Titleblock, Index and Cover

[phyllisr]

Apparently, I am not so terrific with the AUGI search engine. I am hopeful this question has been answered and some kind and patient soul can direct me to the appropriate thread. Bear with me. I have only been using Revit a couple of weeks and I am stuck on something I thought would be simple.

For our test pilot, I have solved all the parameter problems, created a read-only network file for shared parameters, created the titleblock families for CDand Presentation Sheets and Covers and Indices, created a view parameter to organize the browser the way I think makes the most sense, loaded all the stuff into our default template, created a custom Browser Organization view option to work with the custom parameter and more. I have a view list and a drawing list created to manage the whole thing and made the actual drawing list look exactly as I want. Life is good. Except for one thing.

I cannot figure out how to display the Cover and Index in the drawing list and not have it look silly. Is there a way to force "nothing" into a sheet name? And without a bunch of extra parameters and work-arounds and more stuff to customize? Is it possible to leave this field blank without a nasty-gram dialog box telling me it is empty? Which was the point in the first place.

If you're really interested in why this is important, I am happy to share. But I am too verbose already.

Thank you.
PBR

[beegee]

I'd consider a single period for either the drawing number or name.

[phyllisr]

Tried that already. Sort of OK, but I have to use one dot for the Cover and two dots for the Index. And since we use bold text, it shows when printed and looks not so great.

In the same vein, I am not so thrilled that I have to do so much monkeying around with parameters to get the index in the order we use. Can do it, but it's more customization. Any tips other than a new parameter for sorting by National CAD Standard UDS Designators? Like A for architectural, AS for Architectural Site and AD for Architectural Demolition? Alpha-Numeric is not so great.

Thanks for your assistance.

[sbrown]

Why not have a sheet number for the cover and the index, but make a sep. family that doesn't display these values. Ie, AC is cover, A0 is Index, but there is not actual sheet number in the family.

[phyllisr]

Getting closer. Worth a try. Want to tackle my UDS question in the response to beegee? I had so hoped to avoid this much setup effort - still better than ADT 2005 but worth a little whining.

Thank you very much.
PBR

[mlgatzke]

Maybe I'm not understanding. Is it even necessary to list the Cover Sheet and the Index on the Drawing Sheet List? If not, create a filter in the schedule of the Drawing Sheet List. If it is important to list these in the Drawing Sheet List, they'll have to be named (Cover, "C", or something like that). Otherwise, perhaps you could use an extended ASCII character in place of the name . . . something that won't be very visible on the printed sheet.

[phyllisr]

This is totally irrelevant to the solution in the thread and contains only an explanation for the reason I posted the question. Skip this if are looking for some really great solution. I do not have it.

There is actually a good reason the Cover and Index are on the drawing list. The QC team has discussed this (at the Principal level also) and in some cases, my responsibility is to support firm policy rather than allowing a CAD issue to control the process.

Basically it's the contractual definition about what constitutes a set and what we are stamping. We have small Tenant Improvement projects (we have many, many clients where we do all the work in particular buildings for all the tenants) where our index sheets may include General Notes, Keyed Notes, Specifications (in ADT, we used OLE objects) or other. The Cover occasionally includes vicinity maps or other project information. For two specific clients (at their request), it also included some code information. When we stamp a drawing list, this is necessarily something for which we assume responsibility. For consistency, our drawing list where our stamp is located includes every sheet for which we are responsible. We separate consultant drawings into a separate list and they stamp only those. This avoids asking everyone on the team to individually stamp every sheet after the set is plotted. I hope this clarifies the reason I posted what may seem like an odd request.

I will try your solution along with others. I was hoping for something really simple. Thank you for your response.

PBR

Who is wise? One who learns from all persons, as it is written, "From all my teachers have I gained understanding."
Rabbi Ben Zoma, Pirkei Avot 4:1, Ethics of the Fathers

[aaronrumple]

We use:

G0-01 Cover Sheet
G0-02 Lifesafety
G0-03 etc...
A0-01 Floor Plans

It works well...

All sheets also have Discipline (Architectural, etc...) and Index (integer) fields. These are not displayed but used to create the headers and then sort the list.

We use two schedules: Drawing Index - which is what we want on the cover. The Drawing List is a list of all sheets showing all fields which is not printed.

[phyllisr]

Best solution yet. Why did I not think of this? We manage our file naming in ADT using UDS naming and structure. Simple, understandable tweak to an in-place and familiar process.

Forwarding to my QC team.

Thank you, thank you.

[mikemck]

Aaron,

My sheets do not have the discipline and index fields. Are these fields that should be part of my titleblock?

New: I discovered that I can add discipline and number fields to the list. But, when I try to set discipline in the sheets my only options are architectural, structural and coordination. It is also not clear how the number field is used.

Thanks for any assistance.

Mike

[beegee]

Discipline and index parameters would be user created parameters that can be filled with any text or number for sorting purposes, or for organising drawings in the set list.

[Nickdp]

i haven't tried this but Alt-255 on the numeric keypad used to be a non-printing character.