Material Tags Randomly Change to Question Marks

[mcnamac]

New to Revit, using Revit 2018 - I am tagging materials in walls, all looks good.  Close the view, and when reopen or print, most of the tags have changed to ?.  Nothing has moved, simply selecting and unselecting the tag brings it back to 'normal' (until next view close / print).  

Searching the internet has only provided me the information that this is a bug, and has been since at least R2008.  So 10+ years...can we just get a fix for this??  

[barthbradley]

The question mark is because the parameter field that the tag is pulling information from, is blank. Fill it in. 

...or are you saying they got orphaned? 

....I would be curious to know about this "bug" you are referring to. Personally, I can't recall having a like issue in the 10+ years I've been using Revit. Usually, my issues were sourced to a "loose nut behind the keyboard".  But, I do remember reading something in 2008 that talked to this "issue".  Is it back in 2019?  

[Ilic.Andrej]

This helped me for revit 2017.

Maybe some 2018 update will fix....

[mcnamac]

The parameter is not blank.  When I tag the material, it shows correctly.  When I close and reopen the view, it changes to a question mark.  If I select and unselect or nudge the tag, it comes back.  Close and reopen view and it's gone again.  I am specifically tagging a material in a wall in a plan view to get the material's Mark parameter.  

See this page from Autodesk:  https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles...

I also saw posts on other sites from 2008 that this was an issue.  Whether it was 'fixed' for a few releases or not, I'm seeing that it is an issue now it R2018.  I haven't installed R2019 to test there.  

[mcnamac]

Update...no change in R2019.  Also, same thing is happening with a tag that is grabbing the material description parameter instead of the mark parameter as well.  It's happening with materials in a wall, not in other elements, such as a floor.

Hoping this is something that can finally get fixed...

thx!

[cbcarch]

Couple of quick questions:

- Do projects that were upgraded to 2019 display this behavior?

- Do new projects created in Revit 2019 display this behavior?

- Do the tags have "attached or free ends"?

- Are you tagging in the host model, or a linked model?

[mcnamac]

- I did upgrade the project to 2019 and the issue was still presenting itself - prompting my last post.

- I created a new project from an ootb template in 2019, using the ootb tag, and have NOT been able to duplicate the issue - so far so good.  I did the same in 2018 and the issue presented itself with the ootb tags immediately on file close and reopen.  I added my tags in both versions and all still seems good in 2019, and for some reason my tags are fine in 2018 while the ootb tags are not.  I have closed / reopened / nudged tags several times and the same thing happens every time - ootb tags break, custom tags do not (in 2018).  

- free ends is the only choice in material tags (drop downs are grayed out).

- host model only, no links at all.

The fact that I haven't been able to get them to break on a new project in 2019 is promising (fingers crossed)...assuming I can easily port over my template without too much hassle and see the same results.  

[dnenovMXKU9]

The issue is present when the wall is obstructed by Filled Region or Detail Item containing such. It is present at 2018.3

Is using Material Keynote a viable alternative? 

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

I am having this same issue with a new project that was created in 2019. This only happens with Material Tags, and not with the Multicategory Tags. Very frustrating to constantly have to check every sheet to verify that tags have not reverted back to "?" before printing. Had this issue in 2018 as well. Hopefully someone will propose a solution? 

[Anonymous]

R2018.3 - Our Team is having the same issue and our current work through to bring back the materials versus the "?'s" is to close the workset the tagged materials/models are associated to and reopen the workset. This brings them back but does not solve the initial problem. This is causing a lot of extra work and we too hope this is resolved very soon.

[slazure]

We have the same problem which is really frustrating. If anyone as the solution to it it would be much appreciated.
Our way to deal with it is to Select all in the view and unselect. They find their material back but only until we sync or close the model...

[manhuynh83]

Try this my fellows:

Do one of the following:

• Change the scale on the problematic view.
• Turn off other categories which may not be needed in the view, such as ceilings or floors.
• If the tag is at a wall joint, move the tag away from the wall joint.

The second one works for me like a charm.

[mprost]

I had an underlay on in a view.  Turned it off and it fixed it.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the suggested – unfortunately we are not using any underlays – we were hoping for a lot more discussion on the listed thinking many others could relate – again, thank you.

[Anonymous]

I also got exact same issue. It just simply falls out for no apparent reason. I think it has to do with a scale were the graphics, the leader is not landing correctly, loosing the host when zoomed out. In theory, this shouldn't happen, and I can just select all instances and it snaps it back with info. But I need to do this right before all sheets are being printed.

Either I print all sheets with material tags manually, or just accept that tags will fall out if I decide to have things at one go. Frustrating.

[Anonymous]

We have just deleted all tags effected and placed new. The problem no longer happens once the effected tags are deleted.

[steve]

I'm also having the same issues with no successful solution, including re-tagging everything. This glitch is a major pain. There HAS to be some solution???

[steve]

No underlay on mine. Problem persists.

[Anonymous]

I think it is because the tip of the link doesn't know where to land due to the resolution or processing of data.

Typically, I highlight one of the tags, 'Select All Instances', 'In Entire Project', then just click elsewhere to cancel.

This causes to Revit to rethink, or regen data and seems to address the issue temporarily.

To the views that are not open, this doesn't seem to work all that well, but it can kind of save time at least in my case.

I do this before print.

[steve]

None of those suggestions solve the issue for me. 😞