Forums >> Revit Building >> Technical Support >> Text Orientation in Custom Elevation Marker

jnpowell

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Joined: Wed, Jul 7, 2010
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Does anyone know of a way to fix the orientation of text in a custom elevation marker so that it always reads vertically?  Actually, I would be fine with it aligning perpendicular to the elevation surface if it was consistent with detail number on top and sheet number on bottom.  Some of mine always seem to flip so that the detail number is on the bottom.  Any solutions for this -- or work-arounds?

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thetabest

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Joined: Tue, Mar 15, 2011
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Try this:  Create an annotation family with labels for the parameters you are using...

Go to the family categories and parameters command (one with the yellow folder) and check the "Rotate with component" check box.

Load this family into your custom elevation family, place an instance, click on that instance, open up type properties, and for each parameter you made, click to the very right corner of the Field box (should be 3 periods, or an ellipsis)  This will bring up a dialog box showing you all the parameters in your elevation family that you can apply to this symbol's parameter.  Thus, map the detail number to the symbols detail number, and say the sheet to the symbols sheet...  Press Ok, then load this into your project.

Why, and what we are doing:  When text remains on its own, it doesn't rotate with component very well, as you have noticed.  So we are creating a symbol, akin to a group and serving the same purpose.  Since the text is all in the symbol now, the symbol will rotate with the component, and thus you should get your desired effect.  We also had to "pass" the parameter values you wanted displayed to the symbol so it could show the proper value, AND we kept it parametric!

GL - let me know if you need any clarification(s)

-----------------------------------

Trent Best

Best Systems

the.tabest@gmail.com

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jnpowell

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Thank you for your help!  However, I do have some questions because I'm not able to get it to work as you described.

First of all, are you suggesting that I use a generic annotation family and create parameters for Detail Number and Sheet Number?  I tried doing this and it would not load properly into my custom Elevation Mark Body family.  It keeps asking me to load a pointer.  I also tried to load the generic annotation family into an Elevation Mark Pointer family, but this does not solve the text orientation problem.

Your suggestion of creating a symbol sounds interesting.  Are you saying that you create your elevations, hide the elevation markers, and then place a custom parametric symbol in their place?  Also, what do you mean by "passing" the parameter values into the symbol?

I'm sorry for all the questions, but I really do appreciate your help.

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thetabest

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First, sounds to me like we might not be able to add symbols to the elevation marker, so you have to nix my first suggestion.  In this case, try turning your labels into a group, which is kinda the next best thing.

For my detail components, when I would have text show up in plan view, i.e. a xfmr is a box with a T.  I created a symbol family for the T and loaded it into my family.  Anyway, the reason I do this is because Revit provides you with no means to rotate, move, or manipulate a text object.  This was my workaround.

And now that I'm awake (apparently wasn't when I originaly read the post) you can't get it to always be vertical.  My apologies, I was working on allowing you to rotate, and/or reposition you text.  Its a flaw, there is a checkbox which all text in a family has, "Rotate with component".  Check this, and guess what?  No changes, Text behaves as if the checkbox is checked, whether or not it is. 

Now for my wall mounted components, which would have a letter to indicate their type (electrical firm here), my work around is to create a tag which displays the desired value, and thus it always remains vertical.

When I was in the architectural side, back with 2009, we hated the elevation symbol, and thus I created my own parametric one, but this was a duplication of work and a separation from automated processes, but it looked good!

Finally, you asked about passing a parameter, in family file, you can place a label, or if you want to control the visibility of a component, or any number of methods, you can assign a parameter to drive that value.

Lets discuss a simple cube, with width, height, length, and then text_value.  text_value is the text which will appear in our box in plan view.  We nest a symbol family which has the parameter Nested_text_value (it could be the same name, doesn't matter, just trying to keep it minimally confusing).  So in the parent family (the cube) we click on our symbol family, go to its element properties, and there is a little box (see attached image) which we can click on, when we click on it, it pops up a dialog box to pick from the available parameters of the parent family, in our list, we'd see the text_value and thus select it.  Now we set our Nested_text_value to be driven by the value of text_value...  Thus we "passed" the value.

GL

-----------------------------------

Trent Best

Best Systems

the.tabest@gmail.com

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jnpowell

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Joined: Wed, Jul 7, 2010
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Thank you for your help!  However, I do have some questions because I'm not able to get it to work as you described.

First of all, are you suggesting that I use a generic annotation family and create parameters for Detail Number and Sheet Number?  I tried doing this and it would not load properly into my custom Elevation Mark Body family.  It keeps asking me to load a pointer.  I also tried to load the generic annotation family into an Elevation Mark Pointer family, but this does not solve the text orientation problem.

Your suggestion of creating a symbol sounds interesting.  Are you saying that you create your elevations, hide the elevation markers, and then place a custom parametric symbol in their place?  Also, what do you mean by "passing" the parameter values into the symbol?

I'm sorry for all the questions, but I really do appreciate your help.

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