View References in text

[doni49]

It is quite common to have general notes or even a text object with a leader that says something like "FOR WIDGET TYPE A, SEE DTL 1, SHT A-101".  But to do this I currently have to either place my text and leave whitespace where I'll come back later and place a separate view reference OR type in the view reference by hand which will require that I manually update it if the view and/or change gets renumbered.

Please allow me to insert a view reference into my text objects.

I'm envisioning something similar to FIELDS in AutoCAD.

[lionel.kai]

While we're at it, we might as well discuss FORMATTING... (which affects implementation for the Factory guys):

I noticed that you used "DTL 1, SHT A-101" as your example, while we would use "1/A-101" or just "A-101" (in those cases where we want to refer to a whole sheet or range of sheets, ex. "S501 THRU S505"). I'm sure there would be a myriad of other possibilities, so I'm thinking there should be some way to pre-specify the formatting (which would require a settings dialog - a list of named settings that you could add to or edit; editing would bring up a dialog similar to the Label dialog in a View Reference family, although I'd prefer it have access to ALL Sheet- & Detail-related parameters, including custom/shared ones, and even project parameters while we're at it).

Then, when you want to insert a reference, you'd click some button (that would allow you to select a Format and a View). The reference should be highlighted gray in the Text editor, or formatted some other way, to indicate it's a field. Selecting (or clicking in?) a reference would allow you to change the Format and/or View. If the Format that you want isn't there, you should be able to add & edit one.

I just figured that I'd explicitly state (to Autodesk) that we do NOT want to have to make separate clicks/insertions for Detail Number and Sheet Number (but instead want the ability to add prefixes & suffixes such as "DTL " & ", SHT " so that we can get them both in one shot) - it's hard enough tracking down the view in the long lists, we don't want to have to do it twice - AND we want to be able to just see the Sheet Number (and preferably the other fields, too, but those two are the main ones).

[casquatch]

Yes. Mostly just giving us access to all parameters (shared and built-in) within an "inline text view reference" family would solve it. You could then build your pre-defined standard family for those inline references and load them into the project. Once loaded, Revit would see them as inline text view references and then you would be able to insert them as needed, selecting from the pre-defined families/types.

[SethO]

You should be able to add a view reference in line with the text.  In other words, the text could say, "CONCRETE FILLED STEEL BOLLARD, REFER TO DETAIL 2/A1.11" and the reference would be linked to the actual detail.  There are some third party tools that do it, but it should be native to the application.

[pieterschiettecatte]

There's an similar idea for this (even has the same title).

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/view-references-in-text/idi-p/6423681?nobounce

[Anonymous]

Also consider being able to access view references in other places such as filters for example. I think it would be very powerful to be able to create a filter that partially matches view names so that one could filter some elements and effect their visibility based on the name of the view that contains those elements. Hmmm... I'm not wording myself very clearly on this, but trust me, it would be awesome.

-t

[lionel.kai]

@Anonymous Please create the idea and post the link here so we can vote on it. I'm always in favor of more powerful filters. I would love to be able to create a filter that turns off all sections on sheets other than the one that the current view is on. That way I wouldn't have to always manually turn off sections in our key plan (or be forced to maintain different filters for each view - and remove filters from the template). But that's a completely different view than this text-related one, so it needs a separate post.

[Anonymous]

@lionel.kai I've been meaning to add this idea for a while now, this thread just reminded me about it. I've now added it as its own idea: Add Substitution Variables. Please vote for it if you like it.

-t

[pieterschiettecatte]

When the factory does research on this idea: please consider adding this functionality not only to plain text, but also as a parameter to families. That way, one could "attach" details to walls, doors, etc. When tagged or scheduled, these items would report the view reference of their relevant details.

[Anonymous]

I would like to add minor request on top of that.  Can we have the ability to add leader with arrowhead to View reference tags.

[doni49]

If the do as I'm requesting. That won't be an issue. Text can already have leaders. This request is to allow a View Reference w/in that result.

[lionel.kai]

@doni49 You're correct for text references, but we also use (graphic) bubbles.

@Anonymous I'd also like View References to have that option (like Annotations) - it would save us from having to make separate Text objects with the invisible character just to get a leader, but I think that would be a separate idea. Could you please create it and link here so we could vote on it? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Great idea!

[Anonymous]

I agree, this feature would prevent a lot of issues and work, even if we don't have options to change the standard formatting.

[lionel.kai]

BTW, when inserting references into text, we need search and detail/sheet numbers shown (like reference other view, not like View References, see View Reference vs Reference Other View (make them the same) - can't believe there's not more votes on that one).

[Anonymous]

Agreed Lionel. I'm also surprised this one didn't get more votes: View References in Schedules 

There should be a way to setup view reference 'style' (basically the label editor we already have for annotation families) and then use those in both text AND parameter/schedules

That way, the building elements can be linked to the relevant views using parameters. 

[casquatch]

Of course I have to agree with @lionel.kai 

As with many things in Revit, there could be a bit more consistency in how things are setup and implemented.

[Meelis123]

I would expand the functionality.

Imagine that you could write text something like: "The total area of the first floor is..." and then you click "Add text field" and then you open a room schedule and select the grand totals cell and you have this value at the end of your sentence! Or you add a value of the parameter of a family type or instance. You could write the whole book with automatically updated values and references this way.

[scbunker]

Why must this be limited to view references? Why not provide the ability to insert anything from the database into a field? 

For example, sometimes I need to reference a panel and circuit number for a particular circuit within a block of text. 

EDIT: I just realized that this comment is essentially a copy of @Meelis123's. I'll let it stand as an additional example of the usefulness of text fields within Revit.

[SethO]

Brilliant!

[Anonymous]

@scbunker See my idea here: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/add-substitution-variables-everywhere-where-text-can-be-e...