A Method to Calculate Better than Excel!

[ray.205827]

Scott,

I went down this route in the past but not to the extent you describe. I always found that there were rounding issues with the fixtures required. Perhaps your occupancy family would fix this. I also never liked seeing the required fixtures in decimal as opposed to integers. The self calculating family fixed this and gave a nice "graphic report".

I'd be interested in seeing your work. If you're willing to share a sample demo project showing your families and schedules I would be willing to send a copy of my family your way. If not that's cool too as I know that proprietary knowledge is what gives us an edge. especially in this economy.

As far as the rounding issue goes, there is an easy fix for this that was outlined at the Denver revit Users group meeting last week. I am waiting for the presenter to upload the recording of his presentation. I took notes as best I could but that wasn't one of the things I was able to write down. I will share with you in the next week or so.

[Scott Womack]

I'd be interested in seeing your work. If you're willing to share a sample demo project showing your families and schedules I would be willing to send a copy of my family your way. If not that's cool too as I know that proprietary knowledge is what gives us an edge. especially in this economy.

Unfortunately this one was developed on company time, and I don't believe they'd be happy with just giving it away. Maybe in pieces, or something.

As for the rounding, just add .49 to the math. If the fixture divide out even, then it won't round up. if the fixtures divide out to x.01, adding this will get it to .5 where it'll round up. The schedule and parameters are set to integers, but this works even inside of that.

[ray.205827]

Unfortunately this one was developed on company time, and I don't believe they'd be happy with just giving it away. Maybe in pieces, or something.

As for the rounding, just add .49 to the math. If the fixture divide out even, then it won't round up. if the fixtures divide out to x.01, adding this will get it to .5 where it'll round up. The schedule and parameters are set to integers, but this works even inside of that.

yeah, that was it!

[saeborne]

Tim,

I currently have a set of these families for doing just that. I had to create a family for each type of occupancy and come up with the formulas to get it to calculate with the code and round appropriately. I then nested all the families into one where I enter the Occupants manually and then selecting the occupancy type which in turn swaps out the calculating family.It is very slick, quick and a great documentation and analysis tool.

Sorry to dig up an old thread. Jake, I'm attempting to do the exact same thing, as what you describe here. And I have it working, for the most part. Here is the snag...

Let's say on one floor, I have assembly and business use groups. I can calculate the occupant load for each use, and my nested families will tell me exactly how many fixtures I need, for each use group.

I haven't been able to find a good way to automatically give me grand totals of required fixtures per use group. Have you been able to do this?

Thanks,

Bryan.