Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Pick New - Changing a Host

Shawn at RFO shared a cool tip to help deal with orphaned MEP families when their host goes missing in the linked file they were depending on. When a ceiling is deleted and new ceiling is placed in the same location instead of switching ceiling types MEP families will end up as orphaned elements.

If these orphans really need to stay in the same location but be associated with a new ceiling (or other host surface) the Pick New tool is biased toward moving them to another host. When you attempt to click on the same host they often end up changing their position.

Shawn offered a simple fix. Just use the Pin tool to put a stake in them first. Then when you use Pick New they won't move and you can select their new host. Nice!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Another option is to select the fixtures then select "Edit Work Plane." After the dialogue pops up select "Pick a Plane" and then you can select the host ceiling or surface you want to use without the locations changing in the x and y plane. Saves the step of pinning and also if you need to move them in the future of unpinning.

AnthonyB said...

Good on both of you, a decade ago. This helped me today.