Legends for Rule-Based filters

[Anonymous]

Hello to everybody.

Not English speaker, sorry in advance for all the mistakes.

So i want to create the same 3D view many times with different rule-based filters.

The idea is to show different elements in each view. For exemple:

View 1: walls and walls related stuff

View 2: Floors and such

View 3: doors

View 4: types of paint etc

I think you can get my point.

Anyways all that is done in a way that is enough for my needs. Now to the question:

Is it possible to create an automated legend from the rule-based filters?

I guess the answers is going to be no, because i did spent some time researching and found nothing, so the second question is:

You know some good practices to apply rule-based filters legends to views?

I tried to do something custom but it's not great. I created a title box family with 4 (could be more, but 4 to test was ok) shared parameters and 4 white box. The idea was to define the 4 parameters one by one in the properties window of Revit, if by any case i had less than 4 parameters i could hide then with a visibility parameter. All that worked as expected (see attached)

The second part, which i failed, was to add some parameter to change the color inside the white boxes to match in each view the colors i picked. I don’t know if it’s even possible but i didn’t find a way.

I thought worst case scenario i could add the fill manually in each sheet, but apparently the add fill tool doesn’t work in sheets so at the end i created a second family to add the colors one by one, meaning, 4 sheets 4 different families and for each picking each color one by one which is a lot of work and if by any reason i need to change one color filter i will have to edit this specific family to match the new color.

Summarizing:

Is it possible to create an automated legend from the rule-based filters?

You know some good practices to create/apply rule-based filters legends to views?

Is it possible to create a parameter to change the color of a fill in a family? (or some other way to achieve the same result)

Thank you

[M_Perez]

I don't know a to relate the filters to a parameter. That said, there would be no way to automatically adjust the color via a parameter.

But there are a few solutions:

-Easy: You can use "Override in view" to assign the color of the filter to the legend. You would have to do it manually, but you don't need to use any complex family/workflow.

-Family: I don't think it is a good system. You will spend a while to make your family work and to adapt it every time that you a new legend needs. But fyi, there are at least two ways to change the colors, control it per material or nesting a family with a set of colours and trimming visibility with conditions. The first solution is manual so no advantages to the "Override in view" solution. The second one will have no real advantages, because you can't anyway link this to the filters and you have to set it manually too.

-Complex(apply the filter to the legend😞 If it is important for your to make it autmatic (in order to keep consistency between filters and legend), the only thing that I could suggest is to add legend elements to the filter. 

_Give the legend elements a special category (like Detail) or something that you don't usually use (You can use something from MEP, for example.) 

_Then you need to add this category to the filter and something to assign it (e.g. Comment equal "Legend:Walls") and add it as an "OR" condition. 

_You have to set then the legend (write the comment or whatever you have used to differentiate them), but after that, if you edit the filter the legend color would change.

I hope it is understandable :) If you have questions, don't hesitate.

[Anonymous]

I like the idea but i'm having some trouble implementing it:

-Complex(apply the filter to the legend😞 If it is important for your to make it autmatic (in order to keep consistency between filters and legend), the only thing that I could suggest is to add legend elements to the filter. 

_Give the legend elements a special category (like Detail) or something that you don't usually use (You can use something from MEP, for example.) Then you need to add this category to the filter and something to assign it (e.g. Comment equal "Legend:Walls") and add it as an "OR" condition. 

I don't know how to assign a category to a legend element. I don't even know if we are talking about legend (element in the revit tree) or a legend made specifically from a family or something else.

Anyways a did try with both and didnt find the category thing. Well, in famillies i did find the category but since i'm using one that could be inserted in sheets, you actually don't have much choice.

I'm having another trouble finding the "OR" conditions (i'm in revit 2018) i did find it in schedules, for exemple, but not in rule-based filters.

I got the concept but i'm not finding the tools, if you can actually take a screenshot (or more than one) to where i should look, i think i could figure it out from there.

Another thing. In this specific context i was trying to add the legend to a 3D view, maybe this solution is only useful for regular plans. Anyways i'm interested.

Thank you

[Anonymous]

just in case someone is interested i did find a alternative solution from your easy way.

I create a single rectangle in a generic annotation family. I can place this rectangle over the "white" rectangle form my first title block and them override in view.

Another approach i'm researching is using colors in schedules and them add the schedules to the sheet. (no automatic color either)

[M_Perez · Accepted solution]

Sorry, I forget that we were working with legends!!!

You are right, you can't assign a Category to a Legend Element, but they are all from the details category, so if you select Detail as Category, you create a filling and you set a comment by the filling it will do the trick.

"Or" conditions came first with Revit 2019. But you could instead make a second filter. You would have to keep consistence between filters. ("Manually")

Legend and 3D are two different views, but you can apply a View template to the 3D view and then the same one to the Legend view. In that case, you need a legend for each 3D view.

To summarize: It would be possible to change legends with filters and you can control legends and views from the same menu (better with 2019, but possible with 2018) The setup is not that simple, but once implemented it will help to keep consistency. But if worths it is something that you have to decide.

[Anonymous]

Well, seems that Revit doesn't have a good tool to deal with this, i think this one is a great solution.

Thank you

[Anonymous]

I Still do not get it. I'd try to apply a ruled based filter inside de legend, selecting the detail item category and nothing happens... 

can you please be more specific.

[Anonymous]

Ohhh I Finally Get it.... So I create a Detail Item by each Wall and That way put it on a legend and then apply the filters with the same color code to walls and detail items

Thank you so much pal, great Idea... 

[paolomod3nese]

There's a plugin out there that does just that, it's called LeGen. Basically, it creates a legend view from your rule-based filters using the colors you define in the filters.

Here's a screenshot of how it works:

In this example, there are a few walls each assigned a specific value to the fire rating parameter. With this, some filters are created and colors applied to the walls.

Then, when you run the plugin, it creates an automatic legend with those colors and the name of the filter.

Here's the link to the plugin post:

https://camilion.eu/en/blog/2020-revit-creating-legends-automagically/

[patricio.grabowski]

its not free 

[MiWolff]

Yes, LeGen is very nice, but you could also try the pyRevit extension pyChilizer which offers Legends from Filters. Was sufficient for me and I did not have to ask anyone for money to rent more software. Make sure the filter actually put filters on cut entities or choose projection.