by John Flanagan
Types of Parameters
There are five types of parameters in Revit.
System Parameters
These parameters are built-in by default in Revit; they cannot be removed, renamed, or modified.
Project Parameters
This tool is used to assign a new parameter to any category of elements in Revit. When creating new parameters, you will be asked to choose between Type and Instance. You will also have to name your parameter, pick the group, type of parameter and discipline. The type of parameters most used are Text, Yes/No, Length and Number.
You will also be asked to pick a specific category that will be assigned to parameters. The categories may vary depending on if you selected Type or Instance parameter. The category option is not an option if you are creating a parameter inside a family.
Family Parameters
Family parameters are created inside families.
Once the family is loaded in a project, the parameter cannot be used in schedules and tags unless it is a Shared Parameter. In this example, we create a new Panel Colour type parameter in a furniture family.
Shared Parameters
To tag and schedule user-created parameters from families, you will have to use the Shared Parameters function. The first step is to create a .txt file.
Go to the Shared Parameters menu, located in the Manage tab. Create a new text file. Name it and make sure to place it on your local network.
Global Parameters
Use these parameters inside a project to control multiple parameters at once.
Autodesk Revit has, since the 2016 release, been able to work with Global Parameters which can enhance this workflow inside your Revit Designs.
If you are acquainted with families and creating a parameter, you will recognise the interface, but with a global parameter there are no instance or type options or need to define as shared or family. They are simply a list of parameters that can be applied to various parts of a project to create consistency. Each parameter can have an equation associated with it, so fairly complicated equations could be used to update objects dimensions based on standards.