Monday, November 09, 2009

Dept. of Subtle - Three Parameter Tips?

I'm not sure all three are really tips.

Item One - The Tab order of the Calculated Value dialog in the Schedule Properties dialog is off. The first active field is the Formula field, the one with the cursor in it. Using the Tab key advances to the Name field and then back down the list but the Tab order of the fields is "out of order". Revit jumps over the Formula field to Cancel instead. What makes it more odd is that Revit Structure and MEP don't have this problem.

Item Two - Moving parameters UP or Down in the list of parameters in a schedule can be a bit of a pain when there are a lot of them. When you move something well down in the list toward the top, the list doesn't scroll when the parameter moves up out of view. I usually grab the big chunk of parameters above and move them down instead.

Item Three - Use the formula field to apply parameters quickly to all types in the family. This will apply them and "lock" them out from user intervention if you leave it this way, locked out in the project setting that is. However if you apply and then delete the formula value, Revit will leave the value behind in each type and now they are editable. Matt Jezyk shared this one a few years ago and I posted about it once before back in September 2005.

Here's a video to show what I'm writing about and you can listen and watch here.


1 comment:

Paul F. Aubin said...

Hey Steve:

Like the third tip adding the text formula value. I'll add that to my repertoire. Thanks.