Removing False Electrical Equipment Text Parameters

[dhanvinddvs]

Voltage and Wattage are system parameters hard coded into the Electrical Equipment Family as text parameters, which means that we can't use these parameters for calculation or formulas in developing high level equipment.  Could these please be removed? Even with them included I have to create and alternate parameter for actual Voltage and wattage (which means I end up with something atrocious like 'Voltage 1' in addition to a Voltage parameter the reads "DO NOT USE". 

[Scott_D_]

Surely fixing it to be useful would be a better idea.

I have created and use shared parameters for the categories below:

True Power (W)

Apparent Power (VA)

Reactive Power (VAR)

Power Factor (Cos Phi)

[dhanvinddvs]

I would agree that it could be a better idea for them to actually make the parameters match the electrical information that is already a capability of the equipment, but it's only a step above what they have now.  My main reasoning is this: as the parameters are now, they are hard-coded into the family type and as such are not renamable, or re-organizable.  Say they change the text parameter "Wattage"  to be an actual representation of load in Watts.  At one company they may be concerned about the wattage but at another, they are not, at another still they want the value that the wattage represents, but they wish it to be called something different.  I suppose what I'm getting at is stripping useless parameters out of the families and giving full control of the parameters to user's shared parameters files is a much better way to make sure that the family's meet the needs (and standards) of the widest range of people possible.

Another very good example of a parameter that would be better off stripped from the family template: Apparent Load in lighting fixtures.  The default parameter for apparent load in the lighting fixture families is a type parameter, which works for 99% of any light fixture we would ever create.  Unless you happen to want to make an awesome linear strip/tape fixture that updates load dynamically based on the length of the device.  In that instance, you need to create a shared (or family depending) parameter "Apparent Load <insert variation>" that is exactly the same, except instance based.  

Autodesk developers are not the best suited to determine which parameters we would or would not need in every instance.  By the very nature of the wide range of users, there is always going to be one person that wants to use something differently.  I'm not saying we can make Revit 100% perfect for everyone by any means but removing default parameters (particularly the inane/useless ones) seems a simple step forward toward making more happy Revit users in the future.

[Scott_D_]

As I understand it the Wattage parameter is used for the nominal power of the element.

It has nothing to do with the engineering metadata which uses Apparent Load instead.

I agree that the Wattage parameter is fairly useless as it currently stands.

[tlc_coreyschiller]

I agree completely, including some pictures to help demonstrate this issue.

When associating an electrical connector with a voltage parameter nothing shows up by default.  You create a new parameter named "Voltage" and get the error that name is already in use.

Sure enough, looking at the built-in parameters we see "Voltage" already defined as a text parameter, which cannot be changed or deleted.

What's the point of including this as a built-in parameter?  It seems very non-BIM friendly to treat voltage as text in the first place.

[CarlJ07]

Hi guys, I guess I can help you out with the solution. You just need to switch the family type to " Generic Model" temporarily, add the Voltage parameter and then switch it back to "Electrical equipment".

[Anonymous]

@CarlJ07 

That doesn't work either.

When using a Shared Parameter, it throws this error:

When using a Family Parameter, it renames your parameter:

Autodesk, this is egregious!

This makes it impossible to link the 'Voltage' : Electrical Potential parameter of an Electrical Connector in the family to a 'Voltage' : Electrical Potential parameter defined on the family.

If consistency of parameter names is desired, this requires the user to create separate families for each voltage of electrical panel, which is a completely arbitrary limitation on this one category of element!

[Jason_Peckovitch]

I cannot believe that Revit has been doing MEP for at least 12 years and this still hasn't been addressed.