. So I thought, right, lets dive in..!

If you can point me in the right direction, that would be great....

Many thanks.. in advance....

[Alfienoakes]

hey Klaus,

I just wondered if you could give me a couple of pointers, to how I could make my new "family" a little more usefull..? Im not after being spoon fed, but just a push in the right direction. I have got if working by making it shared, but I want to make sure these things work in other projects etc.. Plus, I will need to be explaining how this works to others, so it needs to be right..!

Cheers

[Munkholm]

Sorry Alfie, totally forgot this thread :banghead:

First thing that you should consider, is making the size parameters for the side light Instance parameters, else they can not be tied to the parent family.
In the parent family, you should create some additional parameters, i.e. "Total Width", "Door Width", and "Side Light Width" < (= Total Width - Door Width)
Now tie the Width parameter from the nested side light to the new "Side Light Width"

Same procedure for heights etc.

Hope that will get you on the right track, and if not - please feel free to ask again :beer:

[Munkholm]

Here´s an example that you can reverse engineer, steal, or throw in the garbage can

[Alfienoakes]

Klaus,

many thanks for this.. I will have a look at it and try and make mine work in the same way.. I will post my results once I get somewhere

Thanks again..

[Alfienoakes]

Hey Klaus,

I have created my own, which seems to work pretty well.. Only problem is, I need it to be able to schedule the overall screen (door and sidelight) as one item to appear in my "Screens" schedule..

And the door panel (width over all and panel) as another item to schedule in my "Door" schedule.

So basically, I want it to be 2 schedule "able" items.. I seem to be struggling a little bit and my head hurts from getting the overall screen to work....

Any pointers / comments on my nested family greatly received..

Cheers