Keynote updating

[tonyisenhoff]

I've created my own .txt file for the new keynote feature in Revit 9... all is good.

I'm able to change the note (description portion) and the keynote legend changes, but I CAN'T change the Key (number) and have it update in the project.

For example, if my keynote number is 21 in the text file, if I change the text file to 22, it does NOT change back in my project.

Any suggestions?

[ejburrell67787]

Change it in your revit project and then re-export it?

[Elmo]

Have you tried reloading your Keynote to the project?

[tonyisenhoff]

Change it in your revit project and then re-export it?
Not sure what you're getting at...

Are you saying export the keynote legend? That only exports they keynotes that I've used up to this point. My text file may have quite a few more notes that haven't been used yet.

Could you elaborate?

[tonyisenhoff]

Have you tried reloading your Keynote to the project?
Good suggestion - but it didn't work...

Any others?

[tomnewsom]

This is a limitation of how they've (poorly) set up keynotes. Unlike everything else in Revit, which has a unique ID# quite apart from its name, code, family name or whatever, the keynote's number code IS the ID. Therefore, the ID has to stay the same. The only thing you can change is the description.

[tonyisenhoff]

Bummer... Thanks for confirming.

[ryan.88885]

I'm pretty sure you have to close revit and then re-open it, thereby forcing it to re-read your keynote text file. Kind of a workflow killer on big projects but...

[ford347]

I've added to the one provided with Revit.....you have to be careful though. You want to keep all the original numbers the same, so I've added funky extensions to numbers I add in a particular seciton, never change the number of an existing. I did this when I first started using the tool and I ended up having things like 2x6's now reading 4x12's etc.

[D.Williams]

This is a limitation of how they've (poorly) set up keynotes. Unlike everything else in Revit, which has a unique ID# quite apart from its name, code, family name or whatever, the keynote's number code IS the ID. Therefore, the ID has to stay the same. The only thing you can change is the description.


As a first pass I find keynotes to be fine as long as you're aware of their limitations at this point. I concur that they need to have some kind of unique identification for two reasons:

(1) for such cases as mentioned here where you want to add a note to the text file, I find we need to be able to slot them number wise into the middle, as opposed to the end of the file. If I have all my keynotes grouped into sections by walls, windows, doors, etc, I don't wish to have an outlier at the end of the list. Having no idea how coding works, I would think this could be done by adding another field that Revit reads as unique keynote codes. Then when you insert a new text file line, you then add another keynote code as well keeping things kosher when you open Revit again.

(2) For keynotes by sheet, I feel a need for the ability to insert a keynote later on (having missed one or two) and being able to manually change its number from the last value to an earlier number in the sequence. Revit could ask if it should apply the changes to all keynotes of this same number or to renumber the list accordingly.

I think remedying these two issues amongst others will go a long way to easing the pains noted in the prior posts.

[tomnewsom]

What would really 'fix' keynotes would be handling them like normal families, with all the scheduling etc. powers that come with them. My example uses the UK system, but I'm sure the principle would apply:

Family Category : Keynote
Family Name : F - Masonry
Family Type : F10/210 - Concrete facing brickwork
Parameters:
Specification : "Full contract specification, multi-line parameter"

-

I'm sure that could be improved. If the definitions were nested into a "keynotes" Family, then you could load in that family to get a stock set of keynotes in your project. You could even use scheduling to create full specification documents, which are automatically tied back into your keynotes and drawings.

[johnf.77896]

I'm pretty sure you have to close revit and then re-open it, thereby forcing it to re-read your keynote text file. Kind of a workflow killer on big projects but...
Does anybody know if there is a way to update the file in Revit short of shutting down the file and reopening it? I have tried reselecting the file in the "keynote pulldown" but that does not update it.

John Fleming
GMK Architecture, inc.

[dfriesen]

Does anybody know if there is a way to update the file in Revit short of shutting down the file and reopening it? I have tried reselecting the file in the "keynote pulldown" but that does not update it.I make my change in the keynote file, save it, then do a saveas to a new temporary keynote file. Then in Revit, select the temporary one, and then reselect the original one, and delete the temporary file (to make sure there's only one version). Rather kludgy, but it works.

[johnf.77896]

Thanks Dan, I will give that a try.

John Fleming

[dhurtubise]

you can simply switch to an empty keynote file. Then update your production one, then return to the production one. All keynotes will updates and no need to close the project

[sbrown]

Keynote numbers are NOT updating for me no matter what I do. I have to actually pick the tag, click its properties then reselect the value.