Forums >> Revit Systems >> Technical Support >> Lookup tables - looking up numbers, getting Invalid Input

Gyvven

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Joined: Wed, Dec 19, 2007
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I've done a lot of lookup tables in the past, only for dimensions, but for this next round of families I wanted to add a lookup table that would return a NUMBER value. All of the documentation says that lookup tables can look for the following (taken straight from Autodesk wikihelp):

Acceptable parameter types are: NUMBER, LENGTH, AREA, VOLUME, ANGLE, and OTHER

I've tried formatting headers like ##NUMBER##, ##OTHER##, ##OTHER##NUMBER but I still get Invalid Input errors.



Here's my lookup table currently, copied from notepad:

,HP##OTHER##,KVA##OTHER##

sample,0.1667,0.5280



The formula I'm using in the family is:

KVA as number (Number type parameter) = text_file_lookup(Lookup Table Name, "KVA", 1000, HP)

Where "Lookup Table Name" is pointing to my test.csv file, ""KVA"" is my column name, "1000" is my default value, and "HP" is the number parameter for my row.

I've heard people use a workaround of using lengths and then dividing them by 1' to make them unitless. But if Autodesk says NUMBERS work (and others do to) why can't I get them to work? I know I'm missing something, but I've read everything I can find on lookup tabels and tried all of the suggestions but nothing seems to be working. After every change to the CSV file I close it, close Revit then re-open the family.

My INI in my Users directory is pointing to the correct location for our lookup tables and all other lookup tables appear to be working perfectly.



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Gyvven

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Joined: Wed, Dec 19, 2007
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I should also mention that the family category I've been trying is Mechanical Equipment, but I later changed it to Pipe Fitting just to see if I can get it to work. Same issue. I've also tried changing the parameters to ##Length##Feet. No change.

I'll dig into it a bit further by trying to create a new pipe fitting from scratch, as I've done in the past, and then try changing it to Mech Equip after I make sure it's working as a pipe fitting.

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Gyvven

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Joined: Wed, Dec 19, 2007
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Continuing adventures in lookup tables.

I discovered that eventhough my Revit.ini is properly pathed there are 2 sub-folders, Pipe and Conduit, in the Lookup Tables directorty and the csv file needs to be in the Pipe sub-folder or it won't read, at least for Mechanical Equipment. Moving the file to the Conduit folder or the base Lookup Tables folder causes it to not be found. I'd like to know why that is and where that setting can be found and adjusted.

Also, in order to pull the data from the file everything must be in lengths. I haven't found a way to get number or other to work, and I haven't tried area or volume. This means I'd have to convert my HP, Volts and Phase parameters to lengths, which means adding two extra parameters for each, one to make them unitless and the other to convert them to lengths. The same would need to be done for my return value for KVA, convert from length to unitless then to power. If I could figure out how to get numbers to work with the table that would be ideal since it would only require four extra parameters to make the round-trip instead of eight.

I wish units weren't such an issue for Revit, there have been many times that I've needed to compute differing unit types but had to first convert them to unitless and then back again. Example: taking CFM * Delta T * 1.08 = BTUH (or Q).

If anyone can provide some insight in how they may have gotten their lookup tables to work I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'm hoping the new embedded lookup tables in 2014 will work a bit better, or at least work as they're described in the WikiHelp.

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Gyvven

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Joined: Wed, Dec 19, 2007
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I can't believe I forgot to update this thread, I've done a lot of digging and experimenting in the past year and some. I hope you all find this useful. I now use multiple lookup tables in certain families with lookup parameters that are driven by other lookup table outputs. FUN, FUN, FUN!

I discovered ALL numeric values in your CSV headers must be followed by "feet" in order to work. Ex. "KVA##number##feet" will return a straight number. Once I found this out everything just fell into place.

This can then be converted to kVA simply by multiplying the result by 1 kVA. Ex. "size_lookup(Lookup Table Name, "KVA", 0, Volts / 1 V, HP, Number of Phases) * 1 kVA". Simple, right?

Conversely, and probably more useful, you can use any unit type value in your lookup table formula as long as you divide by it's unit in the lookup table statement to make it unitless. In the example above Volts is being divided by 1 V to make it unitless, and note there are no additional parentheses required, but you can use them if you like.

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nmulder

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Joined: Fri, May 25, 2012
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Thanks for the update. Based on this thread and the one on Autodesk I was able to make use of numbers in a lookup table while also discovering these two additional points:

1. This does not work with version 2013; at least not this method, as the exact same syntax works in 2014.
2. text_file_lookup in 2013 was replaced in in 2014 with size_lookup best I can tell, even though 2013 help seems to indicate use of both. This is my deduction unlesss someone else has more info. Upgrading my family to 2014 made this change automatically and accepted the syntax no problem.

Thanks again.

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