Best Practice for General Notes?

[Anonymous]

Hi, I've read through more threads than I can count (which isn't many with my meager counting abilities) but I still can't find a good way to generate and populate general notes to be placed on several sheets that don't look like crap. I started by simply using detail groups consisting of text and detail lines, but the formatting abilities of the text is horrible (see my example below for some interesting results of this failed experiment.)

I have read in several places that people are using keynote legends to produce well formatted notes, but I don't understand how I can get keynotes into a legend without having an object or material that is referencing those notes...which doesn't make sense to do for general notes.

I really thought that this would be by far the easiest task that I would need to accomplish in Revit, but no....

So, how are people creating their general notes? Please be specific since I don't have much Revit experience.

Thanks.

- Alex

[LisaDrago]

For general notes that need to go on several sheets I created them as a legend.
LD

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I created an annotation family that I drop into the sheet that contains the linework I need. Then I just use 2 columns of text. One for the numbers/letters, and one for the note itself. It's not the best road compared to CAD workflows, but it works okay for now, until the fix the text editing feature...If I need them on multiple sheets, I use a group...I wouldn't use a legend unless you have legend components you need shown or something, because legends can't be copied and pasted to original coordinates like detail groups can, and if you have 60 sheets with the same general notes on them, that can be a huge time saver, not to mention it makes it much easier to make sure you get the note block in the same location on each sheet.

Hope this helps.

Josh
[www.revitinfo.com|http://www.revitinfo.com]

[Anonymous]

Thanks! I wish I had thought of that before (still learning the benefits of different families.)

I checked out your site; I agree that AUGI is difficult to search and filter down to what you really need. I could definitely use more Revit resources.

- Alex

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to create general notes sheets formatted in Word and link
that document to the sheet in Revit?

jazzster11 wrote:
> Hi, I've read through more threads than I can count (which isn't many with my meager counting abilities) but I still can't find a good way to generate and populate general notes to be placed on several sheets that don't look like crap. I started by simply using detail groups consisting of text and detail lines, but the formatting abilities of the text is horrible (see my example below for some interesting results of this failed experiment.)
>
> I have read in several places that people are using keynote legends to produce well formatted notes, but I don't understand how I can get keynotes into a legend without having an object or material that is referencing those notes...which doesn't make sense to do for general notes.
>
> I really thought that this would be by far the easiest task that I would need to accomplish in Revit, but no....
>
> So, how are people creating their general notes? Please be specific since I don't have much Revit experience.
>
> Thanks.
>
> - Alex

[Anonymous]

No problem. Yeah, I am in the process of fixing a user login error on my site. I have created a temporary username "jazzster11" and you can email me at josh(dot)made4worship(at)gmail(dot)com (replace the obvious with the correct . @ etc.) and i'll send you the password if you are interested in asking questions/being apart of the community. I check it all the time and recieve email notification when you post something, and I'm always glad to help. The nice thing is that you can search for particular Revit things based on category and subcategory so it's pretty easy to search for stuff. Right now, I just lack in content.

fyi...public registration should begin working again at the end of the week if you would rather wait until then.

Thanks,

Josh
[www.revitinfo.com|http://revitinfo.com] Edited by: madeforworship on Aug 19, 2009 11:37 AM

[Anonymous]

As far as I know, you can't link a word document into revit. I have heard of people keeping their general notes updated in Word, and copy pasting directly into revit. It will generally keep the formatting, which is nice, but if you edit anything as far as that text box goes in Revit, you can lose the formatting, which sucks. I haven't had much success with this, and have found that generally there are better workarounds with just doing the formatting in Revit, although, it is still far from perfect.

Josh
www.revitinfo.com

[Anonymous]

General Notes can be created in a Key Schedule format. Schedules can be placed on multiple sheets. This method has the added advantage that the numer/letter can be kept in one column while the text wraps to the beginning of its own column. Also, unlike Legends, these key schedules can be used in future project more easily by loading it as view from the project it was created in.

[Anonymous]

That sounds great, but specifically how is this done? I know how to schedule keynotes that are referenced in keynote tags that pull information from elements or materials, but how can I create a keynote schedule that is just bringing in information from the keynote text file?

Thanks for the help.

- Alex

[Anonymous]

Read up in the help file on Key Schedules, totally different thing. You make it by creating a new schedule, then before anything else, there is a radio button to make it a key schedule. Add comments parameter, etc.

[Anonymous]

Attached is a zip file with a session from AU 2007 that explains the process
of creating a key schedule. It goes into more detail the what's under help
in revit and it starts on page 11. There is also an example revit file that
you can view. There are a number of useful tips as well in the document.
Hope this helps.

Craig D. VanDevere, AIA

wrote in message news:6239999@discussion.autodesk.com...
That sounds great, but specifically how is this done? I know how to
schedule keynotes that are referenced in keynote tags that pull information
from elements or materials, but how can I create a keynote schedule that is
just bringing in information from the keynote text file?

Thanks for the help.

- Alex

[ridenho]

Thanks alot, too bad I didn't look this up this morning. I set up dome general notes in the Legend route, but this seems like the way to go.

[Anonymous]

If you hunt around in the API forum (I don't remember if it is here or at AUGI.com, there is a free app that will copy lines of text from an Excell spreadsheet, into a schedule. If you create the blank lines in a key schedule, along with the same number of parameters as horizontal cells, this app will copy the text from Excel, into the key schedule "automating" the note making process. I attached the 2009 version here again.

[Anonymous]

This is fine and good, adn with filtering I imiagine it could feel pretty powerful, but in principle, until there is a general notes category, or you can control sub-categories, it will always feel like a workaround.  I can't believe they're on teh 13th version, is it, and still haven't figured out how to deal with text.

[aaron.daley]

Yes, you can edit your document in word, save as PDF, then save the PDF as a .tiff (or .tif), then insert that in paper space of your AutoCAD document.

[Anonymous]

At my work, we have a Word document, which we edit.  When it is ready, we make that a PDF and then an image.  We link the image in Revit.  However, I am hoping to find a better way.

[cbcarch]

That is a very bad workflow.

Develop the notes in Revit, using a Legend, Schedule, Note Block or just Text.

[mviscetto]

Hello.

Creating a Key Schedule based on Internal Point Loads totally solved my problem.

I now have a Key Schedule called Floor Plan General Notes that I can edit, place on multiple sheets and split into columns.

Thank you so much.

Michael