Text in specialty equipment family not showing

[mmiles]

my family is made only of symbolic lines (no solids) and has a few parameters to control width of a refrigerator-freezer symbol. I have grouped a reference line with a text note to indicated which side is the refrigerator and the freezer, but in the family in the project does not show the text? How's come? Do I need a label instead?

thanks.

[Scott Womack]

my family is made only of symbolic lines (no solids) and has a few parameters to control width of a refrigerator-freezer symbol. I have grouped a reference line with a text note to indicated which side is the refrigerator and the freezer, but in the family in the project does not show the text? How's come? Do I need a label instead?

thanks.

Yes, you need to create a label, and associate it with a parameter.
The original design, Text cannot be seen once the family is in a project (Yes, I know titleblocks are the exception). As originally designed, Text did not show, so you could leave notes to yourself in the family, and Revit could provide instructions within the templates.

[mmiles]

Yes, you need to create a label, and associate it with a parameter.
The original design, Text cannot be seen once the family is in a project (Yes, I know titleblocks are the exception). As originally designed, Text did not show, so you could leave notes to yourself in the family, and Revit could provide instructions within the templates.

Thanks. Curious though....the templates have a note that says delete before loading, or something like that. And, if you do not, that notes does display. If you ask me, I find that confounding.

[Scott Womack]

Thanks. Curious though....the templates have a note that says delete before loading, or something like that. And, if you do not, that notes does display. If you ask me, I find that confounding.

I believe the only one that carries that is the Generic Annotation family. I did forget that that type of family can have text in it as well. There are no "model-based families that can have normal text in them.

[thillhouse]

Scott, is there a way to control the direction of the text? I created a quick Fire Extinguisher cabinet and I want the text to always be left to right and horizontal. I noticed that when you type text, there is a setting under properties called "Keep Text Readable" can this be applied to an annotation? Is that what it means?

Thanks
Tim

[Scott Womack]

I want the text to always be left to right and horizontal. I noticed that when you type text, there is a setting under properties called "Keep Text Readable" can this be applied to an annotation? Is that what it means?

Yes, this is what it is supposed to mean. I may be wrong, but in reading a lot of the posts, to get this to work, I believe you need to create a generic annotation family with the label in it, and an instance parameter to drive it, with the Keep Readable checked, then nest this into your Fire Extinguisher Cabinet family to make it work correctly.

Rather than taking your approach, I created a Shared parameter in the project, applied to specialty equipment, then created a Specialty Equipment tag that reads this parameter, and "tag" the elements. I usually end up with several Tags, uniquely named, that are actually of the Specialty equipment catagory in a project. FEC tags, Locker Tags, Toilet Accessory Tags, etc.

[thillhouse]

That sounds like a better idea! Thanks, I should have thought of that...

Tim