Scheduling the same parameter twice

I recently received an equipment schedule for a commercial kitchen in one of our projects, which appeared to have been created in CAD. Since it’s a pretty wide schedule, the item number column on the left had been duplicated halfway the schedule and to the right, making it easier to read across a row.

I had never seen this before and it sparked my curiosity, since a Revit schedule only allows us to show a parameter once. The trick here is to use calculated values. Hitting the button with the three dots on the right of the Formula field will show you any available parameters to be used in a formula.

I tried this for an array of parameters in a door schedule, and it appears to work for most parameters, but certainly not all. In the example below, it didn't work for the Function parameter, but did work for Finish, Operation and other text parameters.

Project Set-Up Sheet, Follow up

In response to a comment I recently received on my Project Set-up Sheet post from over a year ago, I'll elaborate a bit on the promise I made back then.

"Most of these parameters are embedded in the titleblock as would be expected, whereas others are placed on the cover sheet, where we use a non-conventional but flexible technique to show them. This will be a post for later though."

Our titleblock has a lot of information, that depending on the project scope and size, can vary quite a bit. For one sheet-wonders, we try to cram as much as possible on the cover sheet, where as for mid-size to large projects, we prefer to see a nice cover for the fruits of our labor, most likely with project title, description and a rendering.

In the past, we would place a text piece for each on the cover, which worked fine, but it required we input the same information twice, and keep it up to date if changes occurred. We could have created a cover titleblock family, but I find this odd for just a single sheet, and it doesn't allow for quick changes, unless we edit the family.

Instead, we decided to use our standard titleblock on the cover and create additional small titleblocks that contain only the information (parameters) we want to see. Those titleblocks are then also placed on the sheet. This allows us to move or delete these chunks of information independently from each other, while maintaining that intelligent information connection with the project. In essence, the cover sheet has 3 or 4 titleblocks, each with their own set of information.

The set up is simple:
1. create a new titleblock family
2. bring the sheet boundaries to a minimum, for example 1/2" by 1/2"; this prevents overlapping boundaries
3. create labels for the shared parameters

4. apply visibility parameters as needed
5. load the family and place it on your cover sheet

Here are some examples:

Project Set-Up Sheet

A recent addition to our template has been the creation of a project set-up sheet. In short, this sheet is set as the project starting view and contains only a titleblock with all possible project related parameters, such as project name and number. This creates an overview in which we quickly fill out all significant information at the start of a project, which can be reviewed for completeness before printing.

Sometimes, Revit by default has provided us with instance parameters which we decided to replace with our own instance parameter assigned to the Project Information category. Drawn By and Check By are good examples of this, where changing this parameter had to be applied to all sheets individually. Since we've now assigned these to the project, as an instance parameter, one changes applies to all sheets.

The following is a list of all parameters currently included:

     - project name (line 1)
     - project name (line 2)
     - project description (for example: new construction, interior remodel ...)

     - location
     - client name
     - parcel id #
     - property description (legal description)

     - project #
     - drawn by (not the default instance parameter provided by Revit)
     - checked by (not the default instance parameter provided by Revit)
     - issue date
     - sign & seal date
     - sign & seal area (for example: "not for construction" or "for review only")

     - template - created on (tells us which template a project was started with)
     - template - last saved by (only two people are allowed to edit the template)

     - revision schedule

Most of these parameters are embedded in the titleblock as would be expected, whereas others are placed on the cover sheet, where we use a non-conventional but flexible technique to show them. This will be a post for later though.

For the revision schedule to show all submissions, we have to either draw a revision cloud for each submission, or edit the 'Revisions on Sheet' property, which is my preferred option.

One last thing, in the sheet's properties, we assigned the sheet its own unique Sheet Discipline and unchecked the 'Appears in Sheet List' check box, which pretty much makes this an invisible sheet (in schedules).

If you have any other thoughts about this setup, or if you can think of other parameters to add, I'd love to hear them.