Structural Beam size in Tag

[Anonymous]

Is it possible to add Height and Width of beam in tagging? 

[Tom_Kunsman]

yes, you will need to create some new shared parameters for this new tag. These new parameters would need to be associated with structural framing. My first guess would be to add this data to the type catalog of the beam. 

[Mirko.Jurcevic · Accepted solution]

@Tom_Kunsmanis right.

Have in mind that you will need to add these shared parameters to all beams FAMILIES in the project so Tag may work properly.

For example, in your shared parameters create two additional (instance) Length parameters:

BEAM_WIDTH

BEAM_HEIGHT

Add those parameters to your beam family and to your tag family.

In the beam family, just enter in the formula column, for example =H, and =W to assign it to the values you already have in the family.

Load everything into a non-critical project to test.

[hmunsell]

We just name our Beam family types based on the size of the beam. Then in the tag we use the Type Name for the label.

[Mirko.Jurcevic]

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@hmunsell wrote:

We just name our Beam family types based on the size of the beam. Then in the tag we use the Type Name for the label.

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That's the most straightforward, and simplest solution, but it's prone to errors (tags may "lie" to you if you forget to rename it after you changed dimensions).

Also, it will not work if dimensions are instance parameters for some reason (I've seen that too).

[hmunsell]

True... you have to trust your user base to use the families correctly. I drill it into all of my staff to NEVER edit an exiting family. they are to always use Duplicate and name it appropriately if they need to change/adjust something. it was either that or edit all the structural framing families in our library (200+) to add the parameters.  Something i didn't necessarily want to do  :-).

[Mirko.Jurcevic]

Yes, changing the whole family library can be too much for some.

But hey, there is always Dynamo. You can add project shared parameters to Structural Framing category and ask Dynamo to copy values between parameters for you (and hope there are not many variations in parameter names, Width, Height, W, H etc.)

[reefunk]

I had the exact same problem and tried this straight away. I added 2 shared parameters for the height and width of a beam to a framing tag. Then I created 2 parameters with the same name in the copy of a concrete beam family and made them equal to the width and height parameters that already existed. Didn't work! Any ideas why? 

[Mirko.Jurcevic]

What do you mean by "with the same names"? You must use the same "shared" parameters that you used in the tag family (notice the name "shared": in your case they should be shared between one, or more, different structural framing families and structural framing Tag).

Having the same name means nothing to Revit. Revit looks GUID, not the parameter name.

Can you share this SF family and tag family so I can take a look?

[Anonymous]

Thanks I got it.