Custom Revit Schedules / Parameters

So I was asked to submit a sample page from the book and unfortunately at this time I can't do that (soon very soon), HOWEVER I can submit a tutorial for everyone regarding customizing Revit schedules that very well might be in the Book!

Keep in mind this is just one of the many tutorials (that might be in the book) and maybe I'll post another couple of tutorials from the book before it's release so everyone runs out and buys it! =)

I really appreciate the positive feedback from everyone looking forward to using the book and moreover I'm really excited to put something out there that doesn't just theorize any more about BIM in regards to the field of construction, but really starts to dig into the processes that are necessary to make BIM work.

So here is how to create a custom Revit Material Schedule to generate recycled material percentages from a concrete floor to be used for LEED reporting later. This involves creating a new schedule field so make sure you take the time to create it correctly, keep it stored on your Imperial Library and it will be available for every project after that!

Best,
B

Custom Schedule Tutorial

For this tutorial we will create a custom floor schedule in which we will input a custom field to indicate the amount of recycled content percentages of our building and derive a total volume of recycled content of our floors. To begin let’s open Revit. (helpful if you already have a revit file with floors in it- the book provides these models)
Click on View ->
-> New Schedule/Quantities...
-> From the category window select “Floors”
-> From the Fields tab add Family and Type, Area, Level, Volume, Perimeter, Comments
-> Click OK to create the schedule
Now that our schedule is created we will need to add a new Parameter and add a Calculated Value to that Parameter so that we can show the recycled content in the concrete floors.
-> Right click on your Schedule and select View PropertiesUnder the Other field select the Fields category again
-> Now select Add Parameter…
-> Under the Parameter Properties change the Parameter Type from Project parameter to Shared Parameter, this will allow us to export this schedule and can be used for other materials other than floors. This should make the Parameter Data fields inactive.
-> Click on the “Group parameter under:” pull down menu and select “Materials and Finishes”Now click Select…In this window click Edit…Click on Create… at the top right of the window Under File Name enter “Recycled Material Parameter”
-> Click Save
-> Now under the groups category select New…And Type in “Recycled Content”
-> Click OK On the Parameter group pull down select Recycled Content
-> Click on New… under Parameters
Under the Parameter Properties fill in the Name:Recycled Content. Under discipline enter Common and under Type of Parameter: enter number.
-> Click OK until you are at the Schedule Properties window.Now under the Scheduled fields you can see that there is a Recycled Content category we just created. While this seemed like a significant undertaking the fact is that since we made the Recycled content a shared parameter we will only have to do that once as it is now an option for future projects saved on Revit’s Imperial Library. Now to calculate the total amount of recycled content of the floors we will need to add a Calculated Value…
->Click on Calculated Value from the Schedule Properties window and enter “Total Recycled Volume” under the name.
-> Select the Formula setting-> Leave the default settings for Discipline
-> Under the Type pull down enter Volume
-> Under Formula: Input “Volume*Recycled Content”Before we completely exit the Schedule Properties window
-> Click OK until you are out of the element properties window click on Formatting and select the field Recycled Content. Now click on Field Format…Uncheck default settings and under Units select Percentage. Under rounding select 0 decimal places and under Unit Symbol select the “%” sign.

Finally click OK until we are back at the Floor Schedule.

Start inputting the percentages of recycled content and away you go! You'll now notice too that the calculated percentage is generating the total amount of recycled content for the floors.

Also since this is now a grouped parameter in your library it can be used for doors, walls, ceilings and so on.