Keynote or Material Tag?

[lhanyok]

We typically note our elevation drawings with keynotes - not by the CSI format but rather just a single number. Yesterday I figured out how to create another keynote text file to achieve this format on my drawings, and after tagging a few materials I made a keynote legend. I had no problem with this method.
However, I have already used material tags in some wall assembly views by filling in the material description parameter for each material, so I thought it might be more beneficial to keep with material tags so that the description text will be coordinated across the board. This morning I made a new material tag that references the material mark parameter and filled in the parameter for a couple of materials. I then created a material takeoff schedule to act as a legend with only the mark and description fields.
At first glance both of these methods seem to work fine, and I would prefer to stick with the material tag so I don't have to jump back and forth with a txt file. Does anyone see any problem with this method so that I don't have problems down the road? Thanks for your help!

[ford347]

As long as whatever you are tagging is a material, I personally don't see a problems with it, however I usually use keynotes and my text file, simply because I use the one that came with Revit, then developed a way to add in our user codes wherever they are needed within the canned Revit text file. I also key a lot of objects, rather than their material, so if you don't really key objects, then I see it working.

Josh

[lhanyok]

Thanks for the response - I decided to go with the keynotes. I was a little bit too excited that I could impress my manager with another Revit feature, and I forgot about the fact that I will probably be noting some objects as well as materials. With that being said - I have a few keynoting questions I'm still unsure about after reading through the forum posts on the topic.
1. Let's say I have the following txt file:
1 Brick
2 Metal Panels
But then I change it to be
1 Brick
2 Precast Sill
3 Metal Panels
As far as I can tell, even after I have reloaded the keynote file, wherever I have called out metal panels, the number will not change until I change the keynote value in the material? Is this correct?

2. I have two colors of brick that I want to have two different keynote values. Each is already assigned a different material, however when I change the keynote value for Brick #2, it also changes values for Brick #1. Is this possible to do?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Laura

[ford347]

1 - When you define your keynotes in your database, don't change existing ones, unless you really mean to edit a specific keynote. I use the text file that came with revit, only in excel, and any time I need to add one, I will go under the category and continue the numbering system they have, so while they are not grouped very well, like alphabetically or seomthing, at least they are in a category of my choice, and I know which ones are mine and which ones are Revit's, only because I use colored text and colored cells when I add my own. I also made another division called TMC_Misc., for those notes that don't seem to belong anywhere. This is what I have done. I started out by changing a lot of keynote numbers and their order when I first started using the tool and ended up with a mess, so I always just add new, so I don't really know the in's and out's of any problems you may run into with what you described, I just wouldn't do it to keep it organized. I think we figured out in another post that the numbering system Revit used to organize their keynote text file had no real pattern to it, it was just random. Hope this helps.


2 - When you select your keynote tool, you either select element, material, etc., as I'm sure you already know.. When you select material, it is displaying whatever keynote has been specified in the properties in the materials, when element, it is displaying the keynote that has been chosen in the type properties of the element you are keynoting from your text file. If I have two of the same thing, but a different keynote, I just duplicate the family, material or whatever, and use that where needed. I hope I ujnderstood you correctly....

[lhanyok]

I don't want to use the text file that came with Revit because, as I said in my first post, we don't use the CSI format in our keynotes. We start numbering the notes at "1" and go as far as we need too, and then provide a legend on the sheet. Typically we only provide keynotes on elevation and section sheets. This is why I created a new keynote file. I can handle the number not changing in the model with modifications to the txt file if that's the way it works.

And I answered my second question on my own. I thought I was pointing to the two different colors of brick, but as it turned out once I put it into a shaded view I saw that I have a mysterious corner that is the Brick #1 color where it should be Brick #2. Once I moved the leader, I was able to note it correctly. Now I just have to figure out why the corner showed up in the first place...