Why is a mutli-category material take off not scheduling all categories

[vincent6062]

Dear all,

I would like to create an external finishes schedule in Revit.

To do so, a new multi-category material take off has been created.

To my surprise, it does not schedule the materials of all categories. For instance, the railing category is not listed which is a problem as there are some materials assigned to railings that need to show in the external finishes schedule.

Would someone have an explanation to why a multi-category material take off cannot schedule materials from all categories?

Also, would someone have a solution to schedule materials assigned to categories that are not listed in a multi-category take off?

Kind regards, Vincent

[kh_jea]

It's because Autodesk likes to annoy its customers.

For some categories you can't even do a material take-off.

[barthbradley]

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@vincent6062 wrote:

To my surprise, it does not schedule the materials of all categories. For instance, the railing category is not listed.

Nor is Entourage!  How are we supposed to do a diversity takeoff?!  

C'mon Autodesk! 

P.S. Sorry; couldn't resist.  😉 

[ToanDN]

@kh_jea  has the best answer.

As a workaround for railing, calculate how much materials for a linear foot or linear meter, then add it to a Railing schedule and use a Calculated value parameter to get the overall material based on Length.

[vincent6062]

Hello ToadDN,

Thank you very much for your response.

Apologies, I am not sure to follow you reasoning as I have never done this before. Would you be able to send some snipping to me visualise the steps?

Regardless, I would like all categories to show up in one Revit schedule. If there are more than one Revit schedule to make an external finishes schedule, then the schedules will have to be stitched together on a sheet which is not ideal because if something changes the appeareace of the shedules will have to be amended manually on the sheet.

The only workaround I have found is to create a wall, which is a category valid for a material take off, far away from the project and assign it the same material assigned to the railing so that this material shows up in the material take off. It is very low tech but that is the only thing I could think about.

If an engineer at Autodesk happens to read this message, is it really that hard to make a material take-off encompassing all categories? If not, could you please add this feature to your road map for the next release?