How to Create a Bathroom Fixture (Multi-Category) Schedule with Functioning Tags

Often, architects have to create a custom schedule which includes many components of different categories such as a bathroom fixture schedule. In a bathroom fixtures schedule, we may want to group a toilet, sink, toilet paper holder and a piece of furniture together. That may not be possible with an ordinary schedule that Revit provides in its package, so it calls for a bit of customization on our part.

We will start with a brand new project.

Click FILE> NEW> PROJECT

Make sure that the options read exactly as pictured:

On the next dialogue box, choose Imperial for the type of units.

We started with some items as pictured below:

It is expected that you know how to load these into the drawing. As you can see, there are some generic walls, a door, a wall-mounted toilet fixture, a vanity unit, a vanity counter top with round sink hole and a round vanity sink.  All of these items are found in the Revit imperial library and need to be loaded before proceeding. Make sure you have the components I listed above. Once you are finished placing these components inside the project as pictured above, the next step is to create a project parameter. 

This new parameter is going to be the one that marks the number of the item on a schedule and also defines whether the item will be part of that multi-category schedule.

Click SETTINGS> PROJECT PARAMETERS> Add



Make sure you have the options selected exactly as shown above. On the categories dialogue box on the right, make sure the Check All button is selected as shown.

Click the Select button under the shared parameter option you clicked on.
It will read No shared parameter file has been specified. Would you like to choose one now? Click Yes.

On next dialogue box, click Create on the upper right-hand corner. It will show you a save as dialogue box prompting you to choose a location to save your parameters file. Give the file a name such as Bathroom Fixture Schedule Parameters and save this file to your desktop. (See pictured below.) This file will now hold custom project parameters that you define. We will not go in depth on this topic but understand that Revit reads this text file every time we start a new project.

Once you have created and saved the new shared parameters text file, it will show you a dialogue box such as the one pictured below:

Under Groups, click New
Name the new parameter group: Bathroom Fixture Schedule Group and click OK
Under the Parameters, click the New button
Make sure you type everything in exactly as you see below with all the options below.

Click OK
Click OK for all dialogue boxes.

Now, when you click the properties of the Vanity Counter Top fixture, for example, look under Identity Data. You should see a field named Bathroom Fixture Schedule Mark. See below:

Look at the 4.000000. I inputted 4 into that field. Dont worry about the zeros, which will not show up on the schedule. Go ahead and select each of the bathroom components and input the number you want them to show up as on the schedule. This will also show up on the tag. For example, for the vanity sink component input 4 under the Bathroom Fixture Schedule Mark Parameter. For the Toilet, input the number 5 and so on, until you have all the items that you want to show on the Bathroom Fixture Schedule we will be creating. Do not input numbers for any other items such as the walls, doors etc. just the items that you would like to see on the schedule.

Now we will create a schedule:

Click VIEW>NEW>SCHEDULE/QUANTITIES
For Category: choose <Multi-Category>
For Name, enter Bathroom Fixture Schedule on the right.
Your Dialogue Box should look like this:

Click OK
Add the fields exactly as shown on this dialogue box below:

Click OK
You should get a schedule on your screen. It should look something like this:

As you can see, the door shows up on the schedule. We will now format the schedule for our own needs so that it only shows what we want. There are many ways of doing this. I chose this way for the sake of simplicity so that we can get an understanding of how this works. I also inputted something for manufacturer fields. Make sure you widen up the fields so you can see all the names and manufacturers.

Now, RIGHT-click anywhere on the schedule dialogue box, and click View Properties

This is what you should see:

Below the Other category, to the right of the Filter field Click the Edit button.
Once in the Schedules Properties screen, click on the FILTER tab and make sure your settings look exactly like these:

Make sure you have input 0 into the field.
Click the Sorting/Grouping tab and make sure your settings look exactly like this:

Click OK twice to close the menus.
We should be back to our home screen now. Our Schedule should like something like this:

Notice that the door no longer shows up on the schedule. Nothing will show up on this schedule unless you input a number into the Bathroom Fixture Schedule Mark Field. If you accidentally input a number into a component that you do not want to show up, input the number 0 into it and it will not show up on the schedule.
The next step is to create a tag that shows the number of the component assigned to the bathroom fixture schedule.

We will click FILE>NEW>FAMILY>
Under the Annotations folder, choose Multi-Category Tag:

Click the OPEN button.

We will now create a custom Multi-category tag that will show us the number of the bathroom fixture on it.

You should be in the family editor screen with two green dashed lines on it. On the left toolbar, click Label. Place a label right in the center of the screen where the green crosshairs meet. On the select parameter screen click the Add button to add a parameter.

Click the Select Button. Your screen should now look like this:

Click OK twice and make sure the dialogue box looks like this and that you have all options set exactly as shown below:

Click OK.

Zoom into the middle of the screen. Click the Lines tool on the left and create a rectangle by and make sure it is placed exactly in the center of the screen. It should look like this:

Dont worry about the box size being too small and the text being too large. It needs to be done like this in order for it to show up the correct size on the sheet. If you have to use the move tool to get your rectangle to the center, do so. Once finished, click on the Load Into Project button on the left. Also, if you would like to, save your new family as Bathroom Fixture Schedule Tag into your library somewhere or the desktop. Now you should be back to your project screen. Click the DRAFTING button on the left, click on TAG>Multi-Category to add a tag to your project. Click on the toilet in the plan view. For example, it should give you a number as shown below on my Floor Plan view:

If the tag shows up, try tagging the other components such as the sink. They should all give you a tag as long as you gave the component a number. The finished plan and schedule is shown below:

The beauty of this is that now the tags are parametric and will update automatically. The tags will also be scaled automatically according to what you set it as. Keep in mind that if you accidentally input a value for the Bathroom Fixture Schedule Mark by accident, simply put a zero in its place and it will not show up on the schedule.

This page last edited on Thursday, June 03, 2010