Distribution Board (Panel Board) Symbol

[schrodingerscat]

I'm trying to change the look of the distribution board to match Australian standards, and I thought I would do it the same way I change everything which is inserting a symbol on the top of it, but I can't actually find a way to do it for the DB because the face the symbol would have to be placed on is "Back" and the symbol button is greyed out.

Any ideas?

The image is a distribution board placed on top of the symbol we use from a linked ACAD drawing. Should show what I'm trying to do.

[mjdanowski]

There are two ways to do this:

A) Change the category of the family to "electrical fixture" and click the "maintain annotation orientation"

B) Draw the symbology with symbolic lines in the correct view (front). This works for us because a panelboard is shown on plan as it's actual physical size, so it is easy to dimension it. The downside to this is that you cannot add a filled region.

[mwiggins121466]

I use a nested a detail component for my fills and hatches. Then I use a yes/no paramter on them.

[schrodingerscat]

I'll give "A" a go. "B" isn't really an option because different looking boards have their own meanings (see attached).

We've already had enough people saying that "IT NEEDS TO LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME AS AUTOCAD" because they're stuck in their old ways, but even I agree that we can't change how some of our important symbols look, this being one of them.

[mjdanowski]

Upon further review, the first option won't work because Panelboard is not an option for part type in electrical devices. :(

[jbaumann]

I use a nested a detail component for my fills and hatches. Then I use a yes/no paramter on them.

This is the method we use also to differentiate between the type of box you are looking at in plan view. A single nested detail component family with various filled regions and visibility control works well to indicate different types of boards. It can even be created to flex with the width and depth of the panel board (see attached screenshots).

[schrodingerscat]

That was how I was going to do it, but I'm having trouble putting the symbol on the correct face because the family is created with the face I would always see in plan view set to back view, this greys out the symbol button.

See the screenshot attached to see what I mean.

[jbaumann]

I'm having trouble putting the symbol on the correct face because the family is created with the face I would always see in plan view set to back view, this greys out the symbol button.

First of all, as mwiggins recommended you will have to use a detail component family and not a generic annotation symbol, as the symbols can only be placed in the reference level view. The detail component family can then be placed on the appropriate plane in the Back elevation view. See the attached screen shot for the steps.

[schrodingerscat]

You bloody legend! Exactly what I needed! Cheers.

[ftonelli]

This is the method we use also to differentiate between the type of box you are looking at in plan view. A single nested detail component family with various filled regions and visibility control works well to indicate different types of boards. It can even be created to flex with the width and depth of the panel board (see attached screenshots).

Man, that's exactly what I'm looking for too.
Don't suppose you can help a brother who's new to Revit and give me a bit of a rough step by step on how you've created those DBs?

[schrodingerscat]

They're the DBs that come with RMEP, they're called "panel boards" though. Just a colloquialism.