Key Note Schedule

[Wagurto]

I have creates a key note tags with their respective descriptions, how do i schedule the notes? how do i create a new schedule family that read my key notes?
thanks

[Scott D Davis]

View>New>Noteblock

[BomberAIA]

After what Scott said.....go to Schedules and change Noteblock name to Keynotes, Material Notes, etc. Then add the Keynotes to your sheet.

[Dean Camlin]

These work, but I've found I have to make a new schedule for each sheet on which the notes appear. I'm attaching an example of what I mean. It's been on my personal wish list for a while to have a single master list of keynotes for a project, then be able to generate from it a schedule for each sheet containing only those notes that appear on that sheet.

[Scott D Davis]

Dean, I also want what you ask for. This would be so simple to implement. (i'm no programmer, but it sounds simple!)

If the tags simply had a parameter for Sheet, then you could create one long list, and filter the individual schedules by sheet, and place them. If the Tag is in a view not on a sheet, then the schedule will let you know that you have keynotes that are not in your set.

[PeterJ]

Add an instance based shared parameter to the keynote itself, this will enable you to tag each keynote and define it by sheet or view as you see fit.

The when you do your noteblock you can filter on section 123 or sheet 5 or what have you and you have what I think you are asking for.

[Dean Camlin]

But it is a bit tricky, because I want to be able to use the same note on more than one sheet. So there would need to be a parameter that allows multiple values.

[Scott D Davis]

I think if each tag was 'sheet aware' then it would work. If you had an instance of keynote 2 on sheet A1.1 and A1.2, the schedule (or noteblock) would filter accordingly, and show on both sheets.

[BomberAIA]

I have 2 types opf Keynotes that cover a project. Floor Plan & Elevation Keynotes. I wish you had a data base of keynotes to use in each project.

[Scott D Davis]

I have 2 types opf Keynotes that cover a project. Floor Plan & Elevation Keynotes. I wish you had a data base of keynotes to use in each project.
Are you looking for a 'keynote master' that you would use on all projects? So that keynote 1000 is always the same, project to project? We've thought about that....

[Scott Hopkins]

Good call Dean. Revit keynotes have a lot of room for improvement.

[PeterJ]

But it is a bit tricky, because I want to be able to use the same note on more than one sheet. So there would need to be a parameter that allows multiple values.
And that is why I stated that you need to use an 'instance' parameter. Place all the keynotes you require on a view and then select everything with a crossing select and filter that selection down to keynotes then hit properties and enter into your view parameter a number or name - this should relate to the view or the sheet it will be used on. Then just filter on that instance parameter in your schedule, duplicate that schedule for the next sheet or view and update the filters accordingly.

Do you want me to post something to give you the idea of what I'm doing.

[hand471037]

I helped a firm do this when I was working for the reseller. As others have said, just make a Keynote fam that has a instance parameter called 'Sheet Reference'. You can then place them into a view, and then on a sheet, and then set them to know what sheet they are on. You can then use the filter in the Note Block Legend to only show keynotes that are referenced to that sheet. This way you can use them over and over. However, there is still the manual step of activating the view, selecting all the keynotes, and then setting their keynote reference,

If you want to make all the keynotes reference the same info, so that a 2.01 is always a Low Retaining Wall or something, you can make a Type Library to go along with your Keynote Family. That way whenever a new Keynote number is needed, you simply load the the type from the type library, in the same way you load in another W-flange Detail Component. The other part of this that is nice (well to me anyways) is that then if the Keynote number or description changes to be project specific, it won't screw up your main database, and if you want to change the main database, you simply edit the Type Library and then delete and reload the family's types...

[Dean Camlin]

Jeffrey & Peter, I appreciate your help on this: I didn't realize instance parameters could be used that way. I'm going to try setting up a noteblock family this way, using the 6-digit spec codes promoted in the National CAD Standard (the system that used to be called CONDOC), to generate a central master list.

