I'm building standard corporate schedules for our MEP practice and wanted to make use of the new combined parameter feature. However, I've run into a complication that seems like a bug. It appears that although shared parameters have been loaded into a schedule, those parameters are only available to combine once content has been loaded into the project which actually contains those parameters (thus populating the "Available fields" list. Is this correct?
My tests so far as follows:
If it is truly the case that combined parameters cannot be used in schedules unless content within the project actually contains all of the component parameters from which the combined parameter was built, this functionality ceases to be useful. I need to build standardized schedules into my project template that auto-populate when content is inserted into a project. I cannot expect users to rebuild schedule fields once they've loaded appropriate families. This seems like a bug - why can't combined parameters work the same way as calculated values, which can use any parameter that has already been added to the schedule?
Am I missing something?
It works here when I added shared parameters as fields to the schedule directly.
Thanks for the quick response. Technically, that will work, but it's a bit of a workaround that causes some other issues. By adding those parameters to all elements of a given category (i.e. project parameters), all families of that category type will contain those parameters within the project, whether they are appropriate or not. For example, a pump could end up with air flow parameters that are completely irrelevant to a pump. This approach also overrides the parameter grouping defined inside the family definition for any families that actually do contain the parameters. I prefer to keep my families clean and well-organized, and adding shared parameters to all elements as project parameters tends to mess that up.
For now, perhaps I can create a dummy family to load with my template that contains the necessary parameters used in the schedules. Hopefully this feature is improved in the future to eliminate the need for workarounds like this.
I know this is coming super late but I thought about it as I'm setting up my own schedules. What if the project your using to house your schedule has all the families you would normally schedule loaded in. Then you should be able to create a schedule with the combined parameters. The thing is if you have the schedules working in the schedule project and you try to move them into your template, will the combined parameters remain?
EDIT 1: Looks like no. The combined parameter will be deleted when you place it in a template that doesn't have a family with the parameters included.
1) Our template has only common families between all MEP disciplines and uses a Dynamo script to load discipline specific families. Perhaps I can only add them to a project after they have the applicable families included.
2) I think another way to do it would be keep all the families in the template which should for most part keep the schedules working.
3) Another option would be to include one placeholder family for each category that has every conceivable shared parameter that could be needed in that category. I would name them like "xM - SP Placeholder - Mechanical Equipment". "xM - SP Placeholder - Air Terminals".
EDIT2: Looks like method 3 from above works. I can load a schedule into the template with one mechanical family that has all my SP in it. The combined parameters are untouched.
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