Monday, December 15, 2008

Room Name - Full or Abbreviation

Sometimes a name is just too much, too long, it just doesn't fit in a room. The stock Name parameter for a room is easy, it's already there waiting for us to us. When we use abbreviations in this parameter we end up with some full names and some abbreviations. An abbreviation of "T." for Toilet might be fine on a plan view but it is less than stellar in a schedule. We could use another stock parameter like comments to store an abbreviation instead but that subverts its usefulness for actual comments.

Shared Parameters to the rescue!

I've written several posts about shared parameters in the past so I won't go into making them again in this post (see bottom). This is what you need to do to get a new parameter working in a project.

Create a shared parameter (called Abbreviation for example)

Create a room tag family that uses your shared parameter, save the Family and load the family into your project

Add a Project Parameter (Settings > Project Parameter) using your shared parameter too. Assign the parameter to the Room Category

Use the parameter in your rooms, set-up a schedule and tag your rooms with the appropriate tag.

This gives the best of both worlds. Supply abbreviations for names that are unruly and don't bother for reasonable names. A schedule will make it easy to define either and those that don't have abbreviations don't "need" them. Just make sure you use the correct tag to display the value you really want people to see.

I've posted a revised copy of my Egress Example project that contains a working example of the shared parameter, tag and schedule.

This post Shared Parameter File: A Little Clarification provides a full list of the posts I've made in the past on the subject of Shared Parameters.

6 comments:

Valkin said...

In my office we've been discussing this very topic. What you've suggested here is exactly what i was thinking about. Thanks for the post

Rocky said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Steve said...

Rocky,

I don't know where you live but you should see if there are any schools nearby that offer a two year degree in architectural drafting.

You could also pursue a full architecture degree at a university/college.

Short of formal education you would do well to read everything written by Francis Ching as well as any text books on the subject of drafting and architecture. These will provide you with basic knowledge of drafting practices in architecture.

Learning how buildings go together and the engineering of architecture is another matter. Not to mention the history of architecture and design philosophy.

You can try to approach a firm with the intention to be an intern, someone who wants to learn "the way" but won't earn the same salary as someone who is already knowledgeable and skilled in the field.

Just knowing Revit is one thing. Applying it to architecture and engineering is another, as you are finding out.

Good luck!

Rocky said...

Thanks Steve

Christopher said...

One thing I'm not clear on, Steve. What's your technique for getting the tag to display the new "Abbreviation" parameter if it is filled in, but still display the "official" Name parameter if Abbreviation is left blank? (Or are these two different types in the Room Tag family?)

Anonymous said...

ctd, you can do it 2 ways. one with 2 different room tags. Or in your room tag family, create 2 yes/no parameters. e.g. one called "Abbreviation" and the other called "not abbreviated". Then set the "not abbreviated" formula to not(Abbreviation). Make sure both are instance parameters. Then you can use those two yes/no values to control the visibility of the full room name or the abbreviated name.