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This family tutorial will teach you some cool stuff about nested families, parameters and also save you a ton of time if you ever need to label room sizes.We teach you how to nest an annotative family (with instance parameters) into a model family. Then we link up the two sets of parameters in the model family and tie it all together with reference planes that result in downstream shape handles at the project level.
Once the family is loaded into the project you can 'align and / or lock' the nested / controlling reference planes to walls or parallel edges and the room size label updates . Use the 'align tool' or select the family and use the shape handles.
* The lessons learned here on nesting an annotation family within a model family and being able to nudge or move 'the annotation' part of the model family at the project level is NOT widespread knowledge.
Below is an embedded playlist with 1 CADclip demonstrating the family in action and 3 more CADclips showing you how to build the family yourself from scratch.
9 comments:
Cool idea, but impractical in the real world where room shapes just aren't that simple. Many rooms are not rectilinear (you even fudged it a bit in your example), so you would need a different family with a different configuration of reference planes with much more complex calculations for each type of room shape. And that's not even considering the complications of BOMA area standards.
I would have to disagree Rusty. This is 101% real world usable.
Have you ever had to label a room with basic width and length dimensions?
If so this is your huckleberry. You can align or drag the reference planes to where ever you want in an irregular shaped room.
At some point you simply have to list the two dimensions.
The person reading the plans never know for sure where the dimensions are going to but that is beside the point.
If you never have to label the room dimensions in a floor plan then this post and conversation is not for you.
I would have to agree that the family should be modified to be able to rotate it and leave the text horizontal.
I also disagree with Rusty however there might be some option for a more complex room
Would there be a way to set the family to give one the option to chose how many edges to include in the plan (say with a conditional statement and some number parameter?)
Then align all those lines to the different walls, given that the shapes are rectilinear in form?
However this is an awesome family
Nice idea.
I put this into practice today and ran into a couple of gotchas.
Ensure that any linework (room separations) you align and lock to is pinned or the family will move the linework.
Use Ref planes pinned when aligning and locking to underlying cad linework as the cadfile has a tendancy to move when adjusting the location of the tag.
We're using it on interiors work.
Thanks Daryl!
Thanks Richard, I use this family all the time for residential. Just remember to use the 'TAB' key while selecting the alignment edges as required.
Also, because it's a 'model family' with a nest annotation family you may need to 'hide in view > element' if it shows up in other floor plans. Still saves a ton of time.
Great tip! I've had a need for something like this for a long time.
What about rooms that are rotated? Can you rotate the generic model family, but leave the annotation 'straight'?
Another strange request.... we draw in metric.... but the clients understand imperial... is it possible to write 10' instead of 3050 mm ???
Potentially a great tool.
One problem.
Both myself and another Revit guy in my office have made this family using your instructions and the labels appear in the roof plan and have to be hidden.
Is there something in your instructions to prevent this?
I don't normally have problems with annotation from below showing up in other views.
Is this a side effect of embedding the annotation family in a Model family?
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