Room Tag Ideas?

[mdhutchinson]

Just a bit about where we are coming from.

We use AutoCAD MEP... However, Pipe and Duct are done in QuickPen.

We have a Room Tag standard. The tag shows ceiling type and elevation, floor type and thickness, room name abbreviation and room number.

Room Tag data comes from the Architect from outside the company.

We need the following functionality with regards to this.

1. have separate room tags for sheet metal duct layouts and for piping layouts.
2. Allow room tag data to be input once and have both tags display synchronize data.
3. Allow each discipline to independently move their tag.

I have created one option, but I am now wondering if it is the best.

This is what I have done.

• Created multi-discipline mvblocks for the tag that read aec_spaces property set data.
• For each of Electrical, Piping and Sheetmetal, created a Display Representation for each.
• Created a display set for each.
• Created a Display Config for each.
• Created a space style.
• Create Property sets.
• Created a tool palette with half a dozen tools to do this.

So each discipline XRefs in a Room Tag drawing. They Edit the Display of the XRef to use the configurations that are in the Room Tag drawing. They choose the Display Config that corresponds to their discipline - and so only their discipline's room tag shows up - then they can move their tag independently from the other discipline. 

The system works okay... however, creating the spaces from the architects floor plan can quite often be time intensive to do.

I wonder if there is another solution that have the overhead of having to create spaces?

[pothied]

I think that it is great that you were able to get this to work. 

Something has to store the data for the tags. If the spaces are not already created in the Architecture plan, then you will have to create them. If you have access to AutoCAD Architecture, there is a Space Generate tool that will attempt to define the boundaries of the spaces for you so you don't have to pick points to create the space.

[mdhutchinson]

Yes... Since AutoCAD MEP already has Arch in it... the tool palettes from Arch tools are there. Perhaps I overlooked another option? 

I am currently using a tool palette tool that I created that runs SPACEADD with G for Generate All. But the 'Bounding spaces' property on the boundary objects has to be set to YES for this to work... many times the room boundaries in the Arch Plan are less then desirable, (have breaks and don't always meet adequately) so I am having users do BOUNDARY command to first create a suitable polyline perimeter, then set the Bound Spaces property to YES on those.

Perhaps this is the best option.