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Creating and using grouPs 393

Group hosted elements and their hosts together. Always keep your hosted elements and
hosts together. For example, do not group doors and windows without the walls that are host-
ing them. If any of the windows in a group become unhosted from walls and then deleted,
this will delete the respective windows in all other group instances—even if they are properly
hosted.
Don’t use attached relationships in groups. The top constraints of walls are commonly
attached to levels or other hosts like floors and roofs, but these relationships should be avoided
in groups. If you manipulate the datum or attached host and the relationship creates incon-
sistent conditions among the instances of the group, you’ll see a warning asking you to fix the
groups (Figure 10.55).

Figure 10.55
avoid attaching
with groups.

Fixing the group really doesn’t fix the group. It actually explodes it or creates a new group that
is no longer referenced to the first group (Figure 10.56).

Figure 10.56
resolving attach-
ments warning

Don’t mirror groups. Finally, and maybe most important, don’t mirror groups. Instead, it’s
better to create left and right versions. Does mirroring work in concept? Yes. Does it work in
the real world? Not really.
Think about it. You’d love to be able to mirror that prototype coffee shop, right? Mirror the
coffee shop—and all the equipment in the group—and now the baristas are foaming milk on
the right rather than the left. This might look great in a rendering, but it doesn’t make sense
for the company that manufactures the espresso machines.

c10.indd 393 5/3/2014 11:04:56 AM