At the beginning of this August we received such a query from our client:
“I have a question regarding wall tags. I’m wondering if there is a way to setup parameters so that system will calculate wall marks sequentially in a numerical form as you tag the walls.
Instead of having to go and fill in the mark type on each wall manually before tagging, I would like Revit to generate these marks for me every time I create a new wall or break a wall into 2 walls.
For wall paneling, having the walls auto generate a sequential number scheme for the mark type would be extremely helpful. It would be fine to keep a specific wall mark for each different wall type, which it does now, but also add numbers after it.
Example: 2×6 Ext w/veneer – W1-1,2,3,4,5 etc. – (W1-) would be the mark type and a formula would be needed to add them up sequentially, automatically 2×6 Ext w/brick – W2-1,2,3,4,5, etc. – (W2-) would be the mark type. Let me know if there is something like this already.”
Thanks for the question. Yes, we have already a solution for solving this sore point of many Autodesk® Revit® users. It’s our Revit plugin Sort Mark, very useful extension for those who have trouble with tags and labels. If you do not want to tag the family manually, Sort Mark can help you highly facilitate tag creation and addition in Revit.
Sort Mark can renumber any Revit elements just the way you wish, also detecting and renumbering grids. It determines swing direction and orientation adding them as properties, recalculates shared coordinates, and more. So I suggest you try possibilities of this Revit extension.
Select any wall from your Revit project then choose the Sort Mark feature Element Numbering:
Now we will write type number with prefix (W1, W2, W3, etc.) to every wall. Select a parameter where you need such values. Now let’s create new shared parameter Type Number:
Here you have to predefine rules for every type numbering:
Grouping tab – None
Numbering tab – Type: Type Name
Sorting tab – None
Sort Mark tab – Calculated Sort Mark Number and W Prefix:
You can save this configuration for future projects:
After pressing OK, Sort Mark will create new shared parameter Type Number and write wall type number with W prefix to every wall from the Revit project:
Now we are ready to combine this number with sequence of the same wall type. Let’s do it again: select any wall from the project > select parameter where you want to add final result, in our case it’s Mark:
Then you have to predefine the rules that indicate how the walls should be numbered:
Grouping – Type: Type Name
Numbering – Instance: Id
Sorting – None
Sort Mark – Instance: Type Number (W1, W2, W2, etc.) + Calculated Sort Mark Number (1, 2, 3, etc.)
Also you can add “-” as Suffix:
You can save these rules again for future projects.
After pressing OK, you will see the results in wall properties:
Results in the Wall schedule:
That’s all. As I said, Sort Mark is a powerful Revit extension for proper Revit element annotation in your projects. I hope that this advice was useful to you. Try Sort Mark yourself and you’ll see how it can help you make sequential labeling tags easily.
