Tag: annotation

Using a Pseudo Lookup Table Excel File to Drive Visibility for Many Generic Annotation Instances

Luke Johnson

Let’s say you have a Generic Annotation family with about 60 different view states controlled by visibility Yes/No checkboxes. These visibility states are linked to Sheets, and the Generic Annotation families themselves are placed in the Sheet views in Revit. I’m sure you are thinking “why??” at this point, but let’s skip past that part…

Can we drive the Annotation family visibility states based on its ‘host Sheet’ in Revit? Not really.

Can we create a mapping table in Excel, Dynamo-push a single integer value into the Annotation instances based on the host Sheet, and drive the visibility by formula that way? Yep.

Here’s the basic steps:

  1. I used dir and Notepad++ to make the list, one column in Excel for the lookup value (I used Sheet Number), and one for the parameter I want to get and use
  2. This relied on having the Family parameter list sorted Ascending in the Family Editor

  3. The Excel sheet looked a bit like this – notice how the driving parameter is an Integer?

  4. This is the work in progress in Dynamo – getting the Generic Annotation families, matching them up and getting the related Excel integer value

  5. This is the completed dyn, with the push back into the Element Parameter to drive the visibility – see how the string has to get converted ToNumber before pushing into the Integer parameter?

  6. And here is one instance in the project

  7. After running this once, all visibility states are set properly throughout the project

Yet another example of @dynamobim making the Revit-impossible, possible 🙂

    Forcing the Leader to Always Attach to the Top Line of multi-line Label tag Element in Revit

    Luke Johnson

    Make your Label aligned to Top and Left.  Add a long line of Invisible Lines type a little bit further Left than the label itself.

    Your leader will now attach at the midpoint of the Invisible Line, provided the Label element does not become bigger (too many carriage returns) than the Line itself.

    This works for any kind of basic annotation tag – Keynote Tags etc.

    From:
    Revit – Multi-line Workaround for Generic Annotations – Autodesk – Video Tutorial

    Face Based, Wall Hosted Lighting fixture with nested Plan Annotation Symbol? Yes!

    Luke Johnson

    Very cool and advanced workaround by Jose Fandos over at Andekan:
    We will route around this limitation by first inserting the annotation family into another face-based family, and using this intermediary face-based family to place the annotation the way we want into the final Lighting Fixture.
    via
    Symbols for Lighting Fixtures Showing in Plan – Andekan � Blog

     
    He also demonstrates that some Lighting Fixtures will display the Maintain Annotation Orientation checkbox, but some will not, and how to work around this.

    You can use the Insert 2D Elements to bring in Annotation …

    Luke Johnson

    from the currently opened file!

    So if you want to copy annotation and detail elements from one Plan View to another (without having to fiddle around with filtering of selections etc), just go to:

    Then, browse to the currently opened file, select it, and then select the source view.  Click to place.  Done.

    Also very cool:

    • ● this command has intelligence with regard to Detail lines vs Model lines!  Even though the Filter command cannot tell you if a line is Detail or Model, this Insert 2D Elements command will only bring detail lines
    • ● running this command places the items onto the Clipboard as well.  In certain situations, you can use the Paste Aligned command (such as between aligned Plan Views) AFTER you have finished placing the first instance of the 2D elements …

    Stair Path Annotations in Revit 2013

    Luke Johnson

    Pre-2013 sketch based stairs have the Stair Path bound to the actual Stair element.  In Revit 2013 when using Component Stairs, the Stair Path becomes a separate element.  Think of it as a special Tag for Stairs.  The Stair Path tool is located on the Annotate ribbon:

    You can safely delete the path from views where you don’t want to see it.  It seems that these are automatically created in certain Plan views – I’m unsure what the ‘rule’ governing the automatic creation of Stair Paths is, yet.

    The Stair Path is a System Family.  You can Duplicate existing Path types to create and customize the Stair Path to your liking:

    Also, the Categories related to Stair UP and DOWN text have all been moved to the Annotation Categories in Visibility / Graphics!  You won’t find them under Model – Stairs anymore:

    You can learn more at:
    Annotating the Stair Path – WikiHelp

    Lost your Centerline Symbol text?

    Luke Johnson

    Let’s say you have isolated a few categories, and you have included Dimensions so that they are still visible.

    However, your dimensions are no longer showing the Centerline symbol text – do you know why?

    It is because this item is on a different category to dimensions themselves. In my case, I had to turn on the ‘Generic Annotation’ category in order to show this text.

    Add a URL link to your Titleblock – easy way to advertise!

    Luke Johnson

    No doubt you issue many PDF files to consultants, Clients, Builders and the like. Why not add a URL link to your titleblock, so that anyone receiving your PDF files can jump directly to your webpage?

     

    Its as simple as adding a parameter of type:URL into your titleblock.

     

    To make it even easier for you, I have created a Generic Annotation family with a URL parameter inside it. Simply load this family into your titleblock, then link the parameter from it to a parameter in your titleblock (see image).
    Here is the download link:

     

    Now, when anyone opens this PDF, they can jump directly to your webpage.
    The URLs worked fine for me using CutePDF and Adobe Reader, but Foxit Reader seemed to have an issue parsing the link correctly.

    Copy from Annotation to Model Families

    Luke Johnson

    Revit doesn’t want you to copy lines between Annotation and Model Families (see below)

    However, it can be done. This is the workflow to copy lines from Annotation to Model families:
    1. Copy lines from the Annotation Family to a plan view in a Project File.
    2. Copy the lines from the Project File to a Profile Family.
    3. Copy the lines from a Profile Family to the Model Family.


    Pretty tricky workaround huh?