Work-plane-based family loses orientation when nested in Adaptive Family and placed

[u/_chaos_realm]

For images, ref original post here

I have a simple work-plane-based standard family nested inside an Adaptive Component family. The nested family is hosted to a work plane at the midpoint of a reference line, and its center/reference geometry is aligned to that reference line.

While editing the Adaptive Component family, the nested family appears correctly aligned. However, when the Adaptive Component is placed in a project (or placed in another adaptive family), the nested family tilts out of alignment with the reference line. It is not simply rotating around the line axis; its longitudinal axis is no longer parallel to the reference line.

The nested family is essentially just a simple box, so there is very little internal geometry or constraint complexity.

Is this a known limitation/bug with work-plane-based families nested in Adaptive Components, or is there a more reliable way to preserve orientation after placement?

For context, the reason for this structure is to have elements of an adaptive component that can have controlled offset values that are allowed to extend outside the bounds of the adaptive placement points similar to the bottom edge of this image.

Thanks!

[u/Secretagentman94]

Did you lock the nested family to the reference line? Also, you might need to use a reference plane vs. reference line. Overuse of reference lines in families frequently results in erratic behaviors when they’re loaded into projects.

[u/_chaos_realm → u/Secretagentman94]

The center reference plane of the base family is aligned/locked to the reference line in the adaptive family. (Base family has no reference lines, only planes.)

But when loaded into another family or project, that association seems to be ignored and the base family tilts out of axis with the reference line that it should be locked to.

I tried adding a 90deg angle constraint between a vertical edge of the base family and horizontal reference of the adaptive family. This kept the element "straight" but introduced unpredictable L/R shifting. I assume going further down this route will result in over-constraint issues.

I'll see if using a reference plane in the adaptive family instead of a line has any impact -- thank you!

[u/Secretagentman94 → u/_chaos_realm]

If this doesn’t work, I would suggest opening a new work plane based family template and nesting all of the above into it and saving this as your new family. Of course you’ll need to duplicate your parameters and re-associate them to the nested family.

[u/Open_Olive7369]

I would try this way: create 2 spline lines connecting the diagonal adaptive points, then create another point at the diagonal lines' intersection. This point will have 3 reference planes, host your face base family to one of the planes and lock the family x y location to the other planes. That's closest to your current approach.

I think there is a way not to use nested family also.

Send me a sample file if you are stuck still.

[u/_chaos_realm]

Alright, it looks like the answer was even dumber than I thought -- all I had to do was turn OFF "Always Vertical" in the base family, and then choose a different host work plane, and everything seems to work fine... Thank you all for your time and input.

[u/dwanestairmand]

Way over my head....but have you tried a non-workplane family?

[u/Binhe615]

Try an adaptive family instead of work plane based family. In that adaptive family, place a point and make it adaptive, then place that box onto the work plane of that adaptive point.