Tagging a family?

[nmarble.223371]

We are working on a template file for our office... in this file we want to load a bunch of families into the project and set them up in views so that instead of finding each family and loading them in one by one they can be selected en masse and copy / pasted into a new project.

For example, we want to make a file that has all of the steel sections laid out in a section view, and instead of loading each section in one by one you can just ctrl click on the ones you need and copy / paste them into your project.

My question: is there a way to tag a family so that you see on screen the parameters or name of the family? In our example above of all the steel sections I would like to tag each section so that the name (in this case W-18X96 or whatever) shows up next to the steel section on the screen. I cannot figure out how to do this... any ideas?

[sfaust]

At least in the example given, you may want to look at type catalogs instead of this method. The default Revit library comes with a type catalog for the steel sections. Just select the steel section family to load and you will get a dialog listing all the possible types, and you can control click to select as many as you like, then the ones you select will be loaded in.

Not sure if this works for everything you want as I'm not sure what all you are trying to do, but this would be a much better way for steel sections IMHO...

[nancy.mcclure]

Sounds like nmarble wants to predefine a set of families, and insert them into a project in one action, which type catalogs (while excellent tools) would still require selecting each one from a larger set.

You could create a custom tag with multiple labels to include the family type and any key parameters you would want shown. If you want customized parameters to appear in the tag they will need to created as shared parameters so you can add them to both the model family and the annotation family.

[nmarble.223371]

We plan on loading in about 100 families into one file, furniture, steel sections, studs, ect so that everything is available to pan around + locate.

This will be easier than keeping a series of files organized for our office.

With shared parameters, is there any way to make a parameter that equals the name of the family without inputting additional text? I could just copy the name of each instance into the comments and have the tag display the comments, but that will be a lot of work...

I am basically looking for a way to make a tag that displays whatever is displayed in the drop down box when you click on a family... "C-studs-section 3 5/8" for example, without having to type in additional text for each different instance of the family.

[twiceroadsfool]

Just make a new tag that reads Family:Name + Type:Name:...

EDIT: Either make it a multi catagory tag, or you have to make one for each catagory.

[d.stairmand]

Marble
Is this what you want?

Tag with "Family Name & Type etc"

We have the same library base as yourself - All the Families (almost) in 1 file for the guys to look at. Most of them are the System Families - Walls, Floors, Roof & Ceilings etc.