Room Tag Calculation - Revit 2017

[aharm]

Room Tag Calculation

Hello all,

I am currently experiencing an issue with a room tag calculation.  I have created a tag that calculates the Occupant load and it works perfectly well when used in the model that has the room, but when I link the model and set up all the same project/shared parameters it simply does not calculate the value.  Is there a work around for this?  See below for more information.  Thanks.

[Alfredo_Medina · Accepted solution]

@aharm

Maybe you used a custom parameter to calculate the occupancy load in the first project file, but that custom parameter does not exist in the second project. 

[Anonymous]

Two suggestions:

1) Double check all shared parameters are linked properly. All shared parameters must point to same text file in every tag and model being used.

2) Tag the room in the original model, and show tag in the linked model using 'By Linked Views' in visibility/graphics.

[barthbradley]

@Anonymous: it's not a shared parameter; it's a calculated parameter. 

@Alfredo_Medina hit the nail on the head. The calc. parameter doesn't exist in both.  

[aharm]

Hmmm, I do not believe that is the issue.  If I create a room in the model with the link the room tag functions as it should but the linked room still does not calculate.  See below for reference.

[Anonymous]

that's annoying. Same happened to me in Revit 2019. Have you come up with any solution for this?

[aharm]

Not at the moment unfortunately.  I will be looking into the issue again at some point but haven't pursued the issue further.  Sorry.

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

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@Anonymous wrote:

that's annoying. Same happened to me in Revit 2019. Have you come up with any solution for this?

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I don;t have that problem.  A room tag with a calculated parameter shows correctly when tag a Room from the link.

[aharm]

Yeah I will have to check again and see if the parameters are working correctly.  How did you set up your solution?

[ToanDN]

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@aharm wrote:

Yeah I will have to check again and see if the parameters are working correctly.  How did you set up your solution?

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I simply added the Calculated label in the Room tag family and loaded it in the host project to tag the room of the host and the room from the link.  No parameter is added to either the host or the link project.

[aharm]

That is the same method that I was using.  I will have to check it again.

[aharm]

I see your formula only allows for 100sf occupant load.  The problem with this solution is other rooms will have different occupant load factors. So while it works for an occupant load of 100sf if the room were to have a 300sf occupant load factor then you would have to have another tag to accomplish this task in a linked model.

[ToanDN]

I see what you are saying.  A workaround is create different Room Tag types for different Occupant Load factors, with different labels controlled by Visibility checkbox.  Then you can enter the value in each label instead of using a share parameters.

Example family: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AkhFRSSD5VPngvlbWGJlMUTdKiT9-Q

[aharm]

Yeah I already ran with that set up and have created the family types and visibility settings.  That seems to be the only work around currently with linked models.  If we could copy/monitor rooms it may fix the issue... But this will have to work for now.  Thanks for your help troubleshooting this.

[Anonymous]

Here are some more workarounds. Not sure if any are better than the one you are using, but thought they'd be worth mention. All these address the issue of tagging rooms with calculated values in linked models.

1) Make all rooms in the host model. Link everything together, and consolidate all life safety info in a single host model. Make sure the linked models have 'Room Bounding' selected to create rooms with linked walls. 'Place Rooms Automatically' could be very helpful.

2) Tag linked rooms in linked models and use VG/VV 'By Linked Views' for the tags to show up in host model. Tag host model rooms in host model. Downside: will need to coordinate rooms and tags across multiple models.

3) Use MEP Spaces. To me this is an intriguing departure that probably wouldn't work midstream in a project, but could be useful for future endeavors. First, spaces have a built-in people load count. For occupancies, you have to use a calculated value in a tag to round up, but I've tested this and it works across linked models - unlike the situation we have with Rooms. Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't see anything that a Space doesn't have that a Room does have - except more functionality. Also, Spaces can be defined with room bounding walls and room separation lines, so no change there. You can also 'Place Spaces Automatically' which will work just like rooms. Finally, if you do have rooms and want to create spaces from them, you can automatically name and number the spaces to match the rooms using 'Space Naming.' Now that Revit Architecture and MEP are the same software, why not use all the tools?

[aharm]

These are interesting workarounds, However 1 and 2 are not viable due to the size and complexity of the project. The project involves multiple facilities and other trades need to have room in their model for tagging placing them in our 'annotation' model would require MEP to link 2 models into theirs to accomplish this.  (We share a structural/architectural model.)  At one point we did have the rooms in our host (annotation model) but they required us to move them into the shared model.

3 sounds interesting but implementing at this point would be as you said difficult mid stream.  Not sure if this would conflict with HVAC spaces that they are already using and the only other caveat I see is it may make more work as coordinating the room names between the models may prove to be tiresome.

Thanks for the ideas.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, you're right. I see you used default revit parameters to calculate. I guess the problem is caused by shared parameter values involved in formula.

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[Anonymous]

Another solution maybe feeding your calculated values into a shared parameter within a linked model, using dynamo, and use this parameter to tag in a host model. I know it's not the best solution, you'll have to update that parameter each time. But it works for me for now.

[TripleM-Dev.net]

Hi,

I just encountered thesame issue with use of shared parameters in a Formula.

After some testing the following conclusion:

Shared parameters in Formulas (in tags) only work for linked models if the Shared parameter has thesame internal id! so the formula doesn't check by Name + GUID, which is why we use shared parameters.

So builtin parameters work, becaus they always have identical id's.

For shared parameters to have identical id's, the models need to originate from the same source file (Template or copy of existing model)

Seems to me this is a BUG in the formulas, as reading the shared parameters directly without formula DO work if added later, so with different id's.

Hope it's bit clear, tested in Revit 2020 (2020.2.3)

- Michel

[TripleM-Dev.net]

Ok, seems to be solved in Revit 2021.1.1 version

see: https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles... 

I can confirm it is solved for Room Tags (haven't tested others), the parameter doesn't even have to be in the Host to work.

- Michel