Autodesk Revit MEP

[#1]

Oh CADastrophe, I even find you on the Googles.

I found this thread searching on Google for this exact same problem. Sucks that I still can't have Generic Annotations in Elevation Front/Back for my wall mounted Exit Signs, Emergency Battery Lights, as well as my Type III dist wall mount exterior fixtures.

I have resorted to Detail Items as well.

Here's what would do it:

But here's what we have:

Also, attached is one of my Detail Components. It comes in 3 flavors, 1/4", 1/8" and 1/16" with a visibility paramter for Emergency.

[#2]

Would you be able to find an older version of the family. We have not yet upgraded to 12, but I do have 2011. I will have to resort to detail items as well, probably with a visibility parameter to toggle between 1/8", 1/4" & 1/16" scales.

[#3]

Sorry buddy. I generated that Family in 2012. It's pretty straight forward though.

Here's a screenshot of the Detail Component's parameters:

And here's a screen shot of it placed in the elevation view, it's "Label" parameter, and which Yes/No parameters are tied back to the Host Family's parameters:

EDIT:
I would NOT name your parameters 1/8",1/4" etc. as this can cause confusion in formulas. Instead name them something like Quarter, Eighth and Sixteenth... Revit doesn't get confused that way. The only reason it worked in my case is because I cheated. I named the parameters Eigth at first, created the formula, then renamed it to 1/8" --- don't do that though, I just like living on the edge

[#4]

Thanks for the screen shots. That's what I had in mind, now I just need to find time to create it.

[#5]

That's how ours looked until we needed to have them show up on two different scale plans. Hence, we control the visibility of the lines by Sub-Category. It's ridiculous that we have to do this...

[#6]

Oh God. That is an enourmous pain.

[#7]

I just came up with a work-around today.

It's going to blow your minds.

Remember how you have to create a visibility for your exterior fixtures under another sub-category?

Instead of making your family with the "Generic Model face based" template, use "Generic model wall based."

I know it's counter-intuitive, and will take an additional frustrating step, but trust me, it works.

Create your light fixture or exit sign as you normally would in the wall based family. Add your wall annotation to the reference level (not Front/Back), as we're creating a wall based family.

Then create two blank Revit projects. One called "linked" and one called "copy".

Under the Architect panel draw a wall inside the project named "linked" then host your new wall based family to that wall. Save and close.

Then open up the revit project called "copy". In this model, link in the project you created called "linked".

Go to the collaberate tab and hit "copy/monitor" and then pick the wall based light fixture in the linked file.

Boom. Revit converts the wall based family to a face based family, BUT RETAINS the reference planes orientation. You can now host your wall-based fixture on linked geometry and have your annotation you placed in the "ref level" now scale automatically based on your plan scale (as you're used to).

Some extrusions might have issues, and I've noticed that with this trick, void extrusions can lose associations with what they're cutting but it's usually pretty easy to clean up.

There might be easier ways to rotate all the extrusion face and planes in the Generic model face-based family, but I haven't experimented with doing that yet.

The attached family (2012) was originally created by Hubbell, but I used the copy monitor trick to bring it into my job. I then added my wall annotation.

**EDIT: Obviously this trick won't work for devices that can be placed on either the ceiling or the wall. But for exterior wall packs, which 99% of the time will be mounted to a wall --- this is a perfect solution.

[#8]

So simple, yet so convoluted. I image this can be done once and then a template saved. I knew about the Copy/Monitor trick, but never thought of trying that. Well done!

[#9]

Awsome mate, was looking for a solution for weeks now, everything I tried I could not get to work.

Just tried your trick and worked perfectly!

Thanks again...