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Thread: Schedules and Shared Parameters

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    Default Schedules and Shared Parameters

    Hello,
    As our company is starting to go full steam ahead with implementing Revit, we our encountering some issues, especially with Schedules and Shared Parameters.
    I am just wondering, if anyone else has encountered these problems, and how are you handling them? Thank you in advance!

    -Dashes- It is very common for us to have Dashes (----) in cells to represent blank data. However with Revit, if you have the ‘Type of Parameter’ set to a number, or anything that is represented as a number, you can only show a number. If the cell is left blank, it will be left with a 0, which in some circumstances, can be bad. Or is there any way to just show the cell blank?

    -Notes- In AutoCAD MEP we have our Schedule Notes come in with the schedule. Is there any way to attach the notes to the schedule in Revit? Right now we just have them as text under the schedule…

    -MBH/BTU- How are you handling parameters that use units that are not standard units in Revit, such as MBH?
    On that note, how are you handling parameters that share the same ‘Discipline’ and ‘Type of Parameter’ and appear in the same schedule, like PSIG and ftH20? Do you just choose one common ‘Project Unit’ and change the specific unit in the schedule?

    -HP as a number- If you have the parameter set to HP, It is apparently impossible to show the rating as a fraction, are you accepting showing the HP rating as a number/decimal?

    -Standard Shared Parameters- How many of you are using the AutoDesk Standard Shared Parameters? And how many of you are creating your own? Or using both?


    Again, thanks in advance! I am sure a lot of people, if they have not already, will be encountering these issues. So any help is much appreciated, and will benefit all Revit users!

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    Default Re: Schedules and Shared Parameters

    Quote Originally Posted by bobbyroop
    Hello,
    As our company is starting to go full steam ahead with implementing Revit, we our encountering some issues, especially with Schedules and Shared Parameters.
    I am just wondering, if anyone else has encountered these problems, and how are you handling them? Thank you in advance!

    -Dashes- It is very common for us to have Dashes (----) in cells to represent blank data. However with Revit, if you have the ‘Type of Parameter’ set to a number, or anything that is represented as a number, you can only show a number. If the cell is left blank, it will be left with a 0, which in some circumstances, can be bad. Or is there any way to just show the cell blank?
    If you want the cell to be blank you need to remove the parameter from that particular family. Otherwise, when scheduling a parameter that requires a value, you are going to get the "0" or some other incorrect value. There is not a way to do dashes with these types of parameters.

    Quote Originally Posted by bobbyroop
    -Notes- In AutoCAD MEP we have our Schedule Notes come in with the schedule. Is there any way to attach the notes to the schedule in Revit? Right now we just have them as text under the schedule…
    You can use a variety of methods for getting your notes on the sheet under the schedule, but you won't be able to do it like you did in AutoCAD. We have used text notes on sheet, text notes in drafting and/or legend views, note blocks, etc.

    Quote Originally Posted by bobbyroop
    -MBH/BTU- How are you handling parameters that use units that are not standard units in Revit, such as MBH?
    On that note, how are you handling parameters that share the same ‘Discipline’ and ‘Type of Parameter’ and appear in the same schedule, like PSIG and ftH20? Do you just choose one common ‘Project Unit’ and change the specific unit in the schedule?
    Blah! You can fake it with MBH (very unBIM), or just live with units types available. This is one that really gets on my nerves when I'm making AHU schedules and the like. I always set-up my families' parameters with the units I want to see, and modify in the schedule as needed. Sometimes that means overriding the unit to something other than project unit.

    Quote Originally Posted by bobbyroop
    -HP as a number- If you have the parameter set to HP, It is apparently impossible to show the rating as a fraction, are you accepting showing the HP rating as a number/decimal?
    We use HP as a number parameter. There are other issues with horsepower, especially if your project unit is VA and you want your schedule to convert that to HP.

