Grips Location - Reference Planes vs Lines

When you apply an instance parameter to a strong/weak reference plane you'll get grips that let you alter the element directly in the view. When you do this to a reference line you get them too. There is a difference between the two Reference types in how they affect the grips though. Here's a pair of "desk" families. Compare the two forms in the image below, look carefully at where the grips are located in this one.

If you build the "bones" with Reference Lines and limit them to the size of the geometry they are meant to constrain you can define where the grips are displayed with much more control.

Don't worry, be "Grippy"!

Grips in Families

The key ingredients in a family to obtain grips is an instance parameter paired with reference planes who are at least a weak reference. You can refer to this old post about the IsReference parameter for Reference Planes. There was a time when they had to be strong but this seems to have changed in recent releases, at least since 2009 and 2010. I've posted a video that demonstrates how this all works together. You can listen and watch here.

Visibility of grips

"Short and sweet department"

The Control "grips", the little blue dots that appear when you select a line or wall for example, may not appear if the active workset is not visible in your view. This assumes you are using worksets of course...so you are not crazy, at least not about that.