By Dennis Collin
All too often when visiting offices or talking to delegates virtually, the topic of using manual text notes rears its ugly head. Although Revit has a text tool, it is not good practice to place text in model views as the text string contents do not automatically relate to properties in the model. The views where text is intended to be used are either notes on a sheet, or the placement of notes on Drafting and Legend Views.
Instead, a good Revit User will make use of Tag objects. Tag families are text like elements that relate to properties within the Revit model and will automatically update wherever the property is altered. Tags essentially come in two forms, by Category, where specific category information can be displayed or the more General-Purpose Multi-category tag which provides general information or manually defined shared parameters if required.
For general purpose notes I often use a multi-category tag linked to the comments field. This field is common to all elements in the project, and the tag can be employed to show the information in the comments field on the drawing. Should the information in that field be altered in any view, the information will be consistently displayed in every corresponding view. If the information is incorrect, then it will at least be consistent!
In the tag family, create a new label object and link it to the comments field. Save the family as General Comments Tag or similar and load it into a Revit Project file or template.
Now this tag is available to annotate all kinds of elements from Doors, Windows, Walls, Floor slabs or Mechanical or Electrical components. Any information contained in the comments field will show on the drawing and be coordinated with any changes in respective schedules.
For specific information on certain categories use a specific category tag template. I will discuss this process in a future post.