Length of a segmented line

[damon.sidel]

I'm creating egress diagrams that show the travel distance to egress stairs. When we did these in Autocad, we would create a polyline, select it and be able to read-off the length in the properties. Any equivalent way to do this in Revit? Even better, I'd like a dot at the start and an arrow head at the finish of the line. Thoughts? Ideas?

[cliff collins]

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?114323-How-To-Measure-Egress-Travel-Distance&highlight=egress+plans

[damon.sidel]

Thanks. Shame on me. I posted before I searched.
That said, after reading through many of the responses to that post, I don't think I love the line-based family and schedule solution. I just started a new adaptive component family that has 6 points measuring the length of the segments between. Then a shared parameter--I'm calling it "Egress Distance"--that adds them up. When loaded into my project (yay, 2012 can load adaptive components into a project, not just a conceptual mass!), I click six times and add a tag to the path that calls out the Egress Distance. I can schedule it if I want, but I don't right now.

I've attached my first attempt at the family. It doesn't work yet, so if anybody can help, I'd appreciate it.

85157

[Alfredo Medina]

...But, what are the advantages of this adaptive component family over the line based family? It seems to me that your family works for only six points, while the line based family lets you click any number of points.

[Steve_Stafford]

The 2013 release can schedule the length of a railing...which means a railing type can be used to document egress too.

[cliff collins]

The 2013 release can schedule the length of a railing...which means a railing type can be used to document egress too.

No offense Steve, but.......the list of workarounds continues...................

Sure, the railing may now be measured/scheduled, but I would NOT want users placing railings in the Life Safety Plans. ( I know, use a "dummy phase", blah blah blah.)

I commend the creative thought process, but in the end, I wish Adesk would just give us a Polyline tool, or a dedicated tool for measuring paths, etc.

[Steve_Stafford]

Since I have no control over Autodesk...

I prefer the line based work around. Another consultant or two that I know use Railings. This forum is more about solving problems. So I offered another option to my own much older line based option. Oh and you don't have to like it or use it either...nyaah. :)

[damon.sidel]

...But, what are the advantages of this adaptive component family over the line based family? It seems to me that your family works for only six points, while the line based family lets you click any number of points.

Alfredo, I may very well misunderstand the line-based family. Does the line-based family allow you to place a tag in your plan that shows the total travel distance? If so, then I will agree that the line-based family method is better. If not, then it's just as deficient as my adaptive component, just in a different way.

Would you be willing to share a few screen shots of how you use the line based family?

[damon.sidel]

I commend the creative thought process, but in the end, I wish Adesk would just give us a Polyline tool, or a dedicated tool for measuring paths, etc.

It shouldn't be difficult to create an Add-in... maybe that will be my next project. :) I wish there was a more active plug-in writing community like they have for SketchUp over at SketchUcation.

[Steve_Stafford]

The line based approach that I documented used a schedule that was stripped down to show the total length on a plan. The adaptive point approach is a good option too, I think. Most valid egress paths can't have too many changes in direction anyway. You'd just need to have a few different version to allow for enough segments. Since it is one family it's easy to tag the overall length.

One weakness is that we can't nested generic annotations so no dot or arrow that will maintain the annotation size... :(

[Alfredo Medina]

Alfredo, I may very well misunderstand the line-based family. Does the line-based family allow you to place a tag in your plan that shows the total travel distance? If so, then I will agree that the line-based family method is better. If not, then it's just as deficient as my adaptive component, just in a different way.

Would you be willing to share a few screen shots of how you use the line based family?


http://youtu.be/gqIvwwmQ0ME

[damon.sidel]

One weakness is that we can't nested generic annotations so no dot or arrow that will maintain the annotation size... :(

Agreed. I tried creating a dot and arrow geometry, but didn't spend enough time to get it working. It wouldn't be an annotation, so wouldn't respond to scale, but it would be OK for now.