After completing this lesson, you will be able to understand solid and void geometry, creates a pile family. Work with reference planes. Work with family parameters and work with shared parameters. The objective domains covered are 2.2a create or delete an instance or type parameter. 2.2 b, determine the appropriate parameter, discipline type and grouping. 2.3c, at reference planes, lines and dimensions. 2.3d, create geometry and 2.3e, associate dimensional parameters. There are five different methods to create solid and void geometry within the family editor. These range from a simple extrusion, too complex shapes fall from blends and swept blends. The most common types for structural families tend to be extrusions or sweeps. An extrusion simply takes a profile and extrude it upwards. However, a sweep takes a profile and allows you to sweep it down a complex path. Void geometry is used to cut from solid geometry. This is useful when creating penetrations or recesses into solid geometry. You first create your void geometry and then use the cut command to cut this from the solid. Note that solids can also be joined to form monolithic shapes. So we're currently viewing rivets home screen. In the home screen we can create new families. Go ahead and select new. You're then presented with a new family dialog box. Here, we can select a template. The templates have a file extension are FT and each one of them will generate a specific family. For example, if we want to create a structural foundation, you can see here that we have structural foundation. However, if we want to create a structural column, we have structural column template here. Another option is to use generic models. The benefit with our generic models is we can choose the type of hosting we require. So for example, if I was creating a pile family that needs to be hosted onto the face of something else. I could choose here generic model face based. In this example, I'm just going to go ahead and use generic model. Let's select open. We are now in the Rivet family editor. You can see the ribbon structure across the top is very different from the projects environment. So, we have a create ribbon here and on the creates ribbon. We have solid forms. You'll also notice that we have the same forms that creates voids. On the create ribbon, select family category and parameters. In the family category and parameters dialog box. You'll notice that the current category, is generic model. We're going to change this. This is going to become structural foundations. By selecting the family category, this will change the entire behavior of the family when we use it in the project environment. Also, we will have different family parameters available in the lower half of the dialog box. Note that, these same family parameters are also available in the properties palette. So here, you can see that we have always vertical selected. Well, that would be quite good for a pile family. Generally, sometimes we might want a raking pile but in this case our pile is always going to be vertical. The material for model behavior, I'm going to set to concrete. For example, if we were creating a piled wall, we might want these piles to blend together. And I also want the ability to cut with voids when loaded. So I'm going to select that option as well. Let's go ahead and select OK to our family category and parameters dialog box. Next we create the parametric framework. The parametric framework is essentially a group of reference planes and reference lines that we add dimensions to. It's very important to get this framework correct before we start adding geometry. The parametric framework that we create, will also affect how the family operates in the project environment. Generally, most families will have a minimum of two reference planes already created in the template. If we go ahead and select the two reference planes here, you'll notice in the properties palette. These two reference planes define the origin. We can change this if we want to. We also notice here, that these reference planes are pinned. We're going to now go ahead and create some additional reference planes. Click that creates ribbon and then select reference plane. On the context ribbon we have the ability of drawing a line or picking an existing piece of geometry. Well go ahead here and select a reference plane up the vertical path here. A little tip here is, if you hold down the shift key, the reference plane will be drawn orthogonal lee. Would also draw another reference plane horizontally. So again here, I can select a position, hold down my shift key and place that horizontal plane. Well then go ahead and select modify. Now, what I want to do here is create some symmetry around these fixed work planes. To do this, I can simply mirror the reference planes that I've just created. So I'm going to go ahead and select this vertical reference plane here. And on the modified context ribbon, I'll go ahead and select mirror pick axes. And I'll repeat that for my horizontal plane. So, I now have some symmetry around my reference planes. I want to ensure that this symmetry is persistent when I create the family. To do this, I'm going to add some aligned dimensions and then make them equal. On the quick access toolbar, select aligned dimension. Well, then select our three vertical reference planes. And then position the dimensions in between the reference planes, somewhere here. You'll notice that when three or more elements are selected, we have the ability of creating an equal constraint. Let's go ahead and make these equal. We'll repeat that for the three horizontal planes. Place the dimensions down and make them equal. We now have our parametric framework set up. If I select one of these reference planes on the left hand side, I can flex the reference plane. To flex the reference plane, I can use the left and right hand cursor keys. And you'll notice as I move the cursor keys backwards and forwards, the planes respond symmetrically. I can do the same for my horizontal planes using the up and