Tag: lookup table

Storing Data for Revit Families in Formulas, Type Catalogs and Lookup Tables

Luke Johnson

I once built an auto-sizing Fire Pipe Fitting using a Formulaic method (where the various fitting sizes were driven by the Revit intersection variable), so I was interested to read about a similar strategy in a very good article in AUGIWorld January 2018 by Todd Shackelford.  It is really good to evaluate these different options before going ahead on a detailed Family development and creation task.

Among other things, Todd describes how to create a Type Catalog, including a list of the various data types:

He also describes how to use multiple Lookup Tables in a single Revit Family:

 

Overall, it is a very informative article for advanced Revit family creators.

 

Check out the full article online here:

page 36

Type Catalogues and the Revit API

Luke Johnson

Have you ever wondered if there are API commands for addressing or automating Type Catalog information in Revit? A recent post from Jeremy Tammik covered some of this. In it, he discusses the difference between

  • the embedded MEP lookup tables (which the API can address using FamilySizeTable and FamilySizeTableManager), and
  • the legacy text file lookup tables, which are basically a specially formatted TXT file with the same name as the RFA.

The post is well worth a read, as he also references some useful resources in the Revit help and an AU class…

 What about units in Type Catalogues? Quoting directly from The Building Coder:
 “
Question: we’re trying to create type catalogue in txt file for Radiator family. We were trying to define a parameter in watt units, with no success. How to define header for this parameter?
Answer: Look at page 15 of Martin Schmid’s Autodesk University class handout on Creating Revit MEP Content for Engineering Coordination.
Here is a sample Exhaust Fan RFA and TXT file for you to play with.
They don’t use Watts, but should give the idea if you are not already familiar with type catalogues.
Also, the families guide provides a list of the parameter types, namely, for electrical_power: watts, kilowatts, british_thermal_units_per_second, british_thermal_units_per_hour, calories_per_second, kilocalories_per_second, volt_amperes, kilovolt_amperes, horsepower.
 “

From original post at: http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2015/07/type-catalogues.html

Using the Default Lookup Table Location to Upgrade MEP Projects without Losing Types

Luke Johnson

So, you have received a RTE or RVT file (along with related CSV lookup tables) and want to upgrade it without getting the “One or more families in this project are missing .csv files” error…

For example, you may download a Piping Template (like this one from AUGI), and it comes with CSV files but you don’t know where to put them? Or you have received some other MEP template file from the wild, and you would like to upgrade and use it?

The thing with MEP content is that some of it is based on, or related to, Lookup Tables. These are text (CSV) files that contain type data, essentially making it easy to create and manage types without having to always use the Family Editor to do so. However, if these are missing, you will get an error message when you attempt to open or upgrade a project that needs them:

To fix this, you need to copy the required CSV files into the Pipe and Conduit subfolders of the Lookup Tables folder that matches the version of Revit that you are upgrading TO.

The key Project Browser tree entries are Conduit Fittings and Pipe Fittings:

If you have a Suite installed, you may find that these CSV files are duplicated in various locations, to provide support files for 3dsMax and Navisworks. Some of these paths are shown here:

You can browse to the above paths, and start to put together a “consolidated” or “combined” CSV Lookup Table folder, that you may want to maintain in a network location. Once you have collected all of the necessary CSVs, here is how you “install” them:

  1. Determine location to put the CSV files into (usually it will be near your Family Templates folder, a few example paths are provided below)
  2. Create a master folder of all required CSV files (you could maintain a consolidated folder in a network location)
  3. Copy these CSV files to the Pipe and Conduit folder locations (you shouldn’t need to restart Revit).
  4. Open the MEP RVT or template file that you wish to upgrade
  5. Any CSV files that are still missing are the ones you need to find, and put in the Pipe and Conduit subfolders as per steps 1-3.

You could script some of the above steps to aid in deployment.
Revit 2014 Lookup Tables default location:
C:ProgramDataAutodeskRVT 2014Lookup TablesPipe
C:ProgramDataAutodeskRVT 2014Lookup TablesConduit

Revit 2015 Lookup Tables default location:
C:ProgramDataAutodeskRVT 2015Lookup TablesPipe
C:ProgramDataAutodeskRVT 2015Lookup TablesConduit

NOTE: Massive amounts of CSV lookup tables in the default directory may result in slow Revit performance, particularly when starting Revit.

If you want to import Lookup Tables directly into families (and you are perhaps experiencing errors with nested families), this PDF may be of interest.

Finally, you can actually modify Lookup Table location using the revit.ini file, as described here. You could therefore point your Revit installations to a network location containing all of the required CSV files for your firm.

You can download content from Seek and other places online. Sometimes you will find a CSV file, sometimes you may have to export one as per the video below:

There is some related info at:
http://revitoped.blogspot.com.au/2008/10/revit-mep-lookup-tables.html

Feel free to comment if you have any other tips related to Lookup Tables…

Enabling Lookup Table CSV support on non-supported Categories

Luke Johnson

The BIM Data is a new blog by Mohammed Mahboob.  In a recent post, he describes using a Pipe Fittings family template and switching it to Generic Model to enable (retain) the Lookup Table CSV support.

Read the whole post at http://thebimdata.blogspot.ae/2013/08/loop-in-lookup-table-name-parameter.html

    Good workaround!

    Check the blog out at:
    The BIM Data

    How to edit Lookup Tables using import / export macro and Excel (MEP)

    Luke Johnson

    I have previously described how you can Link Excel spreadsheet data into Revit (through AutoCAD).

    But what if you want to semi-automate the process of editing Lookup Tables using Excel?  The blog http://www.revitmep.es/ shows you how:

    We explain how to create a lookup table for the families…
    The biggest impediment there is import and export these files, we use a macro in Excel to streamline these tasks.
    via
    Google Translate

    of

    Original Post

    And here is a direct link to the macro-enabled Excel file:
    Editor Lookup Tables.xlsm