# Rotation of Structural Column **URL:** \ **Category:** Revit\ **Created:** [June 8, 2016, 3:12pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/rotation-of-structural-column/4404 "2016-06-08T15:12:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![john.m.wade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dc4da7/32.png) [@john.m.wade](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/john.m.wade)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 3:12pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/rotation-of-structural-column/4404/1 "2016-06-08T15:12:35Z")
Hi, I am looking for a way to obtain and change the rotation of a structural column in Revit. The out of the box column family does not have a rotation parameter, and the rotation seems hard to control in general. We want to rotate columns that have already been modeled to be tangent to a radial grid. Is there a simpler way than to add a rotation parameter to the family, have dynamo calculate the correct rotation given the position along the curved grid, and input the angle to the new parameter? Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Vikram\_Subbaiah](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.dynamobim.com/vikram_subbaiah/32/50797_2.png) [@Vikram\_Subbaiah](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Vikram_Subbaiah)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 3:27pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/rotation-of-structural-column/4404/2 "2016-06-08T15:27:08Z")
Try using _FamilyInstance.SetRotation_ ---
**Author:** ![john.m.wade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dc4da7/32.png) [@john.m.wade](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/john.m.wade)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/rotation-of-structural-column/4404/3 "2016-06-08T16:08:47Z")
Vikram, I get the following message. ![](https://cdck-file-uploads-us1.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/flex022/uploads/dynamobim/original/2X/9/9d2fd625cec69bc746f4d8aa0dc62410e0bceaac.png) I have noticed that a rotation angle becomes available if the column style is set to slanted rather than vertical. My approach now would be to change all the columns to slanted with one script, run another script that calculates the correct rotation and gives the value to the column, then a third run that returns the columns to being vertical. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Shaver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f14d63/32.png) [@Jeff\_Shaver](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Jeff_Shaver)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 12:34am UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/rotation-of-structural-column/4404/4 "2016-06-09T00:34:35Z")
Highly recommend against converting to slanted then back again, this will wreak all sorts of havoc in your model not to mention if there is a lot of framing attached to your columns it will take an unacceptably long time. There is no acceptable column by curve node. That node produces a slanted column even if its vertical forcing a parameter change prior to running the SetRotation. The setrotation tool also has a bug where significant quantities of instantiated member rotation assignments will actually produce rogue columns. That means dynamo shows the preview in one location but places in the database in a different location!!! You can get around that be running in stages. Step 1 instantiates, step 2 applies rotation. Back to the column placements…I recommend a custom node that uses the family instance by point and maps appropriate levels and offsets based on a curve input. This allows you to generate columns by curve inputs without requiring the lame use of slanted properties. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Shaver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f14d63/32.png) [@Jeff\_Shaver](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Jeff_Shaver)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 12:43am UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/rotation-of-structural-column/4404/5 "2016-06-09T00:43:41Z")
![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/dynamobim/original/2X/a/aa320c56bc699594607897c1759b875347fc9147.png) ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/dynamobim/original/2X/0/0d3f2f453ab750f2aca6173d46ad549be87604e6.png) ---
**Author:** ![Vikram\_Subbaiah](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.dynamobim.com/vikram_subbaiah/32/50797_2.png) [@Vikram\_Subbaiah](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Vikram_Subbaiah)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 2:27am UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/rotation-of-structural-column/4404/6 "2016-06-09T02:27:04Z")
![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/dynamobim/original/2X/1/18a67a8de16e1b933ab51491b6e995ce97389c58.png) ---
**Author:** ![adi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@adi](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/adi)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2017, 8:02pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/rotation-of-structural-column/4404/7 "2017-05-16T20:02:57Z")
![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/dynamobim/original/3X/a/2/a2567dbe2761caabb57d05d0e087abc31f6bbe56.png) I was trying to do the same, rotate column instance by a specified amount or to a specific angle (i.e. rotate by 10 irrespective of its current angle or make it 10 wrt to the horizontal axis). But this method selects all the instances of the family type, of the selected elements. How can I just rotate the selected elements. Any help is appreciated ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_James](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.dynamobim.com/tom_james/32/22277_2.png) [@Tom\_James](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Tom_James)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2017, 8:00am UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/rotation-of-structural-column/4404/8 "2017-05-27T08:00:16Z")
@adi, would the below be a suitable workflow? ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/dynamobim/original/3X/5/e/5e29f87d6417bb423c5146080c4678a92952f26d.png) ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/dynamobim/original/3X/d/1/d1f3e63573839c5e2d3322705df91af280dcadf6.png) ---
**Author:** ![adi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@adi](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/adi)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2017, 1:11pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/rotation-of-structural-column/4404/9 "2017-05-30T13:11:38Z")
@Tom_James Thanks for the response. But I see your column family has cross-section rotation parameter built into it. I only get this parameter for our beam families. So I had to use the familyinstance.set rotation node. I ended up filtering the family instances by the elementID based on the selection. ---
**Author:** ![Organon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.dynamobim.com/organon/32/161404_2.png) [@Organon](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/Organon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 7:23pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/rotation-of-structural-column/4404/10 "2017-06-12T19:23:27Z")
@adi, Hello. You need to temporarily change the **Column Style** parameter to **Slanted** , use the @Tom_James solution and change again the parameter to **Vertical**. ![](https://cdck-file-uploads-us1.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/flex022/uploads/dynamobim/original/3X/6/e/6e6e829963af1081eb3c6cf774278b67e1321a5a.png) ---
**Author:** ![acrossonbouwers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7feea3/32.png) [@acrossonbouwers](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/acrossonbouwers)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 6:10pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/rotation-of-structural-column/4404/11 "2019-11-13T18:10:08Z")
@Jeff_Shaver, sorry to revive this old thread, but i’m having issues creating vertical columns - it looks like the workflow you show here involves several custom nodes. Would you be willing to share the dyn graph? ---
**Author:** ![inscrip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5e9695/32.png) [@inscrip](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/inscrip)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2019, 9:52pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/rotation-of-structural-column/4404/12 "2019-11-19T21:52:45Z")
What issues are you having? I’ve had some time with structural columns. Guess who this is? ---
**Author:** ![acrossonbouwers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7feea3/32.png) [@acrossonbouwers](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/acrossonbouwers)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2019, 7:09pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/rotation-of-structural-column/4404/13 "2019-11-20T19:09:39Z")
@inscrip Issue is that I’m trying to place vertical columns based on a x-and-y coordinate, as well as a level for base constraint and top constraint. Seems dynamo only wants to make me sloped columns. Also- lemme guess. NICK CARTER! ---
**Author:** ![AM3D.BIM.STUDIO](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forum.dynamobim.com/am3d.bim.studio/32/127441_2.png) [@AM3D.BIM.STUDIO](https://forum.dynamobim.com/u/AM3D.BIM.STUDIO)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2024, 2:37pm UTC](https://forum.dynamobim.com/t/rotation-of-structural-column/4404/14 "2024-09-14T14:37:08Z")
I used that “Element SetRotation” node, although it performed the operation partially correctly. Most of the elements have been rotated but only 1 step to move to another position??.. why did this happen??? some help please… ![PROBLEMA](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/dynamobim/original/3X/f/b/fb9210804dfb3655bde69c062228dde371ee44df.png) ![001](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/dynamobim/original/3X/d/f/df20a60ee2fe0b8982c02fd4e804d53c3970ba88.png) ![002p](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/dynamobim/original/3X/5/4/54008680e8da68b658d39c4e5b5cf11a67244e83.png) ![003p](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/dynamobim/original/3X/9/6/96142128ac33fc25f8e462409c143ccc131a2529.png)