level head with AFF or FFE after elevation

[Eric Stewart]

I am trying to create a level head which will have either AFF or FFE as required placed to the right of the elevation text. We are currently using generic annotations to achieve this. However, this is too time cosuming if a level changes a few inches. We have to go to each view and modify the generic annotaion level marker. That is not a good use of Revit, in my opinion.

So I opened my level head family and tried to add a new paramater. When I try to place a label my parameter is not in the list. What am I doing wrong?

TIA

[Eric Stewart]

Here is a workaround.

I used a text object. It seems as though a leader is placed by default and you cannot remove the leader. I stretched the leader to the origin and that made it disappear. So now this works fine for now. I am still looking for a "proper" answer.

Thanks

[David Conant]

Create 2 level head families one with AFF to the right of the Elevation label and the other with FFE. Load both into your project. Create 2 Level types one that uses the FFE level head, and the other that uses the AFF head. Make your levels and you will be able to select whichever type is appropriate. Wherever the level appears it will be the same type (either AFF, or FFE) If you change the type of a level, it will change in all views.
Sample level head families attached.

[David Conant]

Another suggestion:
If you are trying to label heights above the floor in elevation views, you may want to use levels for your plan generating levels and spot elevations for AFF items.
Spot elevation symbols are families and can be made to look just like level symbols. The spot elevation type can be set to display relative elevations. If it is set that way, you can set the relative basis for each spot elevation on an instance by instance basis. You can also specify a prefix or suffix for the value.

[Archman]

I am using spot elevations in the way David Conant suggests, but I am having truble making the extension line appear as a centerline instead of a solid line. I know I can create a center line in the spot elevation symbol family, but it does not give me any control of the length of the extension. Is there a way to have an adjustble extension with center line pattern in a spot elevation?

[beegee]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I can change the length of the spot elevation symbol line within the family, but I cannot change its line style to centreline.

If you use leaders, the leader attaches to the end of the symbol's horizontal line, so that would give you some control over the symbols's position.

[Archman]

I thought I was missing something too beegee, but I don't see anywhere that you can change the leader line pattern. I was able to change the length and line pattern of the extension line inside the symbol family, but I do not see any way to change it's length once loaded into the project. I haven't come up with a suitable workaround yet, but I'm still trying.