Historic Revision Schedule

[Anonymous]

Recently while working on a project with various consultants in Revit I came up with what I thought was a pretty intuitive method for creating/managing a sheet index that "automatically" (with minimal input) upodated over the course of a project.  It worked really well, but as I sit back and watch the project shift from CD release to Addendum to Bulletin I find myself wondering why the underlying systems I used to drive this method weren't already interrelated within Revit to begin with.  After all, when does an architecture firm formally release full drawings without a sheet index or without an associated revision?

Now that I’ve established the premise I’ll describe the process I created.  It’s going to sound convoluted and complicated but that’s only because it’s not built in to the software to begin with.  It functions very efficiently after its setup.  The end result is a sheet index that includes sheets from linked sheets from every discipline’s model that populate the index automatically and correctly display the drawing release (the revision) each sheet is associated with by displaying a bullet in a particular revisions column.  Some sheets were there from the very beginning, some sheets came in later in the production process.  Image 1 below shows a clip of the end result of this system; a highly commonarrangement of the index of drawings that Revit is incapable of creating without the setup described below.

• Each bullet is essentially driven by two parameters; a YES/NO project parameter named for a revision and associated with “SHEETS” and a formulated parameter that actually creates the bullet.  For example, for a revision called “BID/PERMIT” I’ve got a YES/NO parameter called “Submittal – Permit” and a formulated parameter called “Permit Set Date” named to be generic and to provide a prompt to the user to rename it with the actual release date.  In this case “Permit Set Date” gets renamed to “08/24/2014 - BID/PERMIT” to show correctly on the cover sheet. 

• When a sheet is deemed to be in a “revision” (in the Revit sense) release the checkbox is checked in that sheet’s properties.  Each sheet to be shown on the index is also told to “Appear in sheet list” which is also a Y/N built in to each sheet in Revit, although I actually created an additional Y/N parameter to drive this called, “Appears in Schedule”.  The sheet index is then filtered by “Appears in Schedule” equals “Yes.”

• Now, of course each release also has to appear on the titleblock of each sheet.  This is where the actual revisions come in to play.  Each release gets a formal Revit revision that is then added to the sheet either via the “Revisions on Sheet” edit window (or in this case via a great Xrev Freebies product Xrev UpRev) if the release happens before revision clouds are necessary, or directly driven by revision clouds if they exist.

Do you see my issue here?  These two things, the Revisions and the sheet index/the parameters that drive it are all separate even though they are inherently interrelated.  To do one release that automatically schedules in this common form of sheet index I have to create 2 parameters and a revision and then I have to go to a sheet and add the revision to it and check the box to include it in that revision.

I’m suggesting that these two systems be inherently linked inside Revit.  When I create a revision in Revit the program should automatically create: a Yes/No parameter as a sheet instance property and a formulated schedule parameter driven by that Y/N that shows up as an addable field in any “Sheet List” schedule.  Everything should be driven by the revisions window (Image 2 below).

In writing this I found an even easier software tweak that would allow this to happen. The previously mentioned “Revisions on Sheet” button that each sheet has (under Identity Data on the properties pallet) is a way to add revisions to a sheet without having a revisions cloud on that sheet. These for some reason cannot be accessed as fields in the Sheet Index.  Simply allowing these to be scheduled would be half of the change I’m suggesting.  Image 3 below shows the “Revisions on Sheet” window next to the custom Y/N parameters I created for this project.  After that the formulated parameter would still need to be created.

If the Sheet Issues/Revisions system currently in Revit could drive all of this (Image 2 below) it would also solve the issue I had of moving these custom parameters between files (I had to use an empty project with only these parameters in them to transfer project parameters to my consultant/engineers files).  All you’d have to do is link a consultant’s file, or conversely all a consultant would have to do is link your file into theirs, and go to manage, transfer project standards, and select “Revision Settings” since you can transfer project standards of linked files without actually opening said linked files.

This feels very straight forward to me, but I’ve been dealing with it for a while.   I’d love to see Sheet Issues/Revisions and Sheet Lists synchronized in Revit. Thoughts?

Image 1: 

Image 2:

Image 3:

Footnote:

I posted this under the title, "Sheet Indexes and Revision Schedules - Why are they disconnected?," a few years here:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture/sheet-indexes-and-revision-schedules-why-are-they-d...

