Trying to create a tag to make egress calculations

[Sahay_R]

I have this existing tag (which is attached), which is used in our Life Safety plans. 

The top number is the egress door number which is manually entered.

EGRESS is static text.

The name of the room - in this case PLANT - is also manually entered. I would also like the tag to be able to see and show the name of the room - less typing. Would be possible to add a Room Calculation point to this tag so that it can see the name of the room?

The 200 is the result of the calculation for the number of occupants allowable by the door width - also manually entered. The challenge is to plug in the formula

(panel width - door thickness) divided by .2 = number of occupants that can go through that opening

to calculate this value. I did think of converting this to a door tag so that it may see the clear width of the door.

I would appreciate any help possible to get this done. Thank you!

[ToanDN]

Use a Door Tag so that you can have the Door number and and the calculated formula based on the actual dimensions of the door (2017 only). No automatic Room info though, unless you can create a dynamo script to transfer the Host Room to a shared parameter assigned to the Door.  Or just simply enter the Room info manually to the Door tag fields.

[Sahay_R]

2017 only, eh? Interesting.

Let me try. Wish me luck.

[Sahay_R]

Wonderful. 2017 gives me the Width values.

However, when I enter numbers they are turned into feet and inches. ((Width*12)-4)/0.2 ends up with 4" and 2 52/128". Also, Revit does not like it when I enter the formula as above and objects to 'inconsistent units'......

[ToanDN]

Post you tag family here.

[Sahay_R]

Here you are. This started as a Generic Annotation. I switched it over to a Door Tag. Also, how can I get this to show up green in my project? SInce our door tags are set up to e red, this egress tag also shows up as red instead of green.

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

Change the formula of ALLOWABLE OCCUPANTS to:

(Width - Thickness) / 0.2 *12 / 1'

Make sure your door families have the Panel thickness associated with Thickness parameter.

[Sahay_R]

It worked! Thank you! 

[ToanDN]

If you need any explanations regarding the formula then let me know. Also, this is for single door only.

[Sahay_R]

Finally this is what worked - rounding the panel thicknesses from 1.75" to 2"

(Width - (0'  0 1/2" + Thickness + Thickness)) / 0.2 * 12 / 1'

This takes care of double panel doors and gave me the test values that I wanted. For single panel doors, I will create a different tag with a different formula. 

My question - WHY does it not accept numbers unless they have been converted to inches or feet (project units, methinks)? This is frustrating, to say the least.

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

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@rsahayUZMK9 wrote:

Finally this is what worked - rounding the panel thicknesses from 1.75" to 2"

(Width - (0'  0 1/2" + Thickness + Thickness)) / 0.2 * 12 / 1'

This takes care of double panel doors and gave me the test values that I wanted. For single panel doors, I will create a different tag with a different formula. 

It's fine to have 2 separate tag families.  It's also possible to have a single family.  Up to you.

Formula for a single family:

if(Width > 4', (Width - (0'  0 1/2" + 2 * Thickness)) / 0.2 * 12 / 1', (Width - (0'  0 1/4" + Thickness)) / 0.2 * 12 / 1')

Translate: if door > 4' then calculate with 2 panels, else calculate with 1 panel.  I assume 4' is the max width for single doors.

My question - WHY does it not accept numbers unless they have been converted to inches or feet (project units, methinks)? This is frustrating, to say the least.

The unit of the result is Number, the unit of the Width and Thickness is Length.  So that where the (/1') at the end of each formula taking care of the conversion.

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[Sahay_R]

Oh my. You make it sound so easy.

Last question. The labels at the top and bottom of the tag. I am going to leave them editable. When I set up two separate labels with the Remarks shared parameter, in the Project, whatever I type in for one label shows up in the other. However when I make a copy of Remarks and load the tag into a project, the tag with the original Remarks parameter is editable, the one with the copy is not. AAARRGGHHH. What am I missing here?

[ToanDN]

You have to delete the old Remarks parameter and add new one, the one you
recreated for the family, for the project.

[Sahay_R]

OK - here is what finally worked for me. The top label is the door Mark - which I can click on and edit. The bottom one is the editable label with the Remarks parameter.

Is it possible to create a new Mark parameter - possibly call it Mark2 - which calls the doors 1, 2,3, instead of A101, A102, A103, etc?

[ToanDN]

Yes.

[Sahay_R]

How?

[ToanDN]

Just create a new Shared Parameter, name it Egress Mark or something, add it as label in the family. The add it to the project and assign to Door category.

[ypensa]

How do you associate the Width and Thickness parameter from the formula in the door tag to the door family parameters?