topic Re: Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag in Revit Architecture Forum

Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag

NmaguyCKB3M — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 16:05:58 GMT

So here is what I'm trying to do: I have created a Room Tag for Occupancy. It calculates automatically, shows the area, the factor, and it's working great. But for some rooms we need to show "Posted" Occupancy and this value needs to be editable per room. Now I know that I can add a shared parameter for "posted occupancy" etc, but we have another arch firm consulting on this job with their portion of the building linked into our host model and we do not want them controlling the room info for occupancy. If it was a shared parameter they would have to update it via our direction as "Posted" occupancy is manually input. So I need a tag that reads the room area but also has an instance parameter that I can fill out that is not connected to a room parameter. I tried nesting a generic annotation and associating it's parameter into the room tag family, but none of that info is editable in the tag when I bring it into the model. It could be that this just isn't possible. I would love to be able to give a tag an instance parameter that is not connected to a category parameter. Like a generic annotation does.

Thank you!

Re: Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag

Viveka_CD — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 19:58:35 GMT

Hi @NmaguyCKB3M

Can you share the project with us, to test on our end?

Are you all on the same build of Revit?

Regards,

Re: Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag

SteveKStafford — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 20:13:47 GMT

If the rooms are in your model then they don't have rooms to alter values for. Is there any reason you can't tell them they are not supposed to alter room information.

Room Tags are not going to display information that does not belong to the room category. Instance parameters for tags are not editable in the project, they have to be type parameters to be able to alter the appearance of a tag.

You could place some other category element in a room and tag that with your posted occupancy instead.

Re: Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag

NmaguyCKB3M — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 20:14:34 GMT

Hi Viveka,

I could attach the tag family, but the project is not the issue. The issue boils down to, how can I make an instance parameter in a category tag (Room Tag) that is not a room parameter but rather a tag family parameter that is editable in the project? Does that make sense?

Re: Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag

NmaguyCKB3M — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 20:18:03 GMT

Thank you,

I guess that is the definitive "no" I was expecting. You can't make a room tag have an editable instance property. All I need is the area of the room in the tag. Is there a workaround you could think of where a tag or annotation reads the room area but then allows for an instance text parameter as well?

Thank you!!

Re: Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag

NmaguyCKB3M — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 20:24:59 GMT

Steve,

Also to answer your first question, the consultant is controlling the finishes for the rooms within their scope so they control their rooms we control the rest. So they need to own the rooms. But we are doing the overall building code plans so we need to be able to tag their rooms and have the correct info show up. Calculated values in a tag don't work (at least in this scenario) for tagging rooms in a link. I found that out here:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture-forum/room-tag-calculation-revit-2017/td-p/7653420

So I am using the workaround they came up with in this thread.

But for Posted, I would love it if the tag could be editable for our rooms and the rooms in the link so it can't be a room parameter, it has to be a family parameter within the tag, like a generic annotation does while also reading the room area.

Re: Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag

SteveKStafford — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 20:36:51 GMT

You could use Spaces in addition to Rooms and assign the information to Spaces and tag them instead.

Re: Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag

NmaguyCKB3M — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 20:44:05 GMT

@SteveKStafford wrote:

You could use Spaces in addition to Rooms and assign the information to Spaces and tag them instead.

Yes. This is the best solution I've found so far as well. I was really hoping to have one tag that did it all. Seemed within reach. But I guess not so much. There isn't that many posted occupancy loads in the project so I will probably just make some text visibility parameters and make a different type for each one. Clunky, but it works.

It would seem like a useful ability to get instance family properties in a tag. Is there a reason why this shouldn't be possible eventually?

Re: Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag

SteveKStafford — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 20:53:29 GMT

The purpose of a tag is to identify information that belongs to an element/category. As such, it is conceptually not Revity to put a room's information in a room tag. I don't see that fundamental belief changing anytime soon.

Re: Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag

Viveka_CD — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 15:23:32 GMT

Hi @NmaguyCKB3M

Thanks for the responses and @SteveKStafford has been very helpful.

Let me reach out to the Revit team here and check if they have more feedback on your query.

Will keep you posted, and if there is anything else you want to add to your query let me know!

Regards,

Re: Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag

Sahay_R — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 15:50:25 GMT

@NmaguyCKB3M - create a label with the area parameter (Rooms do have built-in Area parameters)

For the editable - in the same tag create a label driven by a text based shared parameter. Make sure that this parameter is loaded into your project, and associated with Rooms. When you select a room in your project, you will see the parameter in Properties. You may enter the value at that location and the tag will pick it up. Or when you tag the room, you will see a question mark in the tag - click on it and you can add in the required value.

In my screenshot - the highlighted parameter is editable, and it plugs into a formula to calculate the total Occupant Load.

You can create multiple strings text within the same label, BTW

Re: Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag

Viveka_CD — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 19:34:38 GMT

Hi @NmaguyCKB3M

Here's an update from the team:

The instance parameter would have to be applied to the room object
This could be done as a project parameter, in addition to being present in the tag family.
Parameters in tags simply display the data (whether it's a type or instance data) from the object that contains that information.
The Type or Instance designation is set in the family, not in the tag itself.
The Category Parameters window contains the label parameters related to the tag type.

Let me know if this helps!

Regards,

Re: Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag

ToanDN — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 20:17:32 GMT

Using Spaces is the best option. Space names automatically match the linked Room names and Zones are great to group Spaces for Code calculation purposes.

Re: Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag

NmaguyCKB3M — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 21:50:29 GMT

Right. So as I thought, what I want to do is not possible. You cannot create a tag field that is disconnected from the object it is tagging. Tags are just not set up to allow that. I know I can add parameters to rooms and do it that way, but as I stated my consultant owns half the rooms in their linked model. So I would need to have them edit code information for their rooms and that is not what we want. So for the next project we will set up spaces for the code plan.

That is the real solution.

Re: Instance parameter or Nested Generic Annotation in a Room Tag

ToanDN — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 21:52:07 GMT

Please mark @Anonymous post as the solution.