Adding "Room Number" to a Tag

[Anonymous]

Hello Everyone,

I am trying to make a tag that will display the Room Number (or Space Number, I'm not picky) that an element is inserted into. The goal is to use the Room Number as half of an object's identification. The tag would display something along these lines:

101.01

The Red half, being the Room/Space Number and the Blue half being a unique identifier (to be manually set).

It would seem I can't simply insert the "Room Number" parameter into any tag that is not a room tag, likewise I can't seem to incorporate the "Room Number" parameter as part of a model family, even with the Room Calculation Point turned on. Is there, perhaps, some back door or formula I could use to make this happen? 

As an aside, we will be working exclusively with inserted DWGs from our clients and we will be placing our own Rooms or Spaces into our own template file so we have free reign to dictate Global Parameters and such. Similarly we could just as well NOT use Rooms or Spaces if there is some other, clever way or making an element report what "container" it is located inside of. Lastly, we aren't married to any particular Family Category so it's no difference to us if we tag a Generic Family or what have you, just so long as the Family isn't an MEP family since we are working with Revit LT at this time.

Thanks in advance!

[SteveKStafford · Accepted solution]

My first thought was Dynamo but you're using Revit LT so that and third party apps are out.

How many categories of elements are you tagging in your model?

A schedule of a specific category can also report which room (like Furniture) is in. The data is derived in the context of a project so it isn't available to tags as you've discovered because a schedule is built with some understanding of combining information (like a database query can combine records from different tables). As such you could create your own parameters to store the room number value by seeing what it is and typing it in manually. At least it would be a little easier to ensure the room value was correct.

Then again, everything changes if you upgrade to full Revit. Then a Dynamo graph can be run to pass the data on to the elements instead.

[Anonymous]

We would be tagging speakers, equipment racks, keypads and window shades. We were thinking of using Communication Devices, but those aren't available in LT.

I considered having a schedule display the room numbers next to a another column where we would input it manually, but that seemed more cumbersome and time intensive than simply filling in a block attribute in AutoCAD and copying the block a few times (which is what we do now).

I might be able to convince the higher-ups to snag a single copy of full Revit if I can show them it greatly improves the efficiency and accuracy of our work. I'm vaguely aware of the Dynamo solution (though do not know how I would code it personally). Are there other options available to us with the full suite beyond Dynamo scripting?

[ToanDN]

The easiest way is to create an equipment schedule and include the Location fields: Room Number and/or Name.  The sort by the field, add a header, and hide the column.  Now you will have a list of equipment in a room all under a Room name.

LT does not work with Dynamo so it is out of the questions.

[Anonymous]

Right, but we would like the information to appear in the tag.

I might be able to get my hands on a full version of Revit if I play my cards right.