Aligned Duct Tags

Want your duct tags to align to duct at all sorts of angles?

Duplicate your duct tag family, go to the family categories button and set the tag to "rotate with component". Save with the suffix "-Aligned" and use it when needed. That was easy.

Browsers on the Right Click

I should be used to little things slipping by unnoticed with Revit by now. Today's discovery, Missing a browser, just right click. There you will find Properties, and now in 2015 you will also find the Project Browser and the System Browser. 

Is it HUGE? Naw, but I like options, and this is a great one.

Radius v. Diameter for MEP Connectors

When placing round connectors in families, Revit allows you drive the dimension of the connector with either the diameter or the radius, but there is a catch.

All of the round connectors must be driven the same way. 

When editing an existing HVAC family to add some hydronic connections, I couldn't change from diameter to radius. A quick test revealed that the round duct connector already set to diameter was locking all round connections to diameter. I deleted the duct connector and the radius choice reappeared.

In this case "all or nothing" set to radius was not a problem, it actually cleaned up the family. It just just a quirk that good to know about. 

Receptacle Family Example

This article comes from my Revit Basics Blog which I have decided to shut down. 

Electrical construction documents depend upon the use of symbolic representations of devices in plan view. The symbolic representation on a receptacle, for example is larger than the actual 3 dimensional modeled receptacle used for elevations and interference detection. It has to be to effectively convey the receptacle type and still be readable at an 1/8th scale. Because it is oversized placing receptacles close together in the model causes the plan symbols to overlap. That is unless the symbolic part of the family can be independently moved from the modeled component. Using a receptacle family as an example, this article will demonstrate how to do just that.


Begin by creating the symbolic annotation family of the plan symbol. Use the generic annotation family template provided with Revit. Name it “Family_A”. Using detail lines draw the plan symbol at the size it would be on a plotted sheet.

Controlling Up and Down Movement

Create another generic family. Use the generic annotation family template again. Name it “Family_AA”. Load “Family_A” into “Family_AA” to create a nested family. Place the nested symbology above the horizontal reference plane in Family_AA, but centered on the vertical plane. Draw a horizontal reference line under the symbology, and make it a weak reference.

Using an aligned dimension or the Align tool, lock the nested receptacle family to the reference line. Add a dimension from the reference line to the horizontal reference plane in “Family_AA”. Add an instance parameter to the dimension and name it “Offset From Wall”. This will add the ability to move the plan symbol away from the hosting wall or entity.

Create a third family using the Generic Face Based or the Generic Model template. Wall based or other options can be used here, so pick what works for to maintain company standards. In any case, the family will be built the same, but “push/pull” options are slightly different once the family is placed into the model. Name the new family “Receptacle”.


Create the following instance Parameters in the new family.

• Offset From Wall

• Offset From Wall2

• Offset L R

Create the following type Parameters in the new family.

• Plan Symbol

• Plan Scale

Load “Family _AA” into the “Receptacle” family and place it on the intersection of the two main reference planes. Assign the “Offset From Wall” in your nested family to the “Offset From Wall2” parameter in the host family by selecting “Family_AA” and selecting the box to the right of the “Offset From Wall” parameter in the Properties palette and then selecting the “Offset From Wall2” parameter in the dialog that pops up. This will allow the user to add a dimension to move the receptacle symbology off the wall without moving the model portion of the family.

Since the receptacle family scale is based on the plan scale, and it is unknown what that scale will be until it is placed in a view, a way push that information to the family is needed. Otherwise, an entered 6” offset may move the receptacle symbol radically more or less than 6” on the plan.  The Plan Scale parameter will be used as a mechanism for the user to convey the view scale to the family. At this time, Revit families do not have a parameter for the scale of the view they are placed in. Click on the Family Types button on the ribbon and as a default, set the “Plan Scale” parameter to 0’-0 1/8”.  To get the proper offset for any scale, add the following formula to the “Offset From Wall2” parameter “Offset From Wall / 1' * Plan Scale”.  The “Plan Scale” parameter must be manually entered by the user.

Controlling Left and Right Movement


To control the side to side movement of the receptacle symbol a vertical reference plane must be dimensioned and labeled. Revit will not allow negative values in dimensions, so the base plane can not be placed in the center of the symbol. To allow the offset to go both left and right of the center reference plane, add a reference plane to the 4’ left of the center reference plane. This sets the maximum offset, so adjust if required. Set the “L R” default to 4’, to align the plan symbol and the elevation symbol when families are placed. This plane should be pinned and set to “Not a Reference”. Create another reference plane and name it “L R”. Lock “Family_AA” to this reference plane, and make it a weak reference. Add a dimension from “L R” to the left reference plane, and set it to “Offset L R”.

