Unique Name for Identical Assembly

[shuaib009]

Hi,

I have precast elements some are identical. When I make assembly of similar elements, it takes automatically the existing Element name. I want to give a unique name for every element even though its same in all aspects.

Is it possible? Kindly help. Thanks.

[RDAOU]

@shuaib009 

That is the purpose of Assemblies or what it is supposed to do...if the elements of the assembly are 100% identical ) it is an identical assembly and will inherit the same name. And considering they are identical, you can place another instance of the Assemble to construct 1 huge Assembly (The Precast Addin functions similarly too - so no way around that)

What you are looking for may just be Groups... there you can create identical groups containing the same elements

[shuaib009]

No Doubt, That's the good feature of the assembly, I too agree.

But if at all I want to give a Unique name due to some reason, is there a way-out?

Thanks.

[RDAOU]

@shuaib009 

You want to trick the system? Lets see if this is a good enough to count as a solution 🙂

1. edit the family of the element (say Column Family)
2. Add an Instance Integer Parameter (Shared if you need to schedule it and keep track of which went where)
3. Reload the Family
4. Give the Integer a value in the first column and a different value in the second column
5. Now you can have same column (but not so identical so to say lol) in two unique assemblies

You could use an existing parameter such as material or a non-text parameter... I think it is better to use a custom one though 

Check the GIF below