Project parameters

[ford347]

I am trying to add some project parameters to some specific categories and they are not showing up in the appropriate schedules??? I am trying to close out a project and was adding a few more details to some schedules for instance, a 'Volts' parameter to the plumbing fixture category so that it would show up in a plumbing fixture equipment schedule, and I cannot get it to appear??? I need it there. If I add it when in the schedule properties dialog box, I can get it to show up, but then when I try to modify that project parameter to show up in other disciplines, like mechanical, I can't. What's going on. I have them labled as 'electrical-loads', or mechanical-loads' in the parameter itself, does this have an affect on if it shows up in a specific category or not, even if you've checked it to belong to multiple categories?!

Josh

[ford347]

So I went in and modified the parameter to be in the 'other' category and now it will show up as availiable to my plumbing categor within my schedule. This really doesn't make any sense as there are a lot of things that will have an electrical load, such as a tankless water heater. This will contribute to the electrical loads of your building and would need to be considered when doing your load calcs, so why is it that if you would like to define your 'Volts' parameter as an electrical load and make that parameter availiable to Mechanical, plumbing and electrical fixtures, that it will not show up in the categories you would like? Maybe I'm missing something.

Josh

[aaronrumple]

Sounds like you need to nest an electrical device inside your plumbing fixture. You are using Revit Systems, yes?

[ford347]

no, I'm on Revit Building. I just need a parameter that I can change in the same family per project, as it just a generic plumbing fixture, in this case, a tankless water heater for a residence. I don't need really detailed info, but things like Volts, Max fuse etc., that can be specific per project since I'll only have one per project generally. Like I said, I changed the project parameter to be of type 'other' and it showed up to all family categories that I checked to be availiable to, but if left under type 'electrical, electrical-loads' etc., it will not show up availiable to the family categories that you check under your project parameters dialog box. Do you know why this is?

[Steve_Stafford]

Are you talking about the GROUP value or the CATEGORY?

[ford347]

Group....by changing the group value of the parameter this will affect whether it will be availiable to any selected categories. Example, I created a parameter called 'volts', grouped it under 'electrical-loads', then made it availiable to the mechanical, electrical and plumbing categories. I would not show up in the plumbing or mechanical, even though I made it availible to these categories. To resolve the problem, I changed the group value to 'other', then it became availiable to these categories. Like I said before, I though by selecting what category you wanted it availiable to, this is how you would control it' availiablity, not by it's group value. There are a number of categories which could use an electrical load and would have to be considered when looking at your electrical loads for example. Maybe I am using the feature wrong, but this was my take on it. Not to mention, I don't want to end up with a bunch of redundant parameters, such as 'volts_elec', 'volts_mech', and so on. Thanks guys!

[Steve_Stafford]

Group doesn't affect the availability of a parameter, it only affects where you find it listed in the properties dialog, the blue bars which separate groups.

[ford347]

try this.....add a project parameter, make it availiable to say 3 categories, group it under elec-loads or something, then go to a plumbing schedule, as long as plumbing fixtures was a category you made that parameter availiable to, and see if you can find it in the 'fields' list....I could not until I changed the group value of the project parameter. I had to change the group value to 'other'.

[Steve_Stafford]

Well, now I understand what you were referring to finally, sorry! Yes you are correct. It does not work. So in this case the Group feature is related to how these parameters are made available in schedules. Seems like a bug to me...if not a bug, something we'd like to change.

[ford347]

thanks for sticking with me there.....Glad I'm not crazy!:lol:

Josh