Create a precast beam profile—Set up reference planes

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A profile family is required for a precast beam.

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The profile will need to have the following parameters as shown below

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and also have suitable reference planes constructed

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to control the geometry in shampers.

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The beauty of a profile family is it can be used many times on different families.

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For example, the profile could be used for a column but also for a foundation

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on the home screen. Let's start by creating a new Rait

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family

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in the new family dialogue box.

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We'll begin by selecting profile dot RFT and then clicking open.

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Of course,

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this will create a new family file and you can

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see here that we have two reference planes that are pinned

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and define the origin.

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Before we start to create our reference planes and our parameters,

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we're going to insert two images that would

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assist us with the creation of this family

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to do this. We can select the insert ribbon

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and on the insert ribbon, we'll select import image,

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the information dialogue here is just informing us that we

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will not see these images in the project environment.

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And also this will hamper performance if we leave the images here.

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Once we finish with them, we'll delete them out of the family.

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So here we're going to use M 04 underscore 04 underscore profile image.

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We'll click open,

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we can then place this down

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and use a drag handle here just to resize the

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image and also then move it into a better position.

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I right mouse click and repeat this to bring in a table.

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Again, we can click close to the information dialogue box.

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And here we'll bring in M 04 underscore 04 underscore table

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again,

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we can place this down and we can use the drag handles here just to resize that image.

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OK. So these images are going to be very useful.

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We can use this to obviously understand the type of family we're

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creating and also help us understand and set up parameters and types.

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So what we're gonna do here is work with this type PC B hyphen 009.

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And the first task for me is to set up these parameters

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to do this on the modifier ribbon. Let's go ahead and select family types

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in the family type dialogue box. I'll begin by creating a new family type

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and here we'll call this one PC B hyphen 009.

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So now that we have that new family type created,

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we can now create some new parameters.

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So here we'll select a new parameter

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and

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we'll simply type in width as it says here.

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And all of these are going to be type parameters.

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They're all gonna be just standard family parameters

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and we'll use all of the defaults here, which is a common discipline,

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a length and dimension.

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So we'll select, OK?

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And now we're then to the first size. So this is 18 inches

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and now we'll go on to depth.

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So again, we'll select new parameter.

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We can type in depth, leave all of the defaults and click. OK?

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This one here is going to be 21 inches.

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So the next one is NIP width. So again, we can type that in,

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leave all of the defaults click. OK?

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And the NIP width here is six inches.

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The next one we need to create is nib depth and then sham.

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So we'll do nib

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depth.

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The NIP depth there again is six inches

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and finally, we create sham

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and this one here is half an inch.

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OK?

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So when I set up the reference planes, I don't want any of these values to be changing.

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So I'm gonna go ahead and lock all of these values.

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And that means that when I actually drag the reference planes about,

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they would all be locked in place and I can't physically change these values.

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The only time I can change the values is to come into

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the family types dialogue and then type in new values in here.

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This is quite useful when you're setting up particular types of family.

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So I'll click OK? To those family types

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And now we can start by creating our parametric framework.

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So to do this, we'll come up and select the create ribbon.

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And on the create ribbon, we'll select reference plane

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on the context ribbon. I'm going to begin by selecting pick lines

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and on the options bar here,

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you'll note that we can offset this and also lock these in place if we wanted to.

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In this case, we're just going to offset.

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Now,

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the insertion point of my family is represented here

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on the top center line of our beam.

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So the first reference plane I'm going to create

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is going to be referencing the nib depth.

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So I need to take this horizontal plane and

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offset it downwards by a value of six inches.

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So of course, we can type in six inches into the offset

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and now we can offset that down.

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So now we'll do the total depth of the beam and this one in this case is 21 inches.

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So we'll have to set that one down.

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Now, we can deal with the width.

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So I can see here if I look at the width, the overall width is 18 inches

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because I'm working off of the center line here, I'm going to halve that value.

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So that's of course nine inches

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and we can then offset those two vertical planes.

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We also have the nib width. So again, here, that's shown as six inches.

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So in that case, we can halve that and that becomes three inches

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and there's our main reference planes configured.

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Now, I also need to configure the reference planes for the shampers.

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So we know that these are half an inch so we can select that

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and type that into the offset dialog.

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And now we'll offset those reference planes.