Labels

[melbs19]

Why is it that when I create a custom label in my titleblock and then
use it in a sheet, my label comes in as a question mark.

[beegee]

Labels are just place holders until you fill in the relevant information.

Go to Settings, Project Information and fill in the fields. Or else it could be the scale, etc if you have not inserted a view on the sheet.

[Taylor A]

I assume the ? mark is editable and you just fill in the appropriate details. If you want it to remain blank and not be seen you can type in "ALT 0160".
ALT being the ALT key on the keyboard.

[hand471037]

Are you using Shared Perameters?

[melbs19]

Yes it is a shared parameter. I just would like it to appear blank.
I tried the "ALT 0160" but got the same results. Any other ideas?

Thanks for your help so far, still kind of new to this.

[David]

I, too, had been baffled by this ? appearing in the label of a titleblock, once in the project until I figured out, as beegee said that "Labels are just place holders until you fill in the relevant information".--manually, but I want them to be project wide.

What I have not been able to figure out is the shared parameter. I want to have a value for APN (assesors parcel number which is placed on all sheets of a project). I have created a shared parameter named APN, assigned it to a group, assigned to sheet object, but have not been able to get the APN to appear in project information dialogue.

I am confused by the caution that "shared parameters are shared by all projects, so use carefully" (roughly paraphased from help)

Every project has a unique project wide APN eg 123-456, but am cautioned that the APN is shared by other projects. Thank you for any enlightenment.

[Steve_Stafford]

The thing to know is "shared parameters" are not a project level object. You can not use them on sheets as a project wide label. They are instance based only and you must edit the sheet view not the sheet to fill in the data.

To achieve a project wide value you must consider creating a project sheet family that you enter all project wide data with "dumb" text. You then use shared parameters for your office specific sheet data that will change on each sheet. This combination of labels and text will get you where you need to go. Use a copy of the office standard sheet to start a project then add the sheet data and project data, then import into your project. Any changes, require an edit of the project sheet file, then a reload.

For what it is worth, it is very easy to swap out sheets on a global level using the Families group in the Project Browser. As you progress through your project's phases, you can move from one sheet family to another easily as long as they use the same template origin, this way the sheet will land in same place when you switch.

[jsadams2]

I have to say I am a little confused by this myself. In the family file for my titleblock, I have inserted a series of labels. If I go to properties for each label and type in a '.' for 'sample text', the label appears in the file as a '.'. When I insert the titleblock into the drawing, it goes back to those annoying question marks. What is the point of providing 'sample text' property????

[hand471037]

jsadams2, the problem is in the term 'shared parameter'. What this means is NOT that the parameter is shared between projects, it's that it's shared between families. Even if you insert a family that uses a shared parameter into a project you still have to 'turn on' that parameter within your project in order for it to work as you wish. It's not that the *value* of that parameter is shared; it's that the *parameter itself* can be shared, if you wish. I know it's confusing, but once you understand it will all fall into place. I think this comes from database mojo, which is something most of us haven't had to deal with yet.

Go into your project (not the family, that's ready to go), insert this family that uses the shared parameter, then go to settings->Project Parameters, a dialog window will pop up, click 'add', the Parameter selection window will pop up, select 'shared parameter', select the shared parameter that your custom titleblock uses, then click 'OK' until you get back out. You'll find now that you can edit the parameter, and that it's not all ???? anymore. :)

[jsadams2]

Thanks Jeffrey for the reply....I am sure that I don't fully comprehend all that database mojo, but I am pretty sure that this will do what I want it to do (though there may be a more appropriate way to accomplish it). I just want to populate the titleblock's print history and revision history with place holders (preferably periods not question marks) so that when a printing or revision occurs, I can simply click on the appropriate place holder and enter the information (revision number, revision date, revision description / or / print date and print description). I don't want this info to be 'shared' project to project or even instance to instance. I just don't want to have to 'float' the text over the titleblock after the fact, nor would it work to put them into the family file and re-insert, because not every sheet will be printed or revised each time. My only problem is the silly question marks. A period would be a much more appropriate place holder in this situation. This does not happen when i use a label for the Project Issue Date. I can go into the properties (in the family file) and enter sample text (XX MONTH YEAR for example), which is what appears as its place holder when inserted in the project. This just does not seem to work with the shared parameters. Thanks again for your input.

[GuyR]

Shared parameters currently can only be instances in titleblocks not types .

I would suggest posting the titleblock for comment.

