Using the Space Naming Utility in Autodesk Revit MEP

by Martha Hollowell

It makes a lot of sense for the names and numbers of spaces in the Autodesk® Revit® MEP software to match the room names and numbers in the architect’s model. However, if there are hundreds of rooms it can take way too long to type in each one. That is why the subscription service bundle for the Autodesk Revit software includes the Space Naming Utility.  This is worth its weight in productivity gold when used with Place Spaces Automatically. To help you use it well, here is a cool hack that helps you identify spaces without room names as you match the spaces to rooms.

• Don’t forget, before adding spaces you need to set the linked architectural model to Room Bounding in Type Properties.

 

How to use the Space Naming Utility with Place Spaces Automatically

1. Click  (Space).
2. Click inside the first space in the floor plan.
3. Click (Modify) and, in Properties, change the Number to X-1 (or whatever you want to use).
4. Click (Space) again and, in the Modify | Place Space tab>Spaces panel, click  (Place Spaces Automatically).
5. The spaces are created.

 
6.  Click .

7.  In the Add-Ins tab> External panel, expand (External Tools) and select Space Naming Utility. (You need to load it through the Subscription program before doing this.)

8. In the Autodesk Revit MEP Space Naming Utility dialog box,  set the options as needed and click .

9. Roll your cursor over one of the spaces. You can see that it now matches the name of the corresponding room.

Why did I recommend that you name the first space before applying the spaces automatically? Take a look at part of a space schedule created from this example.

Because spaces are placed in every possible location, including many that are not “rooms” (such as plenums and shafts), it helps to separate them as you add the spaces. To do so, number the spaces with a sequence that you know is not used by the architects (such as X-1). Therefore, there is no question about where there are spaces rather than rooms. Using 
(Highlight in Model) these spaces can quickly be reviewed and renamed.

Repeat this process for each of the levels in the project.

Make your job easier by using all of the available tools, including Place Spaces Automatically, the Space Naming Utility, and schedules.

Comments

[Ree]

This works really well for new projects. !!!
I have had issues with multi phasing as spaces wont phase. Alas I set space tag to read arch rooms in the end.

Cheers