by Martha Hollowell
This fall I will be blogging about Autodesk Revit families. My focus is going to be on some of the lesser used but still important types of families including annotations, profiles, and 2D families. I will also be doing a webcast in December about parameters which tie right in with some of these families as well, so stay tuned. Most of the information is coming from the Autodesk Revit 2017 BIM Management:Template and Family Creation training guide.
Annotation Families
Annotation families are a critical part of standardizing the way your construction documents look. They include tags, view titles, north arrows, and annotations that only need to display in 2D such as electrical and sprinkler symbols. In some way, they are simple since you don’t have to create a lot of complex parameters or sketches. You can modify symbols that are supplied with the Autodesk Revit software to fit your company standards or create new symbols using a variety of templates.
- Most annotation tags and symbols do not have family types. They are designed to change size according to the view scale.
How To: Create a Tag
- Create a new family, choosing one of the Annotations templates found in the Library.
- In the Family Category and Parameters dialog box select the type of category if you are using one of the generic templates.
- Sketch the outline of the tag using the Line command and Draw tools.
- The insertion point is the center of the default reference planes. You typically do not need to add reference planes or dimension-based labels.
- Add a label that includes the information you want to display in the tag. A list of parameters related to the selected category is available.
- If you are using several parameters in one label, select Wrap between parameters only and Break (in column) options to separate them while still permitting a word wrap.
- Orient the label to fit the tag outline.
- Add any other labels, text, or even filled regions that make up the design of the tag.
- Test the tag in a project with the related content using several different view scales.
