Assign Room Names Based on Area?

[ctrovati]

Hello! 

I’ve been wondering if it’s possible to make room names generate automatically based on their area value? I’m working on a residential project with lots of units which have very specific size requirements (i.e. a studio flat has to be between 41 and 55sqm, one bed flat is 55-76sqm and so on).

Since we’re on early concept stages the walls keep moving changing the room’s sizes constantly, thus I have to manually go through and rename every flat according to its size; the number of flats and the percentage distribution is very important at this stage.

Is there anything that could work (aside from doing it through a schedule, I’ve thought about it but it’s still quite time consuming cause it’s about 1000 units). 

[ToanDN]

Create a room schedule, sort by Area, filter or group by area range, then you can rename them more quickly.

[barthbradley]

Aren't you putting the cart before the horse? Why not name them later once the space planning is finalized.  Identify the spaces by their Area values in mean time. Maybe use a Color Scheme by Area Range as a visual assist in the View.  

[ctrovati]

Sadly that is the problem, with every option and modification we need to see the changes in the percentage distribution of different flat types. But colour scheme by range (which I was not aware of) could be helpful for me to count them manually, thanks!

[ctrovati]

Yes, I did consider that but its still 1000 units so I was hoping for a more automated solution. But thank you! 

[ToanDN]

It can be made quickly.  Create a filter by Area range, uncheck sort by Area, uncheck itemize every instance, then all rooms within the Area range become one row. You then just change the name once for all of them.  Repeat for other Area ranges 

[GaryOrrMBI · Accepted solution]

It can be done via a formula within a label (and another one within any schedule that needs to report the same values).

Create a Label, add a new text based calculated parameter, build a descending formula if(Area > 99, "Large", if(Area > 89, "Medium", if(... etc ...)))

But, the practicality of this would depend on how many unit types/sizes you have to deal with and if there are any overlaps on the unit type sizes.

Here is a similar example for calculating clear door widths within a door tag:

Here is an example of a formula with nested if statements that creates a text string based on other parameters:

if(Slider Panel, if(Unequal Panels, "PAIR -SLIDING - UNEQ", "PAIR - SLIDING"), if(Double Acting, if(Unequal Panels, "PAIR - DBLACT - UNEQ", "PAIR - DBLACT"), if(Double Egress, if(Unequal Panels, "PAIR - DBLEGRS - UNEQ", "PAIR - DBLEGRS"), if(Unequal Panels, "PAIR - SWING - UNEQ", "PAIR - SWING"))))

-G

[ctrovati]

Thank you so much! This is perfect! 

[GaryOrrMBI]

This doesn't actually change the built-in parameter for Room Name of course (which might annoy the other disciplines working on the project), but, once the design settles down you can use @ToanDN 's suggestion to sort and group a room schedule by this calculated "Unit Type" value, then copy paste from the calculated values into the actual Room Name parameter.

And all of this pairs nicely with the color scheme idea that @barthbradley suggested.

-G