Creating a Custom Family--- (Toilet Accessoy) Tag

[sdanielsRXEH4]

Hi all,

So I am not completely new to Revit, but i'm always learning something new everyday.. Anyways, I am setting up a template in Revit for the Company that I am working for. 

As of now I am fixing tags, symbols, and title blocks to match to the companies AutoCAD Standards. 

The company has a "toilet accessory tag." The tag is supposed to be able work in all for directions, but only one direction at a time (different orientations)... Like an elevation marker in Revit. The only problem is I know how to make the elevation markers, but I have no idea on how to make a custom tag to do the same, because Revit doesn't offer tag heads or body family types. If this is confusing or doesn't make sense please let me know, and if anyone knows of some form of a solution please let me know!

Thank you for all the help, and there is an image to show what I mean...

[barthbradley]

I'm not totally clear, but this might get you pointed in the direction you want to go:  open a elevation tag family and change to "Plumbing Fixture Tag" located under the "Family Categories and Parameters" and then save it under new name and load into project. Then go from there. Hope this helps. 

[sdanielsRXEH4]

Do you think a good idea would be to change the family parameter to a plumbing fixture after I changed all the components? I kind of already tried that and it didn't work 😕

But truly,

Thank you for the help!

[barthbradley]

I thought you were looking for a Plumbing Fixture Tag that would mimic the behavior of an Elevation Tag. If the component you want to tag is not a Plumbing Fixture, then choose the appropriate Category. But then again, like I said, maybe I'm not following you. Good luck. 

[nathan.chapman · Accepted solution]

The easiest way to accomplish this is to create a filled region in the tag family that is an arrow or any other symbol you want.  Now you will have to copy and rotate to get all the possible orientations.  Next create yes/no parameters for all possible configurations and assign to the correct symbol.  Now create a new family type for all configurations and make sure the correct yes/no is checked for the corresponding types.  The bad thing about doing it this way is that its not as smart as elevation markers and picks the correct arraw but it the only way you can do it.  Attached is a quick example file for reference.

[Alfredo_Medina]

Elevation Symbol families are very specialized for one task, only, for referencing elevations. You cannot just change the category of such family and make it work the same for other purpose, like tagging plumbing fixtures.

[barthbradley]

I'm confused by your post, Alfredo? What do you mean you cannot change its category to tag plumbing fixtures? I just tested. Seems to work fine. Of course, I haven't personally used an Elevation Marker in this fashion before, but it seemed a good place to start if you wanted to create a tag to mimic the Elevation Marker - as I understood the author of this post wanted to do.  

[Alfredo_Medina]

I did not write that is not possible to change the category. Yes, you can change it. But, is the new tag going to work as an elevation symbol when it is tagging a plumbing fixture just because the category was changed?

[sdanielsRXEH4 · Accepted solution]

Hi Everyone, 

So I see that yall were trying to help, but I just wasnt descriptive enough. I was confused on how to explain it.. well until now..

Basically, what I wanted to do was just have the different arrows point in different directions (but not all at the same time) the arrows did not have to function like an elevation tag.. I didnt realize you the user could create visibility parameters until someone commented on another post of mine.. which led me to the video I will link below for anyone to use. 

I first created a generic annotation tag, created the arrows and copied/mirrored in all four directions, created my labels with necessary shared parameters, and then I selected the Arrows and label for each arrow (Up Arrow and Up Label, Left Arrow and Left Label, etc.) I then in the properies under graphics, selected the small square next to visible. I then created the 4 parameteers individually (Accessory Up --- a type parameter, yes/no, and the group parameter falls under graphics). I did this for all four arrows, and then under modify, properties, Family Types, Created Four New Family Types (Up, Dn, Left, Right) and Checked the one graphic necessary per family name..

Anyways here is the link to the video that made sense

And thank you for trying to help.. it was my fault for being confusing!

[barthbradley]

Of course it won’t work as an elevation symbol after its category is changed, Alfredo. I never suggested overwriting the parameters of the project’s existing Elevation Tag family. If you read my post, what I suggested – as a starting point – was to use the Elevation Tag family as a template; make changes to it and “then save it under new name and load into project.”  Its good advice too. There are those out there that may not be aware that you can change an existing tag’s category. If someone wanted to make a custom tag that would do the same as another tag – as sdaniels wanted – what better place is there to start?