Plugs specis as annotations of annotations?

[itit1309]

I am trying to realize the version for Revit of an existing AutoCAD application. In the AutoCAD application, the user can place an equipment (for example, a dishwasher) and then ask to see the symbols for the electrical and water plugs. This was accomplished inserting a block for the dishwasher, and then two or more blocks, one for each existing plug. Next, the user can select each plug to get automatically a label showing the related technical data.

In Revit, I thought I could manage the plug Symbols of an existing equipment like annotations symbols, but then I should produce the label showing their data as "annotation of an annotation". I made a test but it is impossible to select an annotation as subject of another annotation. I could try to make the plug symbols as components, maybe I could use the "metric generic model" template, but I wonder if it is correct in the BIM perspective.

There exists best practices for cases like that?

[itit1309]

Sorry this post does not fit in the API forum, it would be in Architectural or MEP forum instead, but the technical question is general anyway

[itit1309 · Accepted solution]

Nobody replied so I had to find a viable solution by myself, I share it here if anybody ever will have the same problem. Eventually, I stored the data for both types of annotation (a symbol annotation and a text label for symbol annotation) in the component family instance to which they belong. The link between each symbol and its own related text label is rebuilt each time checking the data stored in the component family instance. In this way, I can maintain an arbitrary number of pairs of (symbol, label) codified as XML or JSON string in a reserved parameter of the component family instance.