Attach Global Parameter On Creation

[scbunker]

I have a parameter in a family that I'd like to attach to a global parameter for every instance of the family. But you cannot attach to the global parameter on creation like you can instance parameters in order to establish a default. Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this?

My particular application is this: I have a fire alarm strobe family that I want to show the strobe coverage, but I want that strobe coverage to turn off before I print, so I want to connect a visibility parameter to a global parameter to just turn them all off at once. If anyone has a better way to do this other than what I'm trying to do, please share!

Thanks.

[ToanDN]

Just select one, right click, select all instances in project, and associate the global parameter.

[jade.l · Accepted solution]

Another suggestion would be make the strobe coverage shown only in fine view and you could print your drawings under medium view. 

[scbunker]

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@ToanDN wrote:
Just select one, right click, select all instances in project, and associate the global parameter.

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Unfortunately, there are several different types. And it wouldn't help when we need to add new devices.

[scbunker]

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@jade.l wrote:

Another suggestion would be make the strobe coverage shown only in fine view and you could print your drawings under medium view. 

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That's a great idea. I'll give it a shot when I have time and I'll let you know how it works out. I'm still in the process of creating the families as I have time in between projects.

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

How about make it a type instead of an instance parameter?

[scbunker]

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@ToanDN wrote:
How about make it a type instead of an instance parameter?

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You know what, for some reason I had it in my head that you couldn't attach global parameters to family type parameters. But I just checked and that's not correct; you can attach global parameters to type parameters. So thanks!

I think both of these solutions are good ones. I'll decide what works best for my purposes.

[scbunker]

Do you happen to know a way to make Revit automatically change a global parameter upon printing?

[scbunker]

So I was attempting to implement this and I ran into a problem. See this thread:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-mep-forum/yes-no-calculation-not-working-properly/m-p/7534107#M...

I realize now, @ToanDN, that you're also in the other thread. Thanks for the help in both places! But perhaps this will give you context for what I'm trying to do in the other thread.

@jade.l, perhaps you can also take a look at the other thread and provide input. It's actually not only things like strobe coverage that I'm trying to apply this to, but also to some things that need to print, so changing visibility based on detail level will not work.

[L-Vettz]

I'm not sure how to fix your global parameter problem, but could you possibly create a subcategory for the object style of the strobe family and apply that subcategory to the strobe area model lines, then just use your view filters to turn off that subcategory for print?

[scbunker]

Thanks for your reply. In this thread I was thinking about creating strobe coverage, and your method may work. I haven't started the strobe coverage project yet.

The application that I am actively working on is text within families. I have a generic annotation within families that is just a label. When we send our model out to the architect, they're complaining that they can see all our text. I was trying to use the global parameter to turn off all of these labels prior to sending out our model (as part of our clean-up/purge procedure). Unfortunately, you cannot assign a subcategory to text or to nested families.