Easy Management/Editing of a Property?

[pmattox382841]

Thanks to the help I received here earlier this week, I've now moved on to editing Apparent Load values of junction boxes. I have a TON of these to review and edit and I'm looking for a better way to tackle this.

At present, I am pulling up panel schedules and checking the specified load against external updated values (manually). If a value differs, I have to hunt down the J-box, click on it, select the Apparent Load property, and enter a new value. As I'm sure you can imagine, this becomes quite tedious when there are hundreds to review.

I attempted to create a schedule of all J-boxes, but I never could manage to narrow it down to that type of fixture nor could I get the Apparent Load property to be included.

What would be great is a list/schedule of all J-boxes (an electrical fixture) which includes the Panel, Circuit Number, Apparent Load and possibly the Circuit Description (though that last property isn't really required). To really gain value from this, the list/schedule would need to allow me to edit the Apparent Load value right there without tracking down the unit.

Is this type of thing doable in Revit? Does anyone have any tips/pointers/walkthroughs?

[mhartmann]

i don't think it's much help on this project, but for future ones i suggest changing the Apparent Load parameter in your junction box to a Type parameter. then create types for each kind of junction box you have (hand dryer, dishwasher, basketball goal), that way you can set a different load for each, and edit them all at once per type by editing each in the element properties.
hth
mike

[BenSammis]

Rather than creating a bunch of types, you could also fill in the "comments" parameter of the J-boxes with the load type, then sort your schedule based on that parameter and edit all of the loads that way. I've done that with receptacles and it works pretty well.

[pmattox382841]

Thanks for the replies.

Rather than creating a bunch of types, you could also fill in the "comments" parameter of the J-boxes with the load type, then sort your schedule based on that parameter and edit all of the loads that way. I've done that with receptacles and it works pretty well.

If I do that, will the apparent load still be usable in circuiting? That's the heart of the issue I'm having - there are a bunch of J-boxes that are circuited, but their apparent load values need to be changed. Nearly all apparent load values are different. These changes will reflect back on the panels and allow us to determine whether or not the overall panel load is acceptable. Rather than hunting down each J-box in the plan and making the change I would love to generate a list of all units with their apparent loads and make the change from that list, but I don't know if that's possible.

[james.klatt]

Ok so might be too late to help but here ya go. I would leave the load as a instance parameter because J-boxes often times have different loads associated with them. Adding a description of the load into the instance comments is a good idea for tracking purposes.

A little tip, in all my electrical fixture families I have swapped out the load parameter for a shared parameter for this reason. I am not sure how familiar you are with shared parameters since you are new to Revit. If you aren't using them currently I suggest you read up on them, they can be very helpful. If you are looking for a quick fix on this current project I can help walk you through it, but you should create your own shared parameter file on projects going forward.

So here is goes...

1. I have attached a stripped down shared parameter file .txt download it and put it somewhere on your computer.
2. Click on the j-box family in question and "edit family"
3. Go to "family types" and select the "load" parameter and click "modify"
4. Change parameter type from "Family Parameter" to "Shared Parameter" and click "select"
5. If you have not used a shared parameter file before it will prompt you to pick one... browse and select the one I sent you and select the "SP_Load" parameter. If you already have a shared parameter file that is being used by your company then simply add a new parameter or use the one they already have. Discipline would be "Electrical" and Type of Parameter would be "Apparent Power". Which ever method you use click ok and you are basically just replacing the default parameter with your own scheduable load parameter.
6. Load the family back into your project
7. Once you do this you can then create an electrical fixture schedule how you mentioned earlier but now you can schedule the load field, which will allow you to edit the load in the schedule based on panel/circuit without having to track down the j-box.

Hope this wasn't too basic of an explanation, but thought i should lay it out step by step just incase. Good Luck. Let me know if you have any other questions.