Wednesday 8 June 2011

'Date & Time Stamp' for Generic Annotation Families

The following video outlines a method for getting the Date/Time stamp parameter available to Title Block families into Generic Annotation families. The example shown is an update to the status banner that we use on drawing sheets.



The main points are as follows:

  • Open the Generic Annotation family you want to edit (or start one from scratch)
  • Create a new label. Under 'Family Category & Parameters', change the category to 'Title Blocks'. This will open up the 'Date Time Stamp' parameter. Apply this parameter to the label
  • Select all labels in the family and cut to the clipboard
  • Under 'Family Category & Parameters', change the category back to 'Generic Annotation'
  • Paste the label elements back to the same place
  • If working on an existing family, as demonstrated in the video, it will mess up some of the categories and labels. These now need to be corrected. If starting from scratch, do the 'Date Time Stamp' steps above first, to avoid any of this re-work
  • Please note that this built-in 'Date Time Stamp' takes its format from the Windows system settings
That's pretty much it. Enjoy

4 comments:

Kris said...

I was trying to do this with one of my Generic Annotation Families and bring in things like Project Name, Number, and a shared project parameter but none of these items are showing up. Is this strictly a work-around for the Time/Date stamp? I assumed any parameters from the Title Block Category would work. Mistake?

Thanks,

Kris

Darren Snook said...

Hello Kris
Yes, unfortunately only the 'Date/Time Stamp' and the 'File Path' parameters will work with this method. My guess is that it works because they are both derived from the windows system, as opposed to the model database. The other parameters are closed off to work in the ways they were meant to
Regards
Darren

Kris said...

Darren,
That being said, do you know of any way to achieve that? Big fan of Revit but some of these issues can get a little bit frustrating. "Just do what I want you to do!"

Thanks,

Kris

Darren Snook said...

I can't see a way round this Kris, but if I find a way to do it, I'll re-post on it
Regards
Darren