If you've used the Level parameter in a door or room schedule to sort and group them you may have also been surprised when you attempt to do the same thing including a linked file's elements. The Level parameter becomes unavailable in the filter tab of Schedule properties when it includes linked elements.
Behind the scenes Revit doesn't look at a Level the same way we do. We see a name like ground or second floor but Revit sees a unique ID instead. That means a linked project might have the same levels, the names we read, but they aren't the same ID. To a computer they couldn't be more different.
Revit reconciles this same situation with phases by providing a phase mapping tool in the properties of each linked model. When we use that dialog we are telling Revit that "this" is the same as "that". It seems pretty reasonable to me to do the same thing for levels. Provide a level mapping button right next to phase mapping, or combine them into a project mapping dialog. Maybe it doesn't have to be a mapping dialog. We could just interact with them in a view to map them to each other. We do this when we use Copy/Monitor.
The current workaround is to filter a schedule based on some other data that is uniquely level related or worse, actually entering "level" information into each element so they can be filtered by it. Add to the un-Revityness is that we now have to encourage people to add the same info to their model so we can use it in our schedule. Especially frustrating when the "same" info is already in the model.
Behind the scenes Revit doesn't look at a Level the same way we do. We see a name like ground or second floor but Revit sees a unique ID instead. That means a linked project might have the same levels, the names we read, but they aren't the same ID. To a computer they couldn't be more different.
Revit reconciles this same situation with phases by providing a phase mapping tool in the properties of each linked model. When we use that dialog we are telling Revit that "this" is the same as "that". It seems pretty reasonable to me to do the same thing for levels. Provide a level mapping button right next to phase mapping, or combine them into a project mapping dialog. Maybe it doesn't have to be a mapping dialog. We could just interact with them in a view to map them to each other. We do this when we use Copy/Monitor.
The current workaround is to filter a schedule based on some other data that is uniquely level related or worse, actually entering "level" information into each element so they can be filtered by it. Add to the un-Revityness is that we now have to encourage people to add the same info to their model so we can use it in our schedule. Especially frustrating when the "same" info is already in the model.
2 comments:
Wouldn't it be nice if Schedules actually fulfilled the promise of a UI to the database? Then we could just filter by the levels GUID.
(RANT ON)
Why not open up some of the things "behind the scenes" to schedules? Make them read only where applicable. Give schedules the same (or more) access that BIMLink has and for crying out loud, allow bidirectional linking to Excel and Access files.
If Revit is really a "relational database" allow it to be used as such. I don't care if it's in an "advanced user" tab or even a "Model Manager" suite of tools, just open access to the data, IT'S MIIIINNNNE!!!!! (RANT OFF)
2019 and problem prevails.
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