If using a face based family, the “push/pull” grips to control the Left and Right location of the symbolic annotation now exist, but the offset from the wall distance must be manually typed in the properties dialog.

If using a generic family, the “push/pull” grips exist for control left and right as well as the offset distance from the wall.

Tags That show Imperial and Metric Units

I got question from long time friend last week asking if it were possible to tag a duct with imperial and metric units. He needed the tag to show  as

 12x12 (300x300)

On the surface it might seem impossible. The units for a Revit project are one or the other, but you can beat this by creating a special Tag family. For this tag start with the Generic Tag.rft template and categorize it as a Duct Tag. Add three labels in a row; Size, Height, and Width. Use the Prefix and Suffix columns to add the open and closed parenthesis. Now select the Height parameter in the Edit Label dialog. Use the icon at the bottom with the image of the hand over the pound sign to change the format by un-checking "Use project settings" and then setting the units to Millimeters. Do the same for Width, and you have a mighty fine duct tag that will show imperial and metric units at the same time.

Energy Analysis - Revit MEP, GBS, Trace 700, DOE-2, eQuest

So, I was reading the Inside the System Blog. There Kyle wrote about the Advanced Energy Analysis Blog, where there is a fabulous article for Revit MEP users that want to look at different ways to extract model data into analysis software. 

















Dang, I wish I did all the research and posted this myself. Thanks for the kick start gents!

Revit 2013 Pipe Breaks Plumbing Fixture

I ran into a new one today where pipe running over a sink in a linked model, broke the sink like it might break another crossing pipe.

For what ever reason, if you check the "Underlay" box in the Revit Links tab of Visibility Graphics, life gets better.

Better, but not perfect. The sink appears correct, but not subdued. I'll take it for now, but I am not happy.

New Favorite Error

It seems bad, but sounds cool.

I just can't say what it means.

Thanks to Bob Beckerbauer from RDG Omaha for discovering this one.

The Most Excellent Revit Template

People ask me, "How do I create the most excellent Revit template?".

Well here is how you do it. In the File Locations section in Options simply type over the default name for your template and change it.

That was easy.

Everything about Revit Schedules

The Schedule tool is found on the View tab of the ribbon and includes five types of schedules; Schedule/Quantities, Material Takeoff, Sheet List, Note Block, and View List.

Schedule/Quantities

The Schedule/Quantities type produces a schedule of a selected family category. Most of Alvine’s schedules are of this type. The image below shows a list schedules for differing family categories in the Alvine template.

To create a new schedule, select the Schedules/Quantities tool. This opens the New Schedule dialog.

Select the appropriate family category to schedule by clicking on it. Only one category can be selected at a time. <Multi-Category> can be used to use all categories at once. Typically filtering is used with <Multi-Category> to narrow the schedule to the desired categories.

The Name of the schedule will automatically fill out once the category is selected. The name can be accepted as is or cleared and typed in as desired.

Under the name, users have the choice of creating a schedule of building components of creating a schedule keys for every category except <Multi-Category>. Schedule keys can be used to apply information to multiple items that have the same characteristics. If an electrical device, mechanical equipment, or telecom device has a defined key, and is added to a schedule, fields in the schedule will automatically update with the keyed information, reducing the time required to produce the schedule. Schedule keys are instance parameters and project parameters which automatically apply themselves to every family of a particular category. Values applied to the key, are applied to the individual elements.

Select “Schedule building components” for this example.

Schedules are phase aware. Use the Phase drop down to select which phase of the current project to schedule components from. This way existing or future elements can be filtered out of a schedule.

Select “OK” to open the Schedule Properties dialog. The first tab in this dialog is the Fields tab. Different parameters for the selected category are listed in the Available fields: window on the left. Use the Add->  button in the middle of the dialog to add selected parameters to the right hand side Scheduled fields window. The <-Remove button can be used to send parameters back to the left window. If a required parameter is not available in the left window the Add Parameter can be used to select/create a project or shared parameter.

The Calculated Value button can be used to add percentages and formula driven data to the schedule. Give the field a name, select formula or percentage, then pick the discipline of the field. This is used to apply the proper units to the field. When entering formulas parameters are case sensitive.

The Filter tab allows a category to be filters by the parameters of that category. Alvine uses a schedule number parameter to associate families of the same category to differing schedules.

