Turn on/off annotation text in views / add on/off parameter to text note

[HVAC-Novice]

On the Revit views I design in, I add notes for myself, or someone else to review. For example, it could say "verify they want dimmed light". That way I can follow up on that and delete the note once I got my answer and implemented a solution in Revit

But when I submit the interim plans (PDF) to someone else for review, I don't want to show those notes. So I want to add a global yes/no parameter or some other means to turn those notes on or off depending on who gets the PDF of the plan set. I think just preventing the notes to print to PDF would also be OK. Or just hide them whenever i switch the parameter to "no". it should be one parameter I change, and all my notes become visible, or invisible. 

I played a bit with that, but couldn't find a good way. Annotation text doesn't have a visibility parameter that could be tied to a global parameter. I also couldn't think of some other type of text to use. Text are system families. I don't know if a loadable type of family could be used. I guess an annotation family could be used and manipulated. but that would taking notes more cumbersome. 

Does anyone have a solution or an idea to build on?

[ToanDN]

You create a specific text style, select one, select all in Project and Hide.  Or, use Dynamo to turn it off before printing and turn it back on after.   The benefit of using dynamo is that you can hide stuff in groups and whatnots.

Example is what I used to use.

[HVAC-Novice]

This sounds easy. I created a a new text type, changed all my "notes to self" to that style. Then I select one, and select "select all in entire project". 

But how do I hide all the ones I selected with the "select all in entire project" function? i see them all selected (blue highlight), but when I hide them (Modify, hide element - the lightbulb) it only hides the ones in the view where the originally selected note is. it doesn't hide the ones in other views. The temporary hide (sunglasses symbol) also only hides the originally selected item. and yes, I did the "select all in entire project" and not the "select all in view". And I see them blue highlighted in multiple views. 

[ToanDN]

---

@HVAC-Novice wrote:

But how do I hide all the ones I selected with the "select all in entire project" function? i see them all selected (blue highlight), but when I hide them (Modify, hide element - the lightbulb) it only hides the ones in the view where the originally selected note is. it doesn't hide the ones in other views. The temporary hide (sunglasses symbol) also only hides the originally selected item. and yes, I did the "select all in entire project" and not the "select all in view". And I see them blue highlighted in multiple views. 

---

Correct.  Use Dynamo instead.  See the scripts above and modify to fit your need.

[HVAC-Novice]

I'll try the dynamo scripts. thanks for sharing them. I think the problem is it doesn't let me hide by category. I only can hide by element.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2021/ENU/Revit-D...

"Hide Category" is grayed out. BTW, I'm on 2023.

[ToanDN]

Hide by Category doesn't work here.  Even if you could, you would be hiding every text in the view, not just the one type.

[HVAC-Novice]

I looked into your scripts. Looks like you used the clockwork package, which I have installed. Maybe you have an older package, but 2 of the 3 nodes aren't in my package.

When I have some more time I play a bit more with it. I see there is a native Revit node called "HideElementsTemporary", maybe that can be used. Sorry, I'm just too new to dynamo and this is a good opportunity to learn more. 

 

[Tommy_S]

There's an existing topic on this in the ideas forum > https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/add-annotations-categories-to-view-filters/idi-p/7960096

Added my vote, hope it helps. 

It would be so useful to use view filters on any possible object in revit, not just the families.

[constantin.stroescu]

how I'll do it by using Selection Set:

• select  an annotation(text)entity
• right click : Select all Instances>Visible in View
• Modify /Text Notes>Save (selection) > Save Selection>Name
• when you want to hide the Selection: Manage>Load Selection and Hide it  from Temporary Hide and Apply 
• the saved selection set can be Edit so to make changes

[HVAC-Novice]

I did not know I can save and load selections. thanks. 

But this still only works for a view. I wanted to hide them in all views and not have to do that in each view separately. I tried what you wrote below (but did "select all in project") and it still only applies to the view that is active. It does select them in all views, but doesn't apply "hide" to the ones outside the active view. 

[HVAC-Novice]

I ended up creating an annotation family (attached). It has an instance parameter for the text that will show in the label. the visibility parameter will be tied to a global parameter that will turn on/off that his is a review set. So if I turn that off, all my notes will be invisible. (I use the same parameter to also turn off the a "not for construction" watermark text in my title lock)

Works for my projects and isn't too complex. It also gives my scrap notes a more coordinated look (always the same font size and color etc.). 

[HVAC-Novice]

I added some more features to my family. I saw the need to have notes in 1/16" and 3/32"font size. I created a second type. The problem was controlling visibility of each label since it depends on what type (small or large font) and on the global parameter that turns those notes on/off. 

See attached. IMHO it is a bit complex "if" formula and i had to create intermittent yes/no parameters. You also need the "show Note" parameter in each type to the global parameter. But it seems to work and now I can add these notes, switch between font sizes as needed, and can globally turn them on and off. 

Please, if someone has a better idea or an improvement, post here. 

Edit: and I learned about meeting 2 conditional statements. shoutout to  fabiosato for posting that idea in a completely unrelated thread.