Guy

[LRaiz]

Title blocks are working exactly like tags. Except tags expose parameters of model elements while title block exposes parameters of drawing sheets. In addition title blocks may expose parameters of entire project. One can define a shared parameter and make this parameter available to entire Category of Drawing Sheets. When title block is drawn for each label Revit looks up the parameter value either in the drawing sheet itself or in project info. Unfortunately there is no way in 6.0 to expand the list of parameters available in project info, thus there is no way to set the value only once and have it appear on all title blocks. However as a workaround it is possible to define a parameter to be used for each sheet. Then one will need to type parameter value as many times as you have sheets.

Leonid

[GuyR]

However as a workaround it is possible to define a parameter to be used for each sheet. Then one will need to type parameter value as many times as you have sheets.

And if you schedule like this:

http://www.zoogdesign.com/forums/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1966

as long as you redo the schedule after adding each sheet you can simulate type parameters

guy

[Joef]

I'm just beginning to learn Revit and reading a discussion like this is pretty depressing. If filling out a title block can be this complicated and full of database mumbo jumbo it does not bode well for the more complex parts of the program. Here is a portion of the definition of shared parameter from the manual " a shared parameter is a parameter that you can share"... Well that explains it!!

[gregcashen]

The discussion here is not about a typical titleblock and is being held between intermediate to advanced users of Revit. Revit can be as simple or as complex as you like it. The topic here is referring to the process by which one adds data to titleblock above and beyond the standard information that is normally found or required on them. I would venture a guess that 99% of the people using Revit are not using shared parameters in their titleblocks.

In short, don't get discouraged by a program you have not used yet. Try the demo version and run through some tutorials and you will see how truly simple most things in Revit are. And if you decide you want more out of it, be happy to know that there are advanced ways of accomplishing what you need.

[GuyR]

I'm just beginning to learn Revit and reading a discussion like this is pretty depressing.

And Autocad layer management isn't?????

Think of parameters this way(revit team feel free to correct me):

family parameters = local parameters
shared parameters = global parameters


Here is a portion of the definition of shared parameter from the manual " a shared parameter is a parameter that you can share"... Well that explains it!!

There are 2(I can think of) reasons for shared parameters:

Say I create 2 different window families. They each have a parameter called "colour". How do you tell Revit that the colour parameter in family1 is the same as family2? Define the parameter as a shared parameter.
If you don't want them to be the same(or they don't need to be the same) then define them as family parameters.So:

-- family 1---------- family2---------------------------
colour(family) != colour(family) - not exposed to schedules/ODBC
colour(family) != colour(shared)
colour(shared) == colour(shared) -exposed to schedules
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The other reason for shared parameters is the creation of schedules/ODBC with user defined fields.

Say I have 5 different window families, each family has 5 unique parameters associated with it. If revit exposed all parameters to schedules and ODBC you would have 25 potentially meaningless parameters that revit and the user would have to keep track of in schedules.

Multiply this by >50 families in a project, performance would be affected and it'd make maintaining schedules a nightmare. Revit gets around this by only exposing the parameters you define as shared.

With exporting via ODBC revit allows you to again filter the parameters exported.

This is done using project parameters defined in the project. To export a shared parameter via ODBC load the same shared parameter into the project as a project parameter. Project parameters also allow you to apply a parameter that is unique to a project across all family categories. IMO the key to using project parameters are well thoughtout project template files.

In summary:

-- family 1---------- family2---------Project------------
colour(family) != colour(family) - not exposed to schedules/ODBC
colour(family) != colour(shared)
colour(shared) == colour(shared) -exposed to schedules
colour(shared)==colour(shared) ==colour(project) -exposed to ODBC
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bit of a ramble (it's late), hopefully explains parameters in families are nothing to be scared of.

HTH

Guy

ps: With titleblocks you can't create additional project info parameters. Some of the project info parameters essentially behave as type parameters (ie globally sets a value across all sheets). With shared parameters in titleblocks they can only be instance parameters( different values on each sheet).

[jsadams2]

I would suggest posting the titleblock for comment.

Excellent idea! This has turned out to be a very interesting discussion.

[Joef]

Thanks for the explanation. If I understand correctly then a "shared parameter" is one such as height, width etc. The value of the parameter is not shared (they can all be different sizes) but the values would all appear under the same field heading (the shared parameter).
A parameter that would not be shared would perhaps be one that would assist in the modelling of the part, but would not be required to be tracked in a schedule.
I plan to run through every tutorial at least once. I hope there is a good one on this topic.

[GuyR]

jsadams2

Use schedules to tidy up your default values. Set them up in your templates depending on which option you want. See attached project file.

I've set up the schedules using different ways of summarising the info.

Guy

[jsadams2]

Ahhhhh, of course. That should work nicely, though it will take a little effort when you add a sheet. It sure would be nice if you could set a default value in the Family file prior to insertion, but hey, this should do the trick. Thank You so much.