add phase to annotations

[Anonymous]

Hi, how can I add phase to annotations. I should prepare existing and new construction drawing and just don't know what to do with annotations.

[loboarch]

Annotations are view specific.  Create 2 views 1 existing and one new of each drawings you need then annotate in the appropriate view. The properties of each view will need to be adjusted using a phase filter to get it to show the elements as you need them.

This help page has a video showing the basic workflow.

http://help.autodesk.com/view/RVT/2018/ENU/?guid=GUID-BDCE1B94-58D0-401B-863B-2708D36D54EA

You may also want to check the topics related to this one in the Table of contents to get a more complete view of how phasing works.

[Anonymous]

I have a demo package that went out and now I am working on new construction. what I want is for my new section cuts not to show up in the demo set so if I need to modify the demo set I don't have to go through and hid the new section cuts on each demo plan. basically I want to be able to add phasing information to section cuts/ elevations in plan. Is there a way to do this?

[RobDraw]

You will get more mileage out of starting a new post with a topic that is appropriate for your question. There is more than one way to do what you want.

[TudorBeachApt]

I believe that text should be on a Phase and Not View Specific.

Consider that you have designed the ultimate plan set with all of the bells and whistles. Now you desire to scale the project back to cut costs or for any other reasons. If you have a 100 or more views of the ultimate design this means that you now have to duplicate these views and the sheets they are on to obtain the scaled back design. Then you need to delete the text that no longer applies and hope that you get it all right. What do you do if you made a mistake or what it another way? The amount of effort required is inconceivable!

Then if you want an in-between design you will again have to duplicate all of the views and sheets again. This seems to be a very unreasonable way to achieve simple variations in the design.

Wouldn’t it be more efficient to just change the text that labels an item to the same phase of the item? It is true that you will need to change the Phase of the 100 views to the achieve the result. However, the Sheets these views are on could remain as they are and you wouldn’t end up with hundreds of duplicates.

[RobDraw]

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@TudorBeachApt wrote:

I believe that text should be on a Phase and Not View Specific.

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I believe that you need a different thread in a different forum. I also believe that you need a different program for that.

[martijn_pater]

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@TudorBeachApt wrote:

I believe that text should be on a Phase and Not View Specific.

You could use tags, if the element is hidden/demolished so is its tag.

[TudorBeachApt]

Thank you for your suggestion. Tags will work for some items and will perform like you said. However, there are general notes that are not part of an object but explain something like methods for several objects. I don’t know how these notes can function in a tag.

[TudorBeachApt]

I made the following statement:

I believe that text should be on a Phase and Not View Specific.

I would like to correct that statement to read as follows:

I believe that text should also be on a Phase and Not just View Specific.

I understand the value of text and annotation being view specific. If text and annotation were also on a Phase then the goal that I stated could be achieved.

[martijn_pater]

...I think you have to adjust your workflow. You would make dedicated views for each phase and annotate the view to show what's what, it is the same with design options, then place those on your sheets... Annotation is just not really a dynamic feature, except for tags/dimensions which relate to visibility of elements in the view (also view-specific).

If you insist, you could perhaps try using (multi-category) tags if you want some sort of dynamic annotation with phasing... I guess the advantage of that would be if you duplicate with detailling to create new phase or something it might reflect the changes ie. however you could also just copy/paste the relevant text/tags... ? Not sure why you'd need it to correspond to phases really... Other option you have is to create text types ie. and then use (temporary)view templates/view filters to show/hide those... that's about it I guess...

[TudorBeachApt]

Thank you again for your help.

What you said here “You would make dedicated views for each phase and annotate the view to show what's what, it is the same with design options, then place those on your sheets...” is what I am trying to avoid.

Assume that I have created 100 views and sheets to show the views of an All Out Design. I have created a sheet index as well. Currently, what you said is the only way that I can see how Revit allows me to accomplish a second Scaled Back Design within the same project. I would have to duplicate those views and sheets and provide unique names for all of them. This would require a second sheet index.

Now if there is a desire to include some of the All Out Design elements back into the Scaled Back Design I would have to copy the text from one view set to the other view set. This would have to be done on 100 views. This all seems like a management nightmare to get a printed set of plans completed correctly.