The Sorting and Grouping tab lets the user sort the data in the schedule by parameters either ascending or descending. A header, footer or both can be added to each sorted parameter in the finished schedule along with a blank line by checking those boxes.

Below is a check box for Grand totals. If checked the drop down to the right gives different combinations of data to associate with the totals.

The Itemize every instance check box creates a separate line for every instance of a model element. If left unchecked similar elements are combined into a single row in the schedule.

The Formatting tab addresses how each field in the schedule will appear. Select a field on the left to control its formatting. The heading of the schedules automatically reflect the name of the field, but can be overridden by typing a new heading in the provided box. The orientation and alignment can also be controlled here per field.

There is a check box to hide the field in the schedule. This enables sorting and filtering by a fields that are hidden in the schedule.

If Grand Totals is checked in the Sorting/Grouping tab for a field the Calculate totals box is enabled. This will place a grand total at the bottom of the schedule.

The Conditional Format button can be used to change the background color of a cell based of the value of the data in the cell. This is usually used to alert users of the schedule that a condition needs attention like low volume, under lit or exceeded distance.

The Field Formatting button is available for numeric fields, and allows for control of numbers format. By default the Use project settings box is checked. When checked the settings in Project units are used. When unchecked these settings can be overridden in the schedule. This is handy to remove the unit symbol, suppress zeros, or change the rounding of a number.

The last tab, Appearance controls the title, headers, fonts, and linework of the schedule. Alvine has standard line styles for the grid and border lines.

AUGI World - Tips to Leverage Data Efficiently

Check out Emy McGann's article in the March Edition of AUGI World "Tips to Leverage Data Efficiently". Skip to page 33 to get the low down on some elegant Revit MEP tips and tricks to try with the data in your model.

Oh yeah, there are a lot of other great articles in there as well like Jay Zallan's "The Ultimate Revit Hand: Every Revit Tip, Trick, Technique & Workaround (known & unknown)".


All right close up this window and get on with the learning. 

Duct Width and Height

What is Width? Well it depends.


In the image below a piece of rectangular duct is selected in Plan view. The Width is listed as 30".

In the image below the same piece of rectangular duct is selected in Section view. The Width is listed as 12".

Revit seems to list the dimension for the visible side of the duct in the view first. If it is listed as the Width or the Height of the duct depends on your point of view... literally.

Preset Sub Catagories

I like to use sub disciplines to sort by in the Project Browser. It is easy to define M, E,P, and even T disciplines, whatever. What is not so great is when users get creative with their sub discipline naming and things don't end up matching creating a mess in the  Project Browser .  A nice way to pre-load your standard sub discipline naming convention is to create view templates in your template and assign the sub discipline names in them. Because they are in the view templates, they will show in the drop down list of sub disciplines even if they have not been used in a view yet. Sweet!

Revit Family Formula Examples and Tricks

When creating formulas in a family it is helpful to have a go to list of examples. Here is mine.

IF Statement
IF (Length < 30′, 2′ 6″, 4′)    
     If the Length parameter is less than 30' x = 1 , y = 22'-6"
     If the Length parameter is greater than 30' this parameter will have a value of 4'-0"


IF that Returns a String
IF (Height > 30′, “This thing is tall”, “This thing is short”)     
     If the Height parameter is greater than 30' this parameter will return  This thing is tall
     If the Height parameter is less than 30' this parameter will return  This thing is short
Nested IF Statements
IF (Length < 35’, 2′ 6″ , IF (Length < 45′, 3′ , IF (Length < 55′, 5′, 8′ ) ) )
     If Length is less than 35', this parameter will have a value of 2'-6"
     If Length is between 35' and 45', this parameter will have a value of 3'
     If Length is between 45' and 55', this parameter will have a value of 5'
     If Length is greater than 55', this parameter will have a value of 8'

IF applied to a Yes/No condition
Length > 40' 
     If Length is greater than 40' the the statement is true and the Yes/No check box is checked
     If Length is 40' or less the statement is false and the Yes/No check box is NOT checked


IF OR
IF (OR (A = 1 , B = 3 ) , 10 , 5) 
     If A = 1 or B = 3 this parameter will have a value of 10
     If A is not = 1 and B is not = 3 this parameter will have a value of 5


IF AND
IF (AND (x = 1 , y = 2), 8 , 3 )     
     If x = 1 and y = 2 this parameter will have a value of 8

     If x is not = 1 or y is not = 2 this parameter will have a value of 3

Some Formula Tricks of the Trade

This or That only with a Yes/No parameters

By specifing that metal can not be true while Wood is true the user can only specify one of the two materials. They both can not be checked at the same time. This can be used for visibility where a left or right access panel may be required but never both.


