Yes/No Parameters in Titleblocks

[bwilliams133]

I've seen many threads online about this, but I can't find the answer to my question.

I want to add wording similar to "preliminary design" "issued for construction" etc...to my titleblock. I went into my titleblock family and used text, then assigned a yes/no parameter to my text items and loaded it into my project. I want some of them on while others are off. I set all of them to instance parameters and they work fine, but as you know, I have to turn them on and off on each sheet. If you have a large drawing set, this is a lot of on and off to check.

If I set them as type parameters and load into my project, then I lose my check box to turn them on/off. I've read that making it a type parameter is what I want to do, but how to I control it in my project? I'm sure that I'm just missing something simple, but after 40 minutes of searching I simply can't find the answer.

Thanks.

[CADastrophe]

Since the Parameters are Type Parameter, you can find them under Type Properties. Go to any Sheet View, select the border, and click 'Type Properties' at the top of the Properties palette. You should find your checkboxes hiding in there.

[gbrowne]

This isn't an answer to your question exactly, but we have a 'drawing status' stamp on our sheet.

Its an annotation symbol with all the various states.

When we go from say 'Tender' to 'Construction', all I have to do is click on it, then right click, select all in project, and then select 'Construction' on the type menu.

Changes them on all sheets, works on all sheet sizes, allows flexibility on where they are placed, etc.

[greg.mcdowell]

Be advised, if you want the text to appear on some sheets but not others you will need to keep it an Instance Parameter.

Unless you want to manage this with Types of titleblocks but it's the same amount, if not more, work.

[MikeJarosz]

Over the years, I have heard many discussions about sheet annotation and tracking. Experience has taught me that it needs to be flexible and instance based. Unless your projects are single family residences with six sheets at most, a reasonably complex project will have many sheets and each sheet will have its own history. Consider these scenarios:

> The project is issued on a specific date. After the issue, six more sheets are added to the set that were not part of the original issue.
> A sheet is removed from the set after issuance
> A detail needs to be redrawn at a larger scale, but won't fit on the original sheet and must be moved to another sheet that has room
> A consultant drops out or is added to the title block, but nothing else changes. Likewise, a phone number changes......
> Three sheets out of 100 are revised and bubbled. Only those three are reissued
> The project is fast track. Sheet A-301 had one detail when issued. Then it had 2, then 5 then.....
> As the design develops, the key plan keeps changing
> Plans need north arrows, details do not
> Plans are frequently reproduced at half size. The scale annotation appears incorrect on the prints
> A new sheet was created by copying an existing sheet border. The invalid history is copied with it. (Don't laugh- I have seen change orders based on this)
> A revision number was used for a specs revision only. Subsequently the same number was inadvertently used for a drawing revision number
> The Excel sheet that was tracking it all is hoplessly out of date because the intern went back to school
> Somebody changed the sheet title. Very common. No one ever thinks that these things are being tracked elsewhere

I could go on and on. One lesson learned from the conditions above is that it is rare that sheet annotation changes affect the entire set. There will be times when you will have to visit sheets individually and change them, without affecting all the others. I have developed solutions to most of the above situations, but they must be implemented during project setup, long before they are needed. Otherwise, you will discover in the middle of the project that you have to go back and fix all the sheets that have already been created. Revit has solved some of them nicely, like the revision database that can selectively applied to each sheet. The Revit visibilty parameter solves issues like the north arrow. Sometimes, good judgement is all that's needed. I worked with a project manager who did not allow phone, fax, email, web or other addresses on title blocks. Therefore, we never had to fix then.

Then there was the time when the firm moved across town to a totally new address. What a chore that was!