    Quote Originally Posted by bobbyroop
    -Standard Shared Parameters- How many of you are using the AutoDesk Standard Shared Parameters? And how many of you are creating your own? Or using both?
    We don't pay much attention to the Autodesk standards.

    Quote Originally Posted by bobbyroop
    Again, thanks in advance! I am sure a lot of people, if they have not already, will be encountering these issues. So any help is much appreciated, and will benefit all Revit users!
    Last edited by Steve_Stafford; 2010-01-14 at 08:13 PM. Reason: Changed quote coding

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    Default Re: Schedules and Shared Parameters

    Quote Originally Posted by bobbyroop View Post
    -Dashes- It is very common for us to have Dashes (----) in cells to represent blank data. However with Revit, if you have the ‘Type of Parameter’ set to a number, or anything that is represented as a number, you can only show a number. If the cell is left blank, it will be left with a 0, which in some circumstances, can be bad. Or is there any way to just show the cell blank?
    You could look into using a text 'type of parameter' even though in your case they will always be numbers. But this might cause problems if you're using these in formulas (I'm not really sure if it will or will not). One potentially needlessly cumbersome work-around would be to create a seperate parameter using a formula that basically says "if such-and-such equals 0, ---, if not, such-and-such" (sorry I don't have it in front of me at the moment to verify what the actual syntax would be)

    Quote Originally Posted by bobbyroop View Post
    -Notes- In AutoCAD MEP we have our Schedule Notes come in with the schedule. Is there any way to attach the notes to the schedule in Revit? Right now we just have them as text under the schedule…
    We do ours as text on the sheet.

    Quote Originally Posted by bobbyroop View Post
    -Standard Shared Parameters- How many of you are using the AutoDesk Standard Shared Parameters? And how many of you are creating your own? Or using both?
    I didn't even know there was such a thing.

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    Default Re: Schedules and Shared Parameters

    Quote Originally Posted by bobbyroop View Post
    Hello,
    As our company is starting to go full steam ahead with implementing Revit, we our encountering some issues, especially with Schedules and Shared Parameters.
    I am just wondering, if anyone else has encountered these problems, and how are you handling them? Thank you in advance!

    -Dashes- It is very common for us to have Dashes (----) in cells to represent blank data. However with Revit, if you have the ‘Type of Parameter’ set to a number, or anything that is represented as a number, you can only show a number. If the cell is left blank, it will be left with a 0, which in some circumstances, can be bad. Or is there any way to just show the cell blank?

    -Notes- In AutoCAD MEP we have our Schedule Notes come in with the schedule. Is there any way to attach the notes to the schedule in Revit? Right now we just have them as text under the schedule…

    -MBH/BTU- How are you handling parameters that use units that are not standard units in Revit, such as MBH?
    On that note, how are you handling parameters that share the same ‘Discipline’ and ‘Type of Parameter’ and appear in the same schedule, like PSIG and ftH20? Do you just choose one common ‘Project Unit’ and change the specific unit in the schedule?

    -HP as a number- If you have the parameter set to HP, It is apparently impossible to show the rating as a fraction, are you accepting showing the HP rating as a number/decimal?

    -Standard Shared Parameters- How many of you are using the AutoDesk Standard Shared Parameters? And how many of you are creating your own? Or using both?


    Again, thanks in advance! I am sure a lot of people, if they have not already, will be encountering these issues. So any help is much appreciated, and will benefit all Revit users!
    I had this issue when I started scheduling our humongous list of equipments.

    After long thoughts and figiting with what parameters to use I came to conclusion that -Instance>Common>Text is the safest way to go.

    The shared parameter has many options for type of parameters you want to schedule but some are number/interger based and this doesn't allow input like "-" or " * " special note or "Nominal". So I had to make nearly all the parameters common text type. Just make your schedule heading states the unit, ie. (kW), (l/s) etc

    I know this is going to come and bite me later on when we do full BIM like linking gbxml file with heat loads, since they need consistent input. But for our purpose now the schedule works very well.

