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Creating the Framework For a Family ComPonent 585

of complex curved surfaces and solids, displaying many of these components in a project
view might ultimately begin to degrade visual performance. Instead, the 3D geometry can be
assigned to not display in a plan view, while you include a simple sketch of the fixture in the
plan view of the family. Your renderings, sections, and elevations will display the 3D family
geometry, while your plan views will remain simple and fast.
One final aspect to understand about the Family Editor is the ability to use multiple views
to visualize your design. Similar to the project environment, it lets you create as many views
as you need to help visualize the content in your family. The Ref. Level plan view can be
duplicated if you need to examine your family at different elevations. Simply change the View
Range properties of each plan view to control the height of the view’s cut plane. From the
View tab in the ribbon, you can also create camera views and sections within the family.

Creating the Framework for a Family Component

Now that we’ve discussed some of the basic definitions and rules of the Family Editor, we’ll talk
about the hierarchy of creating a family component.
In this section you will work through the fundamentals of creating a family in terms of
datum objects, constraints, parameters, materials, subcategories, and visibility settings. Later in
the chapter, you will learn more advanced modeling and parametric techniques.
If you haven’t done so already, click the Application menu and then select New ➢ Family.
Use the Furniture.rft or Metric Furniture.rft family template, which is available for
download with this chapter’s exercise files from the book’s companion web page.

Creating the Necessary reference planes, Lines, and points
In the project environment, datum objects are available for you to control and manage the
location and behavior of modeled geometry. In previous chapters, we have discussed the use of
grids, levels, and reference planes, but these data are also extremely important in a component
family. When used in the Family Editor, reference planes, lines, and points will function as the
skeleton for the solid and void geometry you build.
To be clear about the usage of datum objects in families, they are not required to construct
geometry; however, if you’re confident that what you’re about to model in the Family Editor will
need to flex (have a modifiable length, angle, location, and so on) from within the rules of the
family, then it’s important that you begin by first creating the rules that will allow the geometry
to move.
With few exceptions, you don’t want to give parameters to the geometry itself. Instead, you’ll
want to create the necessary reference planes, lines, and points first. Then associate the
parameters to these references and whenever possible test the parameters to make sure
the references are flexing properly. Once you’re confident the references are flexing, you can
build the geometry in context to the references, again testing to make certain that when the
references flex, the geometry is flexing as well.
The type of datum object you use is based on how you want the geometry to flex:
Reference Planes These define a single plane that can be set to host sketch lines or geometry.
They’re best for controlling linear geometric relationships—that is to say, geometry that will
flex in a linear fashion. Reference planes don’t have endpoints. This is important because you
don’t want to use reference planes for controlling angular or directional relationships.

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