Add bottom of elevation to beam tag?

[zanno]

Howdy All--

Apologies if this is a redundant topic...I have searched both the current and archived postings but have yet to find a solution to this issue. I am hoping to find a way to add a "bottom of elevation" parameter to my custom beam tag that shows the "real world" (ie. site) elevation. Specifically I am thinking of cases involving grade beams (I have been modeling with concrete beams, therefore a foundation tag with a bottom of elevation parameter will not tag the beam) where we wish to indicate the depth of excavation.

I understand that the spot elevation tool can do this, however I would ideally want one single tag to reflect both size (type mark) and elevation without having to manually input the elevation. I tried adding an elevation parameter to the beam family itself as a shared parameter, but cannot figure out how to create a tag that can capture this information. Clearly there has been some discussion of this on AUGI but without a solution as far as I can tell.

Thanks

[FOUTJM]

dont know that you can create them in the tag. at least that wasnt the case a long time ago when i tried it....(2005?). anyway you can use the Beam annotations tool on the annotate tab and set it to show spot elevation for tehe bottom of the beam/grade beam. great tool.

[zanno]

Hmmm...would it be possible to edit the "bottom of elevation" label in a foundation tag to capture the shared (relative) rather than the project elevation? It is great that the beam annotations tool, as well as the spot elevations tool, allow the user to choose between relative and project elevation, but I am wondering why this is not the case for the foundation tag. If this were so, then at least I could try modeling my grade beams as structural foundation objects and show the elevation at bottom that way.

How are other people tagging their beams? Or grade beams?

[dmahan]

i duplicate and name existing spot elevation beam elevation family. the spot elevation is a system family.
then change to use shared elevation, getting a custom tag to work with system family is like banging your head against the wall. you know the info is stored somewhere.
once you have your spot elevation family type using shared elevation defined.
you can use the beam annnotation tool, and set it to use the shared elevation.
with everything set right then you can tag your beams or re-tag to place elevations.
Works great when they change the finish floor elevation the day the project goes out.
Also setup other shared spot elevation types in your template and name them for reuse.