Creating Profiles

You use profiles when creating a sweep for a wall or a fascia or gutter for a roof or the slab edge of a slab.... in this example I'm creating a simple edge for a balcony floor where you sketch a profile using lines, dimensions, and reference planes. After you save the profile family, you can load it into the project and use the profile.

 Here is how:

• Click > New > Family. Save it under Profiles with a unique name.
• In the New Family - Select Template File dialog, select a the Profile.rft template, you have the choice of a number of different profile templates such as hosted, rail, reveal etc. In this case just select Profile. A plan view opens that includes 2 reference planes. There are no other views available in which to sketch geometry.
• If necessary, sketch reference planes for constraining the lines in the profile but I just use the intersection of the existing reference planes as the top inside corner of my profile.
• Click Home tab > Detail panel > Line, and sketch the profile loop.

Tip: You can also add detail components to your profile family by clicking the Home tab > Detail panel > Detail Component to place a detail component into the profile family. You can also change the sorting order of any detail components in the family by using the detail component draw order tools.

If you were creating a profile for a detailed sweep you will want to add the following steps in modify the visibility of the lines, otherwise just load the profile into your project and you'll be able to assign that profile to your sweep etc.

• To specify the detail at which the profile family displays in the project, select any of the lines of the profile sketch, and click Modify Lines tab > Visibility panel > Visibility Settings.
• Select the desired detail levels (Fine, Medium, or Coarse), and click OK.

Tip: You can specify the detail level for detail components using the same methods.

• On the properties palette, define the Profile Usage. For example, if you are creating a mullion profile, select Mullion.

Note: This setting ensures that only relevant profiles are listed when using profiles within a project. For example, when selecting a mullion profile, stair nosing profiles do not display or when selecting slab edges, gutter profiles do not display.

• Click OK.
• Add any dimensions required.
• Save the family.