Heya,
Struggling with some background research on MEP accessory families. The intended workflow is to identify locations of piping in a model and insert Pipe Accessory families on the surface of those pipes, in a manner that allows everything to move alongside the pipe.
The first idea I had was to use “Attaches To” type Pipe Accessory families - these do not require an open connector, do not split the pipe, and move with the pipe element.
Despite being attached to and movable via the pipe, it’s interesting (and frustrating) to note that the family isn’t actually considered Hosted to the pipe, the out of the box node states there is no host, and the GeniusLoci package version shows that the host is the Level.
Attaches To accessories require a connector built into the family which does not transmit flow/pressure drop information but does serve as the attachment point for manual placement of the family onto the pipe.
Attaches To accessories can be placed by the FamilyInstance.ByPoint node - but they’re freefloating with no association to piping.
I found some API work that was conducted back in 2016 but currently lack the knowledge base to do more than simple visual programming. https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-api-forum/best-method-for-creating-quot-attaches-to-quot-accessory-family/td-p/6434138
It doesn’t appear that using the GetLocation line is relevant for attachment, based on how the families behave in native Revit I would assume I want access to the face geometry for placement. Even with this information though I’m still missing the attachment method.
Am I missing some simple interaction method here for placing this family classification onto pipe elements?