Whereas, if I could retain my original All Out Design and just change the phase of the elements and then the phase of the text within the views I wouldn’t have to have so many sheets with unique views that I have to copy text back and forth from.

[RobDraw]

Not sure Revit is the right program for you.

[martijn_pater]

@TudorBeachApt What sort of software are you familiar with and/or did you use before Revit? Not sure how to answer the question tbh.

Perhaps what you are struggling with is actually the project browser organisation...

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2018/EN...

[TudorBeachApt]

I am attaching three images to exemplify the outcome that I wish could be accomplished with phase specific text. The images are from just one of several views of a whole house water filtration system.

Image 1 is Design 1 which is the All Out Design that contains a water meter. The meter is on a phase. The text is not on a phase as how Revit currently functions.

Image 2 is Design 2 which is the Scaled Back Design that eliminates the water meter by changing the view’s phase. However, the text not being on the same phase remains in the view.

If the text label for the meter was on the same phase as the meter then simply changing the view’s phase would quickly and precisely make the view show the desired design as in Image 3.

If Revit had phase specific text there would be no need for duplicate views and sheets to deal with various design options.

[RobDraw]

Why aren't you using tags for this?

[martijn_pater]

Use tags, also read below on dedicated design options views...

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2019/EN....

[TudorBeachApt]

Thank you for your help. I am by no means an expert nor a even a well trained Revit user. Therefore, I do appreciate your advice. I have looked into tags and dedicated design options.

Relative to dedicated design options, unless I am missing something it appears that all of the views have to be duplicated for as many design options one might have. Then these views have to be placed on that many sheets. It seems that this is exactly what I am trying to avoid for the reasons that I outlined before as being way too many views and sheets to manage.

I have tried using tags. The best that I can determine is that their style is fixed without any control of the outline shape and color. I am using various colors for each discipline.

I box the text for proposed work and information is unboxed text. Maybe there is a way to achieve the look that I am using but I didn’t see how to do it. The only advantage to tags appears to be that they are on a phase related to the element they are attached to.

I truly believe that my suggestion of allowing view specific text to also be phase specific is the easiest method of playing with different designs on a single set of views confined to a set number of unique sheets. Once the design has been accepted, it just becomes a matter of printing the plan set on the chosen phase.

Revit is a great product that does the job well. It is not perfect and it could be improved rather than finding work arounds to achieve simple solutions.

Thanks again!

[RobDraw]

Your limitation of too many views and sheets to manage is subjective. Some people work with very large sets on a regular basis. These same people and many others do what you are trying to avoid as a part of their day to day workflow and not out of a perceived limitation of the software. In fact, they would still have separate views and sheets for phases and design options even if your suggestion was possible. 

[martijn_pater]

FYI When you decide on/accept a design option during the design process, all your other design options and all the views related to those options are deleted...

[TudorBeachApt]

How many sheets are in a large plan set ?

How many sheets in a plan set may not be subjective. More is not better. Most people and Contractors won’t spend the time going through a 1,000 plus sheet plan set. Less is more because describing a project in full with the least amount of sheets follows the KISS principal of Keep It Simple Stupid. Otherwise, one gets lost in a sea of plans. Likewise, a Designer should KISS his or her project to avoid the burden of spending too much time trying to get a plan set correct with workflow over management.

Before the automobile had a windshield, most people and many others wore goggles and scarfs to take a ride. When the limitation of not having a windshield was a thing of the past goggles and scarfs became a fashion statement rater than a necessity. So the suggestion of having a windshield is possible if the manufacturer included it.

I agree with you that there are instances were various design options indeed require the use of more than one view to present them. In these cases the various design view duplications can be placed on sheets with the same name and number with a suffix.

However, in my example of designing the Ultimate which includes everything like the water meter shouldn’t require duplicate views and sheets. If the client doesn’t want a meter then it would be so simple to change the phase of the meter and text to provide the desired result of a Scaled Back Design. This also avoids the need to later delete the unused views and sheets for archival purposes when there is another project waiting to be developed.

I do appreciate your help. Thanks!