[rhys]

If you want to make all the keynotes reference the same info, so that a 2.01 is always a Low Retaining Wall or something, you can make a Type Library to go along with your Keynote Family. That way whenever a new Keynote number is needed, you simply load the the type from the type library, in the same way you load in another W-flange Detail Component. The other part of this that is nice (well to me anyways) is that then if the Keynote number or description changes to be project specific, it won't screw up your main database, and if you want to change the main database, you simply edit the Type Library and then delete and reload the family's types...
Use a type library? Jeffrey can you say a bit more step by step how you do that? Sounds just what I need to rationalise my keynotes from project to project. A good tip if I understood it.

[hand471037]

Type Libraries aren't too hard. There is a help file about them that will lead you through their creation, and look to the ones that come with Revit for help, like the W-flange I mentioned in my last post.

A Type Library is two parts; a Revit Family and a little plaintext file that lists the type parameters. When loaded, rather than pulling it's Types from the defualt ones made within the Family, it allows you to pick Types off of the list generated by the plaintext file. So, all the types (of which there could be hundreds) are listed within the text file, and you can pick and choose which ones you want when loading the family. As long as this text file is formated correctly, and named the same, and in the same location as the Revit Family, this will work.

So, then, you create a Keynote Family, but don't set up any types, just the parameters. Then create a text file, with proper formatting and syntax (the help file will tell you all about this) that lists all your CSI ## with corresponding Descriptions, and name it the same and save it to the same location as your Keynote Family. When you go to load your that family, a long list will appear in the type catalog, and you can pick which types you want to load in...

[rhys]

Got it thanks Jeffery, that seems like it should be the standard way to do Keynotes, Editing a text file should also be a lot simpler than editing text within Revit.

[BomberAIA]

Yes Scott, I would like a Master Library for Keynotes, similar to ArchT did and ConDoc had. Keynoting saves at least 20% in CD's.

[Scott D Davis]

I like the type library idea. I'm going to have to mess around with that.

Another thought for keynoting is for objects that already have information assigned to them. Every Revit object has a "comments" field, and many have a Type or Type Mark parameter. What if objects has a Keynote Number Field, and a Keynote Description field. Then when you placed a tag, the number would automatically be filled in, and the text description would automatically be filled in the Keynote text block or schedule.

[Dean Camlin]

I like the idea of a type library for the "master list." It might be a bit awkward when you're adding note blocks to your details, if you haven't first loaded the appropriate type families. Then you would have to stop to load them before continuing.

Now, of course, I'm going to need to generate that master list of drawing notes. . . .

[ajayholland]

We’re in the process of migrating from Acad to Revit a highly-detailed hospitality project that makes extensive use of sheet-based keynotes. After examining the issues exposed in this thread, I decided to test the type catalog method referred to above by Jeff McGrew.

I used cut-and-paste to place each note description into an Excel workbook, and then added additional parameters. I use a short mnemonic phrase instead of a numeral for the “type”, followed by an initial ordinal value and the note description, for example:

FEC,10,FIRE EXTINGUISHER CABINET

This method allows users to drag keynotes from the browser without having to read the complete description or refer to a master list, and facilitates re-numbering (to eliminate unused notes or group related ones) after their initial placement. Since the keynote number is not the family “type”, duplicate numbers can exist, but are easily identified in the note block.

I saved the Excel file to CSV format, then opened with MS Word and saved as plain text. Special formatting in the first line of the text file associates family parameters with data. Further experimentation revealed that, had I created the master list using MS Access, I could have exported directly to a comma-delimited text file.

One limitation of this type catalog method is that the type library data cannot contain any commas or quotation marks, which are quite commonly used in drawing keynotes. Also, editing the type library text file will not automatically update information for notes that are already placed in a project. As Jeffery noted, all the instances must be deleted and reloaded into the project for the catalog info to update. This would require a work-around (substitute for a “dummy” note) if many instances of that type exist.

Finally, I searched AUGI for an easier method to extract multiple text items from my legacy AutoCAD files. Member and moderator "eljobe" in the AutoCAD General forum offered VBA code to copy multiple selected text items to the clipboard, but I don’t have the expertise required for its implementation. (Anyone else?)

Eds: Can we link to the thread in another forum? I failed.

[beegee]

This is thread (http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=7112)and post AJ refers to.