down cursor keys. Next, we create some parameters to control our pile family. On the modified ribbon, select family types. In the family types dialog box you'll notice that we've already got length, width and foundation thickness created. These were created automatically, when we selected the category structural foundations. However, none of these are useful for our pile family. So, we're going to go ahead and create our own parameter. Click new parameter. We'll begin by creating a parameter for pile diameter. It's important to note here that when you use parameter names, they are case sensitive. So, you need to choose a standard and stick to that. Here, this is going to be a type parameter. The discipline is going to be common and the type of parameter will be a length because it's a dimension. And also here, we want to group the parameters under dimension. The name pile diameter, is pretty descriptive but if it wasn't I could use Reddit tor tip. And I could create a tor tips to give additional help. Let's go ahead and select OK. You can now see that we have pile diameter set up. So, I'm initially going to set this to 12 inches. Let's go ahead and select OK. We will now create some dimensions and assign our new parameter to those dimensions. On the quick access toolbar, select the aligned dimension command. We'll place a dimension here and another dimension here. Well then hold down the control key and select both of these newly placed dimensions. On the context ribbon, in the label dimension panel. You'll note here that, we can select that newly created parameter pile diameter. Note that, the reference planes have now driven to that new dimension. I'm now ready to create some geometry. Let's select the creator ribbon. And in this example we're going to go ahead and use extrusion. On the context ribbon, I'm going to select circle. Let's zoom in to our reference planes. And here, I'll select the intersection of the two reference planes. And sketch out my circle. I need to control the diameter of this circle. So, on the same context ribbon, I'm going to select diameter dimension. I'll then place a diameter on my circle. Once again, I'll select that dimension that I've just created. And again, a sign that pile diameter. Once this is complete, I'll select finish edit mode. And my sort of geometry is created. Next, we control the heights and embedment of our pile. To do this, switch the view to the front innovation. You'll notice in the front innovation that we have a reference level. This is going to be the level that the pile was placed at. Now the pile is going to want to project above the reference level, which is going to be the embedment into the pile cap. It also it wants to have a depth to the toe of the pile. Both of these parameters will need to be set up with reference planes. So, let's go ahead and create two new reference planes. So, that creates ribbon and select reference plane. We'll sketch a reference plane here, to represent a cut off level. And another reference plane down here, to control the length of the pile. You'll note here that, we can select our extrusion geometry and we have shape handles on top of this geometry. We can drag the shape handle to meet the reference plane and then constrain that using the padlock. We'll do the same at the bottom here. And once again constrain it by locking the padlock. You'll now notice that as I dragged a reference plane up and down, the piles length will adapt and change. So we're now ready to place down to new dimensions that we can control the embedment and the overall pile depth. On the quick access toolbar, select aligned dimension. First, I'm going to dimension the pile length. So, our dimension from this top reference plane to the bottom reference plane here. Select the dimension and this time we're going to create a new parameter using this icon here. The difference here is it won't ask us to select the type of parameter. This is predefined because we've started by selecting a dimension. So here, we can tie up in a pile length as our parameter name and except the rest of the defaults here and click Ok. I need to create another dimension. This is going to attach to the top reference plane here. And I also want to attach to the reference plane here. Now, you may find that it gets the reference level, so you'll need to use the tab key to make sure that the reference plane is in fact selected. So again, we can now select this dimension here. On the context ribbon will select create parameter, and here I'm going to call this one embedment, and click OK. If we now switch to our 3D view. We can now see our pile in three dimensions. We can give it a final check by selecting family types. And in our family types dialog box, we can now flex the parameters just simply by giving them new values. So here, you can see we currently have a pile length of 10 ft and 11 inches. Let's change this to six ft and click apply. And you can see the pile length changes. Going here for the diameter, I might reduce this perhaps to a 10" pile. And again, hit apply and again we can see that change, okay? So, we'll now put this back to some starting defaults here. So, we'll have 12 ft there and we'll have a pile diameter of one ft. But also set an embedment in here of perhaps eight inches. Okay, so there's our default pile set up. The last few stages will ensure that we can apply a structural material to this pile and of course save it. So, to apply a material, let's select the pile and you'll notice in the properties palette, we have material. Now, of course I could hard code the material by adding it in here. But what I want to do, is associate a family parameter. Because the category is already set to a structural foundation, whether it automatically creates a structural material parameter for us. Let's go ahead and select that. So, now you'll note that when we go into our family types dialog box, this structural material here will control the piles material. Finally, we can go ahead and save. So here I'm going to type in, in situ pile and click save.
