Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Tagging Elements

It is pretty common to have quite a few different kinds of tags for the elements we need to tag in views. Some equipment might get an oval shaped tag while others have a hexagon. When we need to switch between tags Revit isn't quite fine tuned for this yet. Here's three approaches we can take.

When you tag elements you can tell Revit which tag should be used by default via the Loaded Tags dialog. The tag that appears next to a category is the tag that will be used when you use Tag by Category. If you work systematically you can set which tag you intend to use for awhile and then the correct tag will be offered by default.


Another way to do it is Right Click > Create Similar (you can select one and click the Create Similar button on the ribbon too) over a tag that is the kind you want to place, assuming one is already in the view. This way Revit will start tagging with that tag.

Yet another approach is to select everything you want to tag and then use Tag All, choosing the tag type you'd like to use. When you select elements first this dialog changes Revit's focus to tag selected elements instead of everything that isn't already tagged. This gives you a bit more control over which tag should be used on which elements.

A tagging quirk is that Revit won't let us put more than one tag on the same element. For example I like to use a pipe tag to identify CW (cold water) or HW (hot water) pipes. I can put one tag on a pipe but Revit won't recognize the pipe as available unless I tag a different pipe first. My work around is to bounce back a forth between pipes. It seems a little silly not to let me put another tag on a pipe if I want too.

5 comments:

rgesner said...

"Revit won't let us put more than one tag on the same element"
Except Rooms. You can have a room name/number tag and a room finish tag, both of which are technically "room tags" and place both in the same room.

Steve said...

True, but it is also a different command since Tag by Category doesn't recognize rooms. We have to use Tag Room for them.

That inequity just pokes me in the eye since it's quite arbitrary, to me, that Revit won't let me tag something twice, consecutively.

Tannar said...

I work around this by typing TG after the last Tag was placed. This sort of "resets" the Tag tool so you can tag the same element twice consecutively. This happens to me a lot when I have a pipe that spans a great distance and has many crossover pipes/ducts/conduits and I need to document the pipe size hasn't changed from point A to B.

Edward Truong said...

A work around for tagging the same element for both keynotes and generic tags is the trusty "Ctrl" tool. Once you've tagged the element, hold control and select the tag, drag and drop. In essence it creates a duplicate tag referencing the same element.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.
Ed

Steve said...

True, it does require stopping the current tagging command to change to copy via the CTRL drag technique.

As long as I have other elements to tag I just tag something else and return to tag the previous item again, command stays active.

I could use Tag All and then use the CTRL drag technique to add additional tags.