    It's incredibly useful when updating schedule the Tag-ID changes, equipment capacity/infor updates or give indication of incompitable values.

    I keep a backup of the shared-parameter text file to archive all out parameters. You can also preset these in project parameters as well.

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    Default Re: Schedules and Shared Parameters

    Quote Originally Posted by timsea81 View Post
    I didn't even know there was such a thing.
    Yes, if you are familiar with Mechanical Equipment, McQuay is using the AutoDesk Shared Parameters file. This can be helpful, but you must use the same Shared Parameter file or the information will not properly schedule. They officially call it: Autodesk Revit Model Content Style Guide, and it can be found here http://www.mcquay.com/McQuay/BIM/Revit-BIMFiles.

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    Default Re: Schedules and Shared Parameters

    The latest version of the Revit Model Content Style Guide from Autodesk, version 2.1 (just published Tuesday), can be found here:

    Family Style Guide v2.1
    Last edited by DavidVS; 2010-01-19 at 03:46 PM. Reason: Re-fixed link to point to the 2.1 version

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    Default Re: Schedules and Shared Parameters

    Do many of you Reviteers use this standard? I've spent considerable time customizing my library and I really don't want to open all my famillies and replace the shared parameters. Of course, I discourage users from downloading content from the web except to use as placeholders when necessary.

    Thinking about the future, it might be more progressive to have the interoperability that would come from an industry standard.

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    Default Re: Schedules and Shared Parameters

    Quote Originally Posted by cporter.207875 View Post
    Do many of you Reviteers use this standard? I've spent considerable time customizing my library and I really don't want to open all my famillies and replace the shared parameters. Of course, I discourage users from downloading content from the web except to use as placeholders when necessary.

    Thinking about the future, it might be more progressive to have the interoperability that would come from an industry standard.
    We are beginning to realize this too. It's just as easy to make your own piece of equipment as to download them and replace/add the correct parameters you need. The only exception we have is when the mfg provides a premade schedule using their parameters, e.g. McQuay families, then everything is drag/drop and they tend to include every parameter you could think of.

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    Default Re: Schedules and Shared Parameters

    Quote Originally Posted by cporter.207875 View Post
    Do many of you Reviteers use this standard? I've spent considerable time customizing my library and I really don't want to open all my famillies and replace the shared parameters. Of course, I discourage users from downloading content from the web except to use as placeholders when necessary.

    Thinking about the future, it might be more progressive to have the interoperability that would come from an industry standard.
    We have yet to decide where to go with this. We have done jobs in Revit, we are currently working on some, and we are about to start some new ones. But we are still at a point to where we can go either way. A Pro to using the Revit Model Content Style Guide is when placing manufacturers equipment, your chosen parameters will automatically schedule. Another Pro to using manufacturer created equipment, is you save time creating the equipment. But you will still need to add your custom parameters to the pieces of equipment. Also, you will be forced to use the parameter discipline that Autodesk has chosen(i.e. HP will appear as a number). So if your company is not satisfied with Autodesk's chosen disciplines, you will also have to edit those.

    We are considering going with our own Shared Parameters and using numbers, rather than the standard discipline units; CFM, PSI, MBH, etc... Has anyone tried this solution? And what will it effect, if anything? We are testing it today, i just wanted to hear others' opinions....

    Thanks,
    Bobby

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    Default Re: Schedules and Shared Parameters

    Quote Originally Posted by bobbyroop View Post
    We are considering going with our own Shared Parameters and using numbers, rather than the standard discipline units; CFM, PSI, MBH, etc... Has anyone tried this solution? And what will it effect, if anything? We are testing it today, i just wanted to hear others' opinions....
    For the record, we just ran some tests and realized you can not assign a "number" type parameter to an 'Airflow' connector, it must be an "airflow" type parameter... I am sure this is true wherever you would want to calculate values, I just wanted to test it...

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