I am trying to produce a Camera symbol to indicate the position of where a photograph has been taken on a site plan. I also want to be able to rotate the symbol to indicate the direction of the view and further to have a horizontal tag that shows the photograph number. Therefore I have been trying to create two families, a Camera Symbol and a Camera Tag so that the former can rotate and carry other information such as Date, Title etc., whilst the later needed to be kept horizontal. In trying to do this I started trying to create a 2D Model Family for the Camera but you cannot, it appears, to create a 'filled region' in a model family but it does appear that you can have a Symbol imported into the family. This I have tried to do by creating a Camera Symbol but when imported it remains invisible despite the visibility setting for annotations being set to visible. Since an annotation cannot reference an annotation, is there any way that I can create a Camera Symbol that does what I wish? I feel that I might be missing something fundamental.
Solved! Go to Solution.
Solved by Alfredo_Medina. Go to Solution.
If it is a symbol, then create it as an annotation family, not a model family. If you do it as a model, then you will need to turn it off in all other views.
Of course you are right but I am assuming that a tag cannot reference an annotation (symbol)? If I am wrong then all should be well, but if I am right then I need to create a single annotation (symbol) which also needs to include the sort of information shown with a tag, in this case the photo number, and the information that I need to be scheduled. I can show the former as a label and have instance parameters for the remainder can't I ? The difficulty arrises when I need a parameter to rotate the 'symbol' part of the annotation. I have tried many times to achieve this, with varying results, but since 'rotation' is not a built in parameter of part of an annotation I have used an instance parameter based on the angle of a reference line, grouped with the 'symbol' geometry to turn the graphics and not the label but it will not turn on a consistant centre point and becomes distant from the label so appearing to disassociate itself.
If I am wrong about a tag referencing an annotation (symbol) then you might know what annotation catagory I should build it from. I am thinking generic and changing it to 'site'.
Suggestions, ideas, welcomed.
You don't need a tag. You need a generic annotation family with labels. The labels will display the value of instance parameters, such as the photo number, the date, and a rotation angle. The rotation is achieved by associating the geometry that rotates to a reference line, with a parameter. Then, the correspondent label is tied to the parameter.
What you say makes a great deal of sense, but I just can't get my symbol to rotate around a centre line and whenever I try to flex the rotation parameter I have to remove the contraint. Have tried numerous methods, grouping the reference line with the symbol (locking part of the symbol geopmetry to it), also I have tried without groups and just tied part of the symbol to the reference line. This appeared to work best until I noticed that it was distorting the geometry of the symbol!
This article in my blog, about a different family, can help you to do this one:
Alfredo, your blog is just what I have been looking for, and is more or less what I have been doing, but I can't, however many times I try, lock the origin of the reference line to both horizontal and vertical reference planes. Revit will only ever show only one lock!
Within the limits of a forum, I think have already provided a good amount of help. If you need further assistance or training, please contact me by email.
Alfredo,ignore my last post I believe I have done it! Thanks a lot, really appreciated.
Sorry, I did not wish to overstay my welcome. Thank you anyway.
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