Add support for text styles

[Anonymous]

Text is a real mess in Revit right now. Every time I want to create a new tag or some other annotation symbol I have to recreate my text styles from scratch.

I would like to see a project-wide text style system where different styles can be defined once and then re-used anywhere in the project, including family environment, where text can be entered. I should be able to name the styles and save them for later use.

Additionally to this I would like to see the following features of styles:

• outlines - specify weight and colour of text outline separate from fill
• fill - specify text fill colour
• text box background - specify background colour for the text box, the whole box should be filled not just a small area surrounding the text as is the case now
• text box outline - specify the weight and colour of the text box outline.

There are probably other features that would be very useful. Please contribute to this discussion.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, Revit does not have a lot of "top level" systems like this. Everything is contained within a project (presumably for portability reasons). I would like to see EVERYTHING eligible to be a Shared Parameter, which is basically what you're asking for here, as that is the only way that Revit allows anything to be consistently or persistently from one project to another without any additional steps.

Currently, what you're trying to accomplish should be possible via a template, or by using the "Transfer Project Standards" tool, but you're right, it would be nice to set certain things up and never have to address them again.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I think you misunderstood my thoughts, at least partially. I understand
that currently this sort of functionality is not possible in Revit. Revit
needs to be refactored to add this functionality. I'd be happy if text
styles were only available on per template/project basis. That in itself
would save so much time.

I often find myself having to annotate diagrams where contrast and
legibility are constantly at war with each other so being able to specify
outlines for text or a slightly translucent background for the text box
would be a huge bonus. And it's not like what I'm asking for is so far
fetched. This sort of functionality is basic.

cheers,
-tomek

[Anonymous]

I thought you were referring primarily to dimensions, which are pre-configurable via a template. Not sure about any other text type, as I base that on the sheet size (which never changes in my office) and not the scale of the detail being annotated and therefore have never had to change that. Either way, BOTH should be top level settings, not type based as is currently the case with dimensions.

[Nick.sipes]

I agree with the underlying concept of this. Once a style settings are defined in a project, all objects of that style (even within families) adopt the text style settings. An example of this concept would be Subcategories. If the subcategory exists in my template and a family is made with that subcategory regardless of the settings in that family my project defines how that subcategory should appear. This should be the same for Text Styles (both inside a project or a family) and labels (which are text boxes that look at variables). 

[Anonymous]

"Nested" within this excellent suggestion is the ability to edit the (forgive me for being again amazed why Autodesk would do this) the 5/64" setting for text box astoundingly stupid fraction, always gets in the way when editing in family creation! I always change this setting to the tightest box one can have so one isn't tripping over it constantly . . . 1/256" much better default, as are 3/32" for font size ~ Autodesk please introduce us to those within your excellent family who choose to use 1/4" as a font size in default (and with those goofy arrows? 15% filled is divinity itself 🙂 

[Ric_Weber]

I have voted for this because there are a lot of different things that text needs and you have referred to several.  

One point that I want to make though is in regards to needing to recreate the text types in different annotation types of families.  You can make all the changes you want to a blank .rfa file.  Add your Object Styles, your Line Weights, your Line Styles, your Text types, remove all materials, modify Fill Patterns, etc.  and then save the file as a family.  Then change the file extension to .rft.  It is now a Revit Family Template file that you can use for your new families.  You can also start a family as a Generic Annotation, make your customizations, and then change the category over and over to all of the different Annotation types of families.   

You can do this with the model categories as well, but you need to be aware of the hosting types, and such.  So you might want a floor hosted casework template, a wall hosted casework template, a non-hosted casework template, a face based casework template, and a ceiling hosted casework template.  So as you can see, your template list could easily get really long...  that's not necessarily a bad thing...  options are always a good thing!

[MOR-ConorMacken]

There should be a Text Style management dialog, like there is for the Line Styles, Line Patterns, Fill Patterns etc.

It could only manage the project text and not reach inside the various families that incorporate text, but having a central place to manage the project's text styles is non-existent at the moment.

It would be great if projects could alter how text in families displays (typeface, size, colour) in the project like they can for the object styles, but that's a larger step.