I'm working on a new type of plumbing fixture schedule for residential projects that incorporates much more of the manufacturer's parameters/data and I've started by mining Kohler's set of models.

The problem is, some of the Kohler models' parameters get duplicated in the project. That is, two models might both have a "Finish" parameter, but when creating a schedule, there are two possible "Finish" fields to add to the schedule. One model created the first field and the other created the second field. Actually, I've found that there are 5 available "Finish" fields. And it isn't just this one field, many of them have multiples. I think that the fields are all set up in the family with Shared Parameters by Kohler. Experimenting, I created my own "Finish" shared parameter and it indeed created another available "Finish" field for the schedule.

If I use the manufacturer's models, do I have to recreate all the shared parameters family by family for any family I download and use or is there a way to sort out their shared parameters?

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Here's a little more background on the schedule I'm setting up if it helps (either Revit or architecture-wise):

Type Mark / Item / Room / Count / Manufacturer / Model / Description / Finish / Dimensions / Provided By / Notes

Previously, I didn't schedule plumbing fixtures and just relied on a separate spreadsheet for FF&E selections that I collaborated on with my client and then shared with the GC. This works almost all the time, but I'd like to streamline and improve my system. All fixtures will have a simple "keynote" for the type mark, like "F-1". I'll include cutsheets for each selected product in my project manual. I'm considering having a simple schedule:

Type Mark / Item / Room / Count

for my pricing sets, then the more robust schedule on an 8.5" x 11" that is submitted with the cutsheets later. I rarely have a complete CD set for pricing / bidding and only submit product selections on a more timely manner throughout construction.