Room Tags and Leaders

For many years I wished room tags would turn on a leader IF I dragged a room tag outside of the room's boundary. I got my wish in Revit 2023.1. I also got more than I wished for which is not that uncommon unfortunately, thus the saying, "Careful what you wish for".

When we are moving rooms around things go awry. If we drag a room to a new location the tag turns on the leader instead of bringing the tag along with it like it would for other tagged elements. When I move a room that already has a tag with a leader the leader will update and point to the new room location. However, if I decide to remove the leader the tag returns to the original room location, not its new home. I have to turn on the leader, to wake it up, so it will point to the new room location. Then I have to turn off the leader to get the room tag to jump to its new home. Here's an image of the sequence I describe above.

I should be careful to select the room tag and move it with the room. That doesn't contend with all the other possible views that have tags referencing the room though.

The documentation review and cleanup we have to do when rooms are relocated is a necessary part of the design process, with all the potential changes that can occur. In the past warnings were generated when a room and its tag(s) were not reconciled. We could then deal with those warnings by activating the Warning dialog and clicking the Move to Room button. When such a warning occurred while opening a model we could resolve them all at that time too.

Yes, we'd still have to review and fine tune them most likely but all the tags related to the room would at least be in the room. We can also choose to delete all the tags in a view and use Tag All Untagged. What if most of the room tags were positioned nicely with and without leaders? We'd lose all that work and have to do it over again.

It's my opinion that dragging a room's tag outside a room should be treated as different from dragging a room outside its boundaries and we should have a different result for each.

• Drag a room tag away from its room and turning on the leader is cool and it should remain view specific.
• Drag a room (to within new boundaries) should leave whatever condition is true for all of its room tags but move them along with the room proportionately (see next).
• Drag a room and if there is no leader the tag should follow the room and not turn on a leader. If the leader is active then it should maintain its position relative to the room but move along with it.
• Delete a room and the associated tags should be deleted too (which is what happens). We can then place that room elsewhere and tag as required.

Documentation review and adjustments are unavoidable but these actions should mitigate how extensive the task might be as well as be more consistent with what I'd expect to happen when I move rooms around.

Survey Results - Revit Sweet

Thank to those of you who took time to vote in my quiet little polls! I appreciate the votes and I'll take them to Autodesk with the hope that they will consider it more seriously.

The results of the surveys I posted are: (poll was open to voting for 30 days)

Want a Revit "Sweet"? (156 votes)
115 - Want a Revit Sweet bundle/combo (73%)
24 - Want just two out of three versions (15%)
17 - Only need or want one version of Revit (10%)

Willing to pay how much? (110 votes)
1 - 15k full price basically (0%)
25 - 9.5 k (price of two versions) (22%)
13 - 7.5k (a bit less than two versions) (11%)
71 - 5K plus higher subscription rate (price of one version but willing to pay higher "freight" per month for the additional features) (64%)

Just to clarify it was my intention that this poll reflect the delivery of a "All in One" product, all Revit tools and features combined into one product, one install, one product code. Not the delivery of three separate products for a special price though nobody would object to special pricing for purchasing all three versions at a time. The ideal situation is simpler price, simpler installation, simpler management...one product, one install...all the features.

Background: There are between 300 and 600 readers of this blog visitors per day during the week and it drops to between 100 to 200 on the weekend. I assume most are repeat visitors so this means that roughly a quarter of the readership chose to vote.

My conclusion? A majority of users would like to have Revit "Sweet" and are willing to pay more through their subscription rate to get it. I wasn't surprised by the results for wanting Revit "Sweet" but was a little surprised by the willingness to pay more for subscription as opposed to the 3 for 2 pricing approach. I suppose the assumption is that they'd pay less via subscription somehow.

I hope that Autodesk does some measuring of the market themselves and finds this approach to the delivery of Revit and its toolset to be consistent with my results! They couldn't deliver Revit "Sweet" fast enough for me and most of the clients I visit.