[Anonymous]

Now that I’ve established the premise I’ll describe the process I created.  It’s going to sound convoluted and complicated but that’s only because it’s not built in to the software to begin with.  It functions very efficiently after its setup.  The end result is a sheet index that includes sheets from linked sheets from every discipline’s model that populate the index automatically and correctly display the drawing release (the revision) each sheet is associated with by displaying a bullet in a particular revisions column.  Some sheets were there from the very beginning, some sheets came in later in the production process.  Image 1 below shows a clip of the end result of this system; a highly commonarrangement of the index of drawings that Revit is incapable of creating without the setup described below.

• Each bullet is essentially driven by two parameters; a YES/NO project parameter named for a revision and associated with “SHEETS” and a formulated parameter that actually creates the bullet.  For example, for a revision called “BID/PERMIT” I’ve got a YES/NO parameter called “Submittal – Permit” and a formulated parameter called “Permit Set Date” named to be generic and to provide a prompt to the user to rename it with the actual release date.  In this case “Permit Set Date” gets renamed to “08/24/2014 - BID/PERMIT” to show correctly on the cover sheet. 

• When a sheet is deemed to be in a “revision” (in the Revit sense) release the checkbox is checked in that sheet’s properties.  Each sheet to be shown on the index is also told to “Appear in sheet list” which is also a Y/N built in to each sheet in Revit, although I actually created an additional Y/N parameter to drive this called, “Appears in Schedule”.  The sheet index is then filtered by “Appears in Schedule” equals “Yes.”

• Now, of course each release also has to appear on the titleblock of each sheet.  This is where the actual revisions come in to play.  Each release gets a formal Revit revision that is then added to the sheet either via the “Revisions on Sheet” edit window (or in this case via a great Xrev Freebies product Xrev UpRev) if the release happens before revision clouds are necessary, or directly driven by revision clouds if they exist.

Do you see my issue here?  These two things, the Revisions and the sheet index/the parameters that drive it are all separate even though they are inherently interrelated.  To do one release that automatically schedules in this common form of sheet index I have to create 2 parameters and a revision and then I have to go to a sheet and add the revision to it and check the box to include it in that revision.

I’m suggesting that these two systems be inherently linked inside Revit.  When I create a revision in Revit the program should automatically create: a Yes/No parameter as a sheet instance property and a formulated schedule parameter driven by that Y/N that shows up as an addable field in any “Sheet List” schedule.  Everything should be driven by the revisions window (Image 2 below).

In writing this I found an even easier software tweak that would allow this to happen. The previously mentioned “Revisions on Sheet” button that each sheet has (under Identity Data on the properties pallet) is a way to add revisions to a sheet without having a revisions cloud on that sheet. These for some reason cannot be accessed as fields in the Sheet Index.  Simply allowing these to be scheduled would be half of the change I’m suggesting.  Image 3 below shows the “Revisions on Sheet” window next to the custom Y/N parameters I created for this project.  After that the formulated parameter would still need to be created.

If the Sheet Issues/Revisions system currently in Revit could drive all of this (Image 2 below) it would also solve the issue I had of moving these custom parameters between files (I had to use an empty project with only these parameters in them to transfer project parameters to my consultant/engineers files).  All you’d have to do is link a consultant’s file, or conversely all a consultant would have to do is link your file into theirs, and go to manage, transfer project standards, and select “Revision Settings” since you can transfer project standards of linked files without actually opening said linked files.

This feels very straight forward to me, but I’ve been dealing with it for a while.   I’d love to see Sheet Issues/Revisions and Sheet Lists synchronized in Revit. Thoughts?

Image 1: 

Image 2:

Image 3:

Footnote:

I posted this under the title, "Sheet Indexes and Revision Schedules - Why are they disconnected?," a few years here:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-architecture/sheet-indexes-and-revision-schedules-why-are-they-d...

[curtisridenour]

The information is there. I just want to display it in a table. Please add this very important tool to R2025.

[ckilger12]

Piling on an old topic that Autodesk still needs to address. Showing revision history for drawings is becoming more and more of a requirement not only from Construction Managers but our clients as well. Our current workflow is adding a shared parameter to our drawing index and using Tools like Ideate BIM Link to reconcile the data. As other have said, the data for revisions on sheets already lives in the models, just let us display that history in a schedule with advance and/or filtering capabilities.

