Switchs in revit are very difficult to work with

[jboone]

As I am learning in revit that switches are very difficult to work with.  Especially since I have done everything I though I needed to do to them.  Now I learn that the "unassigned systems" has almost every single switch on the job has not been assigned a system.  What a load of crap!!  Keep in mind that most of the circuiting has been done, or at least assigned a system.  Now I am learning that you have to press the power button after all the other times I have selected the darn thing. Once you press power, you are asked yet again to enter a voltage for the switch.  That makes two times I have done this.  Now the switch is removed from the circuit it was on, so I thought and it has to be reassigned to the circuit it was on.

IF the switch has been wired to a circuit in a panel,,, you are screwed because adding a device to a system and then circuited will remove the CIRCUIT from the panel!!!!  I have left out a lot of steps here, but I hope you understand what I am talking about here.  I am really unhappy with electrical revit!!

[scott_d_davis]

How much training did you get on Revit MEP before diving in?

[jboone]

3 days, but it was one year before we actually used it, why does that matter?  lol.

It seems to me that once I assign a voltage to a switch, like I did the light in properties, and a wire is attached to it, that it would obviously have be on a system? or at least you would think so right? 

One more thing about switches is I can't assign 2 3-ways to a switch system.

The wires need to be a lot more inteligant than they are now!

[jboone]

FYI:  I have been working in revit for 2 months solid.  How much training is required would you say?

[julianjameson8403]

To set the voltages for the switches - try a schedule to do it globally or to at least reduce the amount of work.

If you are selecting the switches and then selecting the power button on the ribbon, then you are creating a new circuit. All you have to do is select the lighting circuit you want the switch to be part of, modify the circuit and add the switch. This should work fine and not destroy your circuits.

I set the voltage in the family and chnage the value by creating differnt family types - pretty much the same as the OOTB familly principle. So far this has worked fine for me.

If you wire the fittings up before creating a circuit, Revit recognises that the objects are connected as part of a circuit and adds them accordingly. Can be easier than creating circuit and letting Revit wiure it for you as often you have to change the wires around anyway.

Interested to find out where your voltage dialogue box came from for your switch. On the bright side - think yourself lucky you don't work on it in the UK as you can't circuit up to our standards which causes quite a few unhappy murmurings with engineers and clients!!

[jboone]

Thanks for responding Julian.

It seems that the voltage in the faimily has a param in it that I am not sure how to change.  We loaded an sub family under this so we could have many differant switch types.  I assume the param comes from the systems it is connected to.  I think the param should be there for every darn item on our plans.  Do it automatically.

This switch is in the system browser as not being assigned.  Totaly amazing since it has been switched to the light, and then circuited to the lighting "system".  Why then is it still unassigned.  My grip is that MANY steps have to be done to get it in, when it should have been automatically entered.

I have discovered many bugs in electrical, as I am sure you all know.  This is just one more.

[julianjameson8403]

The parameter is a Type Parameter so you can either edit the family to change it in the family editor using the Family Types button on the home ribbon. As your screenshot shows, the value of the Voltage parameter (Hard coded Instance parameter within the connector) is linked to the user created Family Parameter value of Switch Voltage (Type Parameter so you can set different values for different family types. I haven't seen the dialogue box before but am guessing that it there because you have a switch on a 277/120 distribution system and needs to know which voltage you want when creating a circuit.

Rather than selecting a switch and selecting the power button, have just selected the fitting it is supposed to serve and then selecting Electrical Circuits tab and added the switch to the existing lighting power circuit.

I agree that the electrical can sometimes be hard work but I haven't found the power circuiting of switches to be too much hard work. I don't always bother with Switch Systems as I haven't really seen what they do in relation to the project deliverables. They don't appear in the system browser and to my knowledge they don't cause warning errors saying that there are too many default Switch Systems unliek when you have unassigned power connectors!! The Switch System schedule doesn't tell you much either so it's not like you can identify where a switch is, the circuit number and the fittings it is connected to! Perhaps the Switch System is a placeholder for something later on down the line in the development of Revit MEP?