Hacking System Parameters in Door Family

All the component families in Revit have built-in (hard-coded) parameters for each category; most of them are for scheduling purpose or data storage. By default, they are listed as "Type Parameters" and there is no way you can change how they are within the family. Under the family type, all the predefined parameters are listed there. If you try to click "modify", you will learn that they are greyed out. As for door family, one of the built-in parameter that allows user for schedule is "Fire Rating". This particular parameter, which is just a "text" parameter let you identify if the door is rated. However, this will always be a "type" parameter in Revit.
Here's come the problem. If I need a door to be rated, I have to make a new type for this door (say a hollow metal door) as a rated door that is different from a non-rated door. As a result, you could end up with many more duplicates for the same type of doors.

For many users, they would create their own "Fire Rating" parameter as an instance base shared parameter (if needed for tagging) or just a project parameter and use it for schedule. I often find this annoying since the available fields from the door schedule will now have 2 parameters both call "Fire Rating". I have seen people somehow get confused and not knowing which one to use.

My office was undergoing a process of re-building all the door families for our office library. I was discussing this same issue with some of my peers about what's the best way to handle this. As it turns out, there is a much easy and elegant way to get around this without using user-created parameters for fire rating.

Hard-coded "Fire Rating" parameter that is locked/greyed out

What I had to do was to open a door family --> Family Types, first to input a value (I put 90 MIN or it can be any text) under "Fire Rating".

Next is to go to Family Category --> change your door from doors category to other category. In my case, I just chose the Generic Models category.

Since Generic Models do not have built-in parameter for "Fire Rating", Revit will now treat this parameter as a user-defined parameter; therefore, you can now go in and modify it!

Just go to modify and switch from "Type" to "Instance". Voila! You now have this as an instance parameter!!!

However, don't forget to go back to Family Category and switch it back from generic models to doors.

Put this modified door back into the project and now you can assign "Fire Rating" as an instance parameter under properties.

This trick should also work on other hard-coded parameters in other families. The key to understand this is to switch the original family to something that does not have its specific parameter built-in. Hope this will be a helpful tip and I think the factory should somehow re-think how the users want to utilize family parameter in projects.

Tracking Paint Surface and Schedule in Revit

Ever wonder what happened to the wall (or a surface) that was painted at one point? Can you find out where they are in the project? I learned something interesting about using a schedule to find them.
Keep reading...

Recently, I have a project where there is a need to define another material on the same wall (in this case, it is for CMU wall). Since we will need a different CMU finish to differentiate within a wall, so I suggested using the Split Face and the Paint tool to get the job done.

 

As I look into the paint surface, I thought it would be important to schedule the "paint" area in a schedule to calculate the actual area. To do so, I use Material Takeoff in Revit to generate an area for the paint surface.

 

In this case, I choose "Wall" as a category

Next window allows me to add fields to my schedule, I then notice there is a field/parameter called "Material: as paint". Sounds like something suitable in this occasion.

 

As I move on to the filter tab, something interesting shows up...

I can now set the "Material: as paint" to equal to "Yes", which means I tell Revit that this schedule only look for the "Paint" surface on all walls; the next filter rule, I can even set it to a specific material to be included in this schedule.

The last thing is to tell Revit to calculate total area for this particular material.

 

Once this is done. Volia! I can now let Revit to keep track on all my "paint" surface.

 

 

What's more is you use "Highlight in Model" to make Revit show you which wall that has been "painted".

 

This trick offers another easy way to help you keep track the "painted" wall.

Afterall, it seems like the Material Takeoff schedule can do more than just schedule. Hope you will find it useful!