Previously we talked about using a family instead of lines in a drawing to place the object. In the previous post we looked at detail lines which were drawn on a ceiling to represent (as much as we can assume) a ceiling access panel. (I only say that because I'm not able to click on the object and see why it is based on the family name.
Another side effect of using lines instead of a family is that unexpected behavior can occur when moving around or otherwise adjusting adjacent objects. Here is the issue we wish to illustrate:
The chilled beams adjacent to the access panel were changed to a different type. Because the lines contained some sort of adjacency properties to the previous chilled beam, when a new one was inserted, those relationships were lost, and the lines adjusted themselves.
If a family had been used instead of just detail lines, when the chilled beams were switched out, then we would have been presented with a warning saying two families now overlapped, and we would have been given a chance to make some modifications to the positioning to de-conflict the two of them. Since lines were used, we must now go in and adjust them back to the correct format.
2 reasons to use families!