[hashimRBQVV]

Currently the sheet list is limited to the revisions displayed on the drawing register / sheet list. There must be an option / way to transfer the date from the individual sheet revision schedule to a mater document that lists all the drawings and then when each drawing has been issued and revised.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

[Scott_D_]

If you want the same thing as me you're looking for a Matrix of all revisions for all documents to give a complete history of document issues.

[hashimRBQVV]

Hi Scott, 

Thank you for your reply, how does one go about doing this?

[Ric_Weber]

@hashimRBQVV, you posted this in the Revit Ideas forum, not the general forum.  I believe what you are requesting is to be able to see all revisions on a sheet in the sheet list, not just the most recent one?  We'd all love that!  And possibly even some sort of matrix system as @Scott_D_ mentioned as well.  Also high on a desirability list. 

As a workaround until that functionality is created in Revit, here is what's I've done.  I created custom yes/no parameters per Issue/Revision assigned to the sheets.  And then I use a Calculated Value in the sheet list to create the dots (in blue below). Then I created a Title block family which is nothing but a revision schedule placed sideways (in yellow below).  Then I just have to line everything up on the sheet and it looks like below.  

Having this capability built into the Sheet List natively would be AWESOME!  

But, I'm not sure if this is what you're asking about or not.  

[Ric_Weber]

Also, if that is what you're asking for, that idea has already been posted here: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/historic-revision-schedule/idi-p/6326483

[AliceKUTUV]

Hi team,

Product idea, already mentioned by various users... Its time Revit developed a drawing register that includes the past revisions issued, and dates issued. could this please be completed. I have tried all the suggestions, and we still go back to our excel version. We want this live linked, so we don't have to do the work multiple times!!!

It would also be great to include:

- who it is being issued to, in what format i.e. pdf, and how it is sent out i.e. email,

It would be great to be able to customize them. Thank you.

[hashimRBQVV]

@Ric_Weber Thank you for your post. That is right, I have posted this in the ideas forum following conversation with the Autodesk Technical Support team. I was told registering interest here would create an opportunity for the developers to include this as an update. However, seeing as there is a similar post almost a decade ago with about 500 votes, I'm not so sure this will happen.

I am not familiar with the matrix system, or how this can be used to achieved an automated drawing register to display historic revisions. With the revision information being fed in from the sheets. I think the work around solution you have works well. However, where a large amount of drawings are being released, seems like quite a task to reflect the register to the latest issues. Like, @AliceKUTUV I am back to using excel.

Agreed, would be best for it to be embedded in the sheet list function.

[rosPNXGN]

I totally agree. This is a must for Revit to supply within the main software frame. It is achievable however, with the use of Dynamo, to get exactly what everyone is asking for. A full drawing revision history that includes the actual Revision Number, not just a yes/no parameter, or having to use revision clouds. I'm a novice for Dynamo, so if I can achieve it, then there really is no excuse for Revit to not supply it.

[jweiler]

It has been a while since I tried it but I always had an issue bringing in linked model revision data

[Ric_Weber]

This is really, really needed asap. 

In the meantime, my workaround is similar to the OP, but what I've done is the following which allows me to have many pre-created parameters in our template and I can provide those parameters to our engineers/consultants via a schedule they can load and use at the beginning of the project.  

1. I created a title block family that is nothing but a rotated revision schedule.  
2. I created 30 (as a default) basic Yes/No shared parameters named IssueRev01, IssueRev02...
3. Inserted the parameters into the template project parameters for sheets category.
4. Inserted the revision block title block into the template. 
5. I have those IssueRev## parameters in my sheet index, hidden.
6. I have a calculated text parameter in my master schedule named Dot01, Dot02, etc. for each of the IssueRev## parameters... hidden until needed.  The formula puts a dot if IssueRev## is Yes, blank if not. 
7. I blank out the header of each of those Dot parameters.
8. Lastly, I place the revision block title block family above the sheet list on my sheet list sheet, line up the columns with the revision block lines and pin everything to make sure everything stays lined up.  If I need to split the sheet list, I just add more revision block title blocks.  

This allows me to not have to create a custom parameter with each release and, up to 30, I only have to pass the shared parameters along once.  If I find we're routinely needing more than that, I will up that default number.  

Looks something like this: yellow is the revision block title block, blue is the sheet list: 

[Ric_Weber]

@kimberly_fuhrman-jones, could you merge this with https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/historic-revision-schedule/idi-p/6326483  Thank you.