Yes/No Drives Tag
In this example an exit sign needs to be tagged with the text "STAIR", "EXIT" or nothing. 


A Yes/No parameter is created called "STAIR".


A Shared text parameter is added with a formula to determine if the Exit sign is near a stairway.  if(STAIR, "STAIR","EXIT")


If the parameter of STAIR is true, return the text "STAIR", if false return the text "EXIT".

Create a tag that references the shared parameter to show "STAIR" or "EXiT" and don't tag exits signs that should have no text.


Pick One and Only One

Here the condtion number will allow only one paramter to be true in a list. Associated with a type, you could control a ton of things simply back picking the correct type.

"Don't Change Me Bro"

If you need some text to not change, put that text in the Formula column with quotes around it. It greys it out in the Value column. This should stop the majority of users from changing its value.

Swapping Nested Families
In a bookcase family with a nested shelf family, follow these steps to add a parameter that will allow the user to switch from one type of shelf to another.


1. Open the original shelf family and save it as the second shelf option. Add something to make it different. 

2. Load this new shelf into the bookcase family, but do not place it.


3. In the Family Types dialog create a new Type parameter named “Swappable Shelf”. Make its discipline Common, its Type of Parameter and group it under Constraints.

4. When you select the Type of Parameter Revit will open the Select Category dialog. Pick Generic Models.

5.  Select the original shelf in the bookcase family now. In the Properties dialog, look for the Label parameter and change it to “Swappable Shelf”.

6.  In the Family Types dialog Create 2 shelf types, Shelf Type 1 and Shelf Type 2. Associate the swappable shelf parameter with the appropriate type.

7. Flex the family. Change the family type and verify that the shelf changes.

Using Character Map in Text and Tags

If you were not aware that you can use special characters in Revit to add things like a diameter symbol to text, check out my previous post. In that post I showed how to figure out the key-in required to produce certain symbols just by typing them into the text string. in this post, I'll show how to leverage the many special characters that do not have a key in but existing in the font.


Revit MEP supports oval duct, but the symbol in tags my firm has used since hand drafting is the Greek letter PHI. Unfortunately there is no key in for the PHI character. I can however, use the "Select" and "Copy" buttons to copy the character to the clipboard and paste it directly into a text string.

In this case, the symbol legend.

It can also be pasted directly in a label for a tag as a suffix.

Happy New Year!

Overriding Dimensions in Revit

Say you are putting together a detail that has a dimension in it but for it to look appropriate, things really won't be to scale. What I am getting at, is that you want to put down a dimension that is wrong. Revit won't allow you to override it using the feet and inches symbols from your keyboard. Instead you get this judgmental dialog.

Go back to Dimension Text dialog by clicking on the dimension twice and select the "Replace With Text" option. 

1. Right click in the text field
2. Select "Insert Unicode control character"
3. Pick "US Unit Separator (Segment separator)"

Type a new dimension into the Text box and click OK. 

                                                                Wa-Shaw! 

In the image below these walls are either 8'-0" apart or 1'-6" apart. You don't know, because of my awesome Revit trickery.

Follow the same steps and put a space in instead to clear the dimension altogether.

I realize that this may be perceived as pure EVIL in the Revit world.... and well, because it is.

The Evil Santa Cows says "Moooo, Haha, ha!" 

Merry Christmas!

December AUGIWorld features Industry Insights

The December issue of AUGIWorld serves up plenty of perspective from industry professionals.

In "Halfway to Paperless," Bryan Thompson offers his solution for getting us beyond just talking about a paperless office and actually realizing it. 

Melinda Heavrin, AutoCAD Architecture expert, thoroughly discusses "Material Matters" within the product. In "Stuck in Neutral, Christopher Fugitt offers his view on AutoCAD Civil 3D and what is needed to make that product all it could be. 

Super Families: A Kit of Parts - Many Revit users find families difficult to master. Author Nicholas Kramer makes the concept easy to grasp by breaking it down into parts. 

Advanced Rendering in Revit - Kyle Benedict plumbs the depths of producing presentations using tools within Revit.

and a small offering from yours truly...

Getting to the Next Level - creating a BIM environment goes far beyond implementing Revit and calling it done. Firms will need to spend money, spend time, and build a culture of embracing change, says the author I call me.