Friday, January 11, 2008

Creating a Stone Panel Family and Schedule

Problem: We needed to create lots of stone panels for the UTSAC project. The stone panels had to be able to be scheduled

Solution: The panels were created as a generic model family. All of the parts were created as solid masses. The key to making the objects scheduleable was creating the parameters as shared parameters. A shared parameter is defined when you hit "shared parameter" "select" then "edit". You can define parameters and groups of parameters within this dialog box. These parameters are stored in a text file which is used by Revit to help define the schedule. I created Height, Width, and Panel Type parameters.

You still have to "load" the parameters. You do this in the same dialog box you would normally create the paramter. First select the dimension that you want to add a parameter to. This will cause the "label" field to appear. Select the drop arrow in the label field, and you choose . Select "shared parameter" and select one of the parameters you want to add. Unfortunately, you can't select multiple parameters. OK back to the parameter properties dialog. Then repeat the process for all of the other parameters you want to add. Once the shared parameters are added, they can be linked to your dimensions.

After I created the stone panel, I loaded it into the UTSAC model. I still needed to create a schedule of the panel. You have to create the schedule in the category. After hitting "OK" you go to the schedule properties dialog box. Select the "add parameter" button, then "shared parameter" radio button. You can now select the shared parameters you setup in the family.