Using Project Information in family formula

[tbrown6608]

I have a set of mechanical equipment families that I'm trying to adjust the way they function. Each family has 2 variables in a formula that are each determined by a parameter. The formula will have a different result for each instance of the family. While these 2 variables will always be the same for a given project, they will be different project to project. Currently, the 2 variables are type parameters loaded into each family, so in order to change them, a user needs to go through each and every family to do so. It's too easy for one to be missed in this way.

My hope was to create shared Project Parameters that the families would reference in their calculations, so we could adjust the values in a single place in the project (like Project Information) and know that every family was adjusted correctly. However, this doesn't work as I had hoped because in order to reference them in the formulas, the parameters need to be loaded into the families, which take precedence over the Project Parameter values. Does anyone have any ideas on how to achieve this? I'm open to changing how the families function if it will allow this to work.

For clarity, the parameters are shared, Number type parameters. I'm using Revit 2020 for our project template file (we have clients that use older versions of Revit), but I do have the later versions if there is a newer feature that would help make this work.

[nmarcelis]

You could try to create both the parameters in the required families that need modifications. Then create an excel sync(with dynamo) to read and write values to the parameters required.

this is how I would do this for this required workflow.

[iainsavage]

You could edit the family parameters en masse by using a schedule with "itemise every instance" unchecked and a filter/sort to isolate your affected families.

Or you could maybe use something like DiRoots Paramanager or Sheetlinkto edit family parameter values quickly.

Or use Dynamo to extract the value from the project parameter and pass the value to the family parameters, similar to this post (you'd need to edit the script accordingly but if you need help with that come back and ask).

[craigjonnson]

Why not create a multi-category schedule, add your parameters, untick the itemise all instances and change the value (If its the same) for all families that way?

[fabiosato · Accepted solution]

Hello,

You can create a Global parameter and link it to your families.

Very important if the family parameter is instance or type.

The set up can take a little time, but this can be done in the template.

[tbrown6608]

Thank you! This worked for what I was trying to do.