Rotate Revit® family into any direction
Don’t you hate “Can’t rotate element into this position.” error message in Revit?
Let’s say you need to rotate element into a position in which Revit will not let you. There is a simple solution, but it includes creating additional family.
For our example we will take a book family with “Always vertical” parameter turned on. It does not matter, we do not need to switch it off.
Procedure is as follows:
- Create new Generic Model Adaptive family
- Create one Adaptive Point, click on the point
- Set “Point” parameter to “Placement Point”
- Next, set “Show Placement Number” to “When Selected”
- Load original family that you want to rotate (a book from this example)
- Place it in the new family and lock to one adaptive point plane (one is more than enough)
- Load adaptive family into a project, create instance (on a level or any other reference)
- Click on the adaptive point (you’ll need to tab it a little)
- Turn off instance parameter “driven by host”
- Rotate into any position
- If needed, set workplane on which you want to rotate and rotate again
That’s it!
Video shows it all:
Very good, this method is by far the easiest way to rotate a family in elevation which I am now adopting. If you look into solutions for this problem on Autodesk’s website you will find so many long winded workarounds for this problem (most of them either dont work or you need to input complex rules/parameters, reference planes, reference lines, constraints project base point etc… about a thousand ways to achieve a seemingly straight forward task). Thank you for sharing this valuable knowledge.
I am glad you find it useful and easy. Thank you for your kind comment!
Pipe connectors disappeared
Hi, thanks for the feedback, as you can see, the method is useful for rotating geometry, but it won’t work in complex families such as the ones with logical connectors.
I wish you were speaking, because I have no Idea what you are doing.
I understand. There was a plan to add narration to the video, but due to a lack of time conclusion was that it’s better to have any kind of video than none.
Hopefully we will make shorter video with narration in the future.
Thanks for your feedback!
Hi Dalhart, there is a new video available now with narration, check it out.
Legend dude thanks heaps for this
No problem, glad you find it useful!
Mirko, thanks for your video. Unfortunately it only gets me part way. I have a brace attachment that should be placed orthogonally on a pipe and rotate around the pipe axis. I got the generic model for it from the manufacturer. I follow your directions, but when I load the new adaptive generic family into my model, I cannot access the adaptive point, nor can I rotate it or even move it. Sometimes I can move it in 1 dimension, and once I could rotate it by nudging. I’m not sure what the difference was in how the family was created or placed.
Maybe this is too specific of a problem to get into here but thanks again for your efforts.
Hi, can’t tell what could be the issue. I can only ask did you do the exact steps from the video? If you want you can send me the family so I can take a look. Look for the emails on contact page.
Draw On Workplane is greyed out.
Hi Dave, please precisely follow the instructions in the video.
Awesome, great tip, thank you!
Hi Mirko,
Thanks for the video. I have done it exactly as shown, but the loaded family doesn’t include the adaptive point. I have tried many things, but the point simply doesn’t show up in the main Revit model. Do you have any advice for me? Thanks a lot in advance!
Hi Ehsan,
there is a moment in video where I set adaptive point to be visible on selection. That is important.
I not sure if it is important, but have you tried placing the point so it’s on the edge of the family, and not inside the family’s body? Or try placing it outside of the family if you know what I mean.