The question "Can I manually edit my wall assemblies?", seems to come up quite often.
*** Important Information ***
The parametrics (editing) with regards to the plugin(s) require that when you edit any wall assembly, roof assembly, foundation assembly etc... it regenerates the geometry from the parameters stored for that assembly.
If you are going to manually edit an assembly just be sure not to regen it, by editing it or adding windows, doors etc... after you have done any manual edits. When you edit an assembly it essentially removes the existing geometry created by the plugin and redraws it. If you have altered the geometry created by the plugin it will also remove any of those manual edits.
You can effectively lock an assembly by removing the instance name (or replace it with something else). When you remove the key words in the assembly instance name the plugin(s) no longer recognizes the assemblies as something they can edit and hence they become "locked" for editing.
You can also unlock a valid assembly (provided it still has its attribute library) by putting the keywords back into an instance name. You will notice that each type of assembly has specific keywords utilized in its instance name.
The problem with manual editing is that, yes you can do it, but the plugins have no way of knowing what changes you have done to the assembly and when it goes to rebuild/regen the only information it has is the parameters stored in its attribute library (database) for that assembly. If you explode the group that contains the assembly the attribute library for that group (assembly) is deleted and even if you were to group the assembly back together the attribute library will no longer be present and hence the assembly is no longer a parametric Medeek assembly.
If you want to include custom components or groups within your assemblies (wall, truss etc...) and you want those "additional" geometric objects retained after a rebuild then you can accomplish this by including the keyword "CUSTOM" or "custom" within the sub-group or components instance name.
Also note that any non-grouped geometry (ie. edges and faces) will also be retained within the assembly by default.
In fact, this is exactly how the electrical plugin works in concert with the Wall and Truss plugins. All of the electrical groups within your wall panels, utilize a special key word in their instance names. This allows them to be retained within the larger assemblies.
There is a method to my madness.
*** Important Information ***
The parametrics (editing) with regards to the plugin(s) require that when you edit any wall assembly, roof assembly, foundation assembly etc... it regenerates the geometry from the parameters stored for that assembly.
If you are going to manually edit an assembly just be sure not to regen it, by editing it or adding windows, doors etc... after you have done any manual edits. When you edit an assembly it essentially removes the existing geometry created by the plugin and redraws it. If you have altered the geometry created by the plugin it will also remove any of those manual edits.
You can effectively lock an assembly by removing the instance name (or replace it with something else). When you remove the key words in the assembly instance name the plugin(s) no longer recognizes the assemblies as something they can edit and hence they become "locked" for editing.
You can also unlock a valid assembly (provided it still has its attribute library) by putting the keywords back into an instance name. You will notice that each type of assembly has specific keywords utilized in its instance name.
The problem with manual editing is that, yes you can do it, but the plugins have no way of knowing what changes you have done to the assembly and when it goes to rebuild/regen the only information it has is the parameters stored in its attribute library (database) for that assembly. If you explode the group that contains the assembly the attribute library for that group (assembly) is deleted and even if you were to group the assembly back together the attribute library will no longer be present and hence the assembly is no longer a parametric Medeek assembly.
If you want to include custom components or groups within your assemblies (wall, truss etc...) and you want those "additional" geometric objects retained after a rebuild then you can accomplish this by including the keyword "CUSTOM" or "custom" within the sub-group or components instance name.
Also note that any non-grouped geometry (ie. edges and faces) will also be retained within the assembly by default.
In fact, this is exactly how the electrical plugin works in concert with the Wall and Truss plugins. All of the electrical groups within your wall panels, utilize a special key word in their instance names. This allows them to be retained within the larger assemblies.
There is a method to my madness.