suspended ceiling grids

OK I have a commercial job to do and I'm having an issue with a reflected ceiling plan. The job is on the second floor and I've created a layer set called reflected ceiling set.

My lights will not line up with the grid lines, the 24X24 lights seem to look skewed about 10" in one direction when selected in 3d and I can't seem to fix this, and I can't located the grid origins to properly lay out each room.

How do I fix the skewed light issue?

How do I know where the grid lines are in plan for a reflected ceiling plan?

I have x3, windows 7

File attached, zipped

Please help me
Thank you in advance

I opened your file in x3 and x4. In x3 I get the same results as you when placing a light. In x4, I am able to place a light (from a camera view) into the grid and it looks right.

If I was to guess, I would say that the lights that are being downloaded into the x3 library are lights that work better in x4.

I have no idea how to show that grid. What is that grid and how did you activate it?
Alan

I got intermittent behavior in X4. My Guess -Only- is that the symbol does not observe snap to grid behavior correctly.

You can get a snap by placing a point (cad - place point) at the grid location you want, turn on point marker snap, and the center of your symbol will snap to that. Afterwards use the arrow keys to move a snap distance (set at 12")

Another way is to use a construction line. The symbol will snap to that. Or you could use the "align/distribute along line "tool. The line tool will snap to a grid point and then you can snap the symbol to the line or align -- whatever.

Reference and snap grid are in defaults -plan

jdelsi77,

Some name!!!

Gary,

I think he is trying to move the lights in 3D so that they alighn with the ceiling material (Square Ceiling Tiles) - hence there are no snaps that will work.

A couple of problems.
1.
The 3D lights being out of wack with their bounding box is a symbol Origin problem.
In 3D, select the light.
On the Edit toolbar click the Open Symbol button (the pencil and chair).
3D tab. Check Specify Origin.
Change the Y value to 12".
You will need to save it to the Library or copy/replace the other lights because they are all wrong as well.

2.
The ceiling is a material (Square Ceiling Tiles) with a zero thickness.
It is nominated at the Room Specification dbx...Structure tab...Ceiling Finish.
You can change it's origin (which will move the grid) by selecting the material in a 3D view with the Adjust Material Definition (rainbow) tool.
On both the Pattern (for Vector views) and Texture (for Standard views) there is Origin box where you can change the X and Y values to move the pattern (grid) - best to move it the same at both places.

BUT, I don't think this works on a room by room basis - I think it moves the pattern for the whole floor - I will let you check that.
If you need to control the grid on a room by room basis, just copy the Square Ceiling Tiles material, give it a new name and then use it in a different room and adjust it's origin as you need.

OK, that's those 2 problems mostly sorted.

Now, it seems like you need to show the grid on the floor plan as a reflected ceiling plan.
There a a couple of ways, depending on what you want - best if you have a play yourself with cad lines - control the display of the grid lines and lights, etc, using layers and layersets.
Or maybe a hatch pattern for the room, ...a polyline with a hatch.

Thanks Glenn -- Temporary Brain Freeze!!

Thankx everyone! I will try this tonight.

The 2X4 lights look right, but the 2X2's are screwed up as far as the bounding box goes.

So if I understand correctly, each room needs it's own ceiling patter material in order to control the grid locations.

Hopefully this helps, thankx again! I'll let you know!!

Glen, Thank you so much, your tips helped huge! You truely bailed me out!! I must have spent 4-5 hours, literally, trying to work out this ceiling plan and have the lights line up with the grids!! I made 3 patterns for 3 rooms and the lights line up perfect in every room. AND the origin of the 2X2 lights is now fixed by changing it's Y value to 12. This user forum is worth it's weight in gold!! Been a chief user since 2002 and I'm amazed at the tricks used to make the BIM behave properly!