Two Point Elevation Annotation

[chughes]

Is there a family or a way to document the vertical difference between two surfaces, preferably with an annotation symbol similar to the one below.  I know you can tag two surfaces with spot elevations, but I would like to have the difference in height shown instead of two individual heights shown.

Edit: Annotation in plan view.

[barthbradley]

I can envision how a floor-based family with a reporting parameter for host floor thickness could be used to do this.  You follow my thinking?  

...maybe there is an application for a Spot Elevation that displays Bottom Elevation here?  Something like this: 

[PaulusPresent_BB]

Dear Chughes

There is no out of the box straightforward solution for this one. The workaround below is however the closest approximation I can propose, fulfilling following requirements:

• The tag should be dynamic. When either object changes its position the tag should dynamically update.
• The tag should be easily placed.

First step:

I propose to use an adaptive component family containing 2 adaptive points. Both adaptive points have their 'Orients to' setting on 'Global (xyz)'. This assures that the adaptive points Z axis will always be vertical regardless of the orientation of the host objects in the project. This adaptive component contains a shared parameter 'DeltaHeight' which is used as a reporting parameter in the adaptive component.

I also added a model line between the 2 points so that the element is easily visible in the project. The visibility of this line is controlled with a type parameter to make it invisible before plotting.

Second step:

It is a pity that an adaptive component family cannot host a tag item or annotation item. We thus have to make a separate generic model tag using the same shared parameter DeltaHeight presented in a label with your graphical layout around (a simple filled region and some detail lines).

Last step:

I added both components to a project and used the adaptive component to measure the height diff. between 2 floors. Next I could tag my newly placed item with our generic model DeltaHeight tag. As you can see in the images below, the tag value automatically updates when one of the floors changes height.

Result:

• The system is dynamic and can be easily placed.
• It is a pity that you have to place and keep the 2 components together yourself (nesting would be preferable but is not possible)

I hope this info is of some use to you or someone else and if not, sorry for the wasted time.

Have a very nice evening and Gods blessings

Paulus Present

PS: I added the testfile.

[chughes]

Wow, that’s a pretty great breakdown and potential solution.  Thanks for the effort.  BTW, solutions or processes like this are never a waste of time.

I will integrate this and see how it works.  Without testing it, I do have a question.  Since the Delta parameter is not nested and unique to the individual family instance and is shared, does this only allow the family to be placed once in the project, or placed multiple times and Revit able to keep track of what tag is associated with which component?  Or is it unique to the individual instance?

Thanks again.

[PaulusPresent_BB]

The family can be placed multiple times without a problem. The DeltaHeight parameter is an instance parameter so it can be different for each instance.

The shared aspect only makes sure that the parameter can be found between 2 families in a project, it doesnt mean that the same value will be shared to all the instances.

Kind regards

Paulus

[giffordwhyte13]

This is so helpful thank you