Top of Duct/Bottom of Duct Tag

[jlondenberg]

I'm trying to add Top of Duct/Bottom of Duct labels to my Duct Tag. It seems like it should be easy to extract the Start Offset parameter, perform a bit of conditional math and viola!

Only problem is that the parameters of the duct in the project don't seem to be available to calculate with in the Family Types dialog box. Am I missing something?


Here's what I'd like to do:
Family Parameters-
TOD=if(Diameter>0, Start Offset+(Diameter/2), Start Offset+(Height/2))
BOD=if(Diameter>0, Start Offset-(Diameter/2), Start Offset-(Height/2))

Then add labels for TOD and BOD to the duct tag.

Any suggestions?

[mabrey]

Hello,

Why not use the ones that came with the program?

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\RME 2008\Imperial Library\Annotations\Duct

- Bottom Elevation Duct Tag.rfa
- Top Elevation Duct Tag.rfa

Or if you want your own formatting, just use the Top Elevation and Bottom Elevation parameters in your own tag.

-Jon

[kyle.bernhardt]

Joel,
I'm sorry but you can't accomplish this task yet. This is an issue of what's traditionally referred to as the "Elevation" in Revit vs. what most MEP Engineers consider a Top of Duct elevation.

We're aware of the issue and are targeting a fix to it with the upcoming release. Unfortunately until that time there's no way you can make an intelligent tag to accomplish the task.

Cheers,
Kyle B

[jlondenberg]

...Why not use the ones that came with the program?...

Those tags measure the distance from the origin? default level? On a multi-story building it's not much help for labeling the ducts on upper floors, or in the basement.

[mabrey]

Those tags measure the distance from the origin? default level? On a multi-story building it's not much help for labeling the ducts on upper floors, or in the basement.

Yeah, after I read Kyle's post, I remembered the issue. We normally deal with large one to two story manufacturing facilities/plants, with everything referenced to the origin, so the default ones work for us. I can see how that would be an issue with multi-story buildings. Here's to the potential fix in MEP 2009 :beer: