Revit Tutorial - Make Your Drawing Notes More Efficient

[@01gauch]

Niall- You are my saviour the piece you have done on txt notes was really helpful, after 18 months of playing around with Revit I am about to submit my first project to the L.A. And I’m really pleased with it, I have a house to start in Revit and it’s going to be a challenge but good piece of learning Thanks again have a coffee on me. JS

[@8020BIM]

Thanks a million for the kind words as always. Glad to have helped out in some small way and appreciate the support on BuyMeACoffee. Will speak with you again soon and hope the submission goes well 👍

[@Ninjump]

Thank you for this info! I'm just getting started and some times it can be hard to independently leverage the capabilities under Revit's hood. As a design/builder, this will make my life a lot easier at the decision making stage, which is where the bulk of my input is needed.

[@8020BIM]

Great to hear Cedrick - hope this method serves you well :) Niall

[@JulioAlvaradoPalomo]

Fantastic my friend, amazing way to automate notes inside Revit, thank you very much, greetings

[@AbdulrahmanHadid]

underrated channel

[@Mario-i2i1c]

Congratulations for your lessons, very good explanatory. Thank you very much

[@8020BIM]

@Mario-i2i1c thanks a million, glad you found the content useful!

[@dered52]

Brilliant, Love it Niall. Off to add this to my Template

[@8020BIM]

Great stuff Dermot. As I alluded to in the video, try limit its use to early project development. Later stages really should leverage reporting parameters for schedules etc. Let me know how implementing it goes for you! Niall

[@Tarekgalal950]

This is GOLD!

[@ekaterinailyakova6966]

this is fantastic - thank you so much for this video

[@arc.ebiwenebozimofniapmp3524]

Absolutely awesome! Thanks!

[@rileymccabe9987]

Thanks so much, it’s a life saver! The master notes especially, way better than keynotes.

[@drelands8364]

So helpful and easy to follow, thank you.

[@mamasabjbbestcakeinjb5631]

Drag the volu for the setuper track that you're recording into all the way down.

[@8020BIM]

Agreed, I was struggling with the audio settings a lot when first starting.

[@teekaypew6538]

This solves a very large problem for us. Thank you very much!

[@8020BIM]

Very glad that this approach is beneficial to you. Thanks for the feedback! Niall

[@thaileinh2900]

Amazing Professional Tutorial. Thank's !

[@8020BIM]

No problem - thanks again for the great feedback!

[@caipingsu1023]

This is exactly what I need. I don’t want to use the Revit keynotes because the text file gets very long and hard to manage.

[@8020BIM]

Yup, the Keynotes can become laboursome. When using them I recommend for every Keynote added input the corresponding keynote into an excel to help manage them. Means you can use Excel filters etc to hone in on one or two problematic Keynotes. Then use the Notepad (or hopefully a better Text editor) Search tool to find the Keynote which is being problematic / required alteration.

[@adamwrigh8805]

Absolutely fantastic How long did it take to figure all that out ? Have things become more automated/ easier in anyway in Revit 2022?

[@8020BIM]

Hi Adam. This is actually an expansion of a topic originally covered online by Nicolas from Revit Pure. O knew about it previously also, moreso by osmosis than any great intent to figure it out if I am being honest. The method remains the same for the most recent Revit versions also, although true material and property scheduling with correct tag usage remains the most BIM appropriate way of communicating data within a project . Niall

[@fjareh]

Amazing Professional Tutorial, Thanks Man

[@8020BIM]

You are most welcome - thanks for the postitive feedback. Niall

[@arqgnavarro]

Thank you. This was very helpful.

[@8020BIM]

You are very welcome - glad you found it informative. Niall

[@MrsHyde84]

Thank you!

[@hazimalwaali9507]

How to re use them back again in different projects. Thanks

[@christian3271]

Great tutorial! One question though, do we need to create another family to horizontally align text on the right side?

[@Sekapur_Sirieh]

Pro level, Very nice bro...

[@victoriabain6327]

Thank you so much! This is incredibly useful! I have a question regarding leadings. Is there a way to create two types of labels within the same family that vary whether it's aligned to the left or to the right? Sometimes I'll have annotations on both right and left of my drawing, but the origin point of the leading responds to whichever side the annotation is aligned to (if that makes sense) - so sometimes the leading will be very far away from its annotation or look a bit strange. Otherwise, it forces the labels to always have to be on the same side of the drawing. Hopefully, this makes sense! Thanks again for a great video!

[@robenhitchcock325]

Thanks so much Sir.

[@2ambientarchitecture]

great video! is there a way of linking the number and the text together. i.e. if you copy the tag to a new location and you are updating the number to a number previously used, you also need to update the text field and scroll through the list (which could be long). would be great to just pick the number and the text would follow.

[@8020BIM]

Have not tried it but will look into it and see if there is a means of achieving that :)

[@warenhuis7271]

@@8020BIM This is something I'm interested in as well. It is quite involved to have to change the text fields in order for all the same-numbered notes to update.

[@jawadhazrat4349]

Thanks, how do you locate the leader on the right side? It seems there is no option for that?

[@glenndodge1940]

Niall I echo the sentiments below. Truly a wonderful way to add notes. I run into trouble when I want the note on the left side of the number and I add a leader. if both the number and note are visible the leader will not originate from the center of the number. I've tried just mirroring the note, adjusting the family so that there are 2 versions of the note one on each side of the number with visibility parameters for both but I can't find anything that works. Any ideas? I'm really just trying to be able to add a note to either side of a object and make it look good. All of your notes in the video were on the right side of the object they were referencing. Any ideas?

[@yassintatar2084]

Thank you man! You made my day. 🙏🙏

[@8020BIM]

Delighted to have helped Yassin.

[@ArCrisCruz]

Thanks for sharing.

[@vinayck855]

Hi , have a doubt regarding text height .. as in autodesk they mentioned text height (annotation element) is relative to scale of view ,it should work(maximise & minimise) bassed on scale vary but for some scales its not working like that...for example text height is 2.5mm for scale 1:50 &1:25 it will work nice but for 1:100 & 1:200 text look bigger in view ,so any option is there to set same text height for any scale ?

[@22086106]

it is all good info, but i am still not sure what is the difference between the keynotes and this?

[@mohamedafzalrafic4411]

Awesome. great Tutorial.

[@8020BIM]

Glad you found it useful 👍

[@stephanc7192]

Great video

[@GrishPanosyan]

Thanks for your video, but I have to disagree with the method used. I assure you it would be much cleaner and to the point, to use wall parameters such as "Mark" or "Type Mark", "Type Comments", and a Custom Shared Parameter "Wall Thickness" and annotate the plans using tags. In the end, one would control all the information using wall schedules and also publish some quantity information in case of unexpected demand. The workflow you have taught people is also useful indeed, but for other purposes.

[@8020BIM]

Hi Grigor, thanks for your response. I agree with your statement entirely and what you have suggested is actually what I do, but in the later project stages (normally tender stage and above). In the video I do state that this is most useful in the early project stages, perhaps prior to the full project specifications being worked out when placeholder items are used in accordance with BIM workflow best practices (in my case, PAS1192-2 /Iso 19650 standards). So yes, indeed the absolute best approach is to leverage schedules with information appended to the family items via Marks, Type marks, comments, etc etc, which is also better for information drops, federated models and final COBie outputs as well. This method is solely for early project development. Hope this clarifies things a little more. Thanks for the feedback! Kind regards, Niall

[@8020BIM]

Further to your point, using walls was more to highlight the function of the workflow, in reality this process is aim more towards generic universal annotation and not wall specific annotation.

[@acsalassalas3780]

This is great. thank you for this tutorial. very helpful

[@8020BIM]

Thanks for the feedback, glad you found it useful. 😊

[@prozaque]

Since you clicked "Apply" before clicking "OK", what's the difference between "OK" and "Cancel"?

[@8020BIM]

Pressing cancel does nothing after Apply has been selected, at that point it is the same as OK as both just close the window. If Apply has not been selected, any setting alterations can be undone by selecting cancel. Pressing OK if Apply has not been selected confirms the setting alterations and closes the window at the same time. Hope this helps. Niall

[@prozaque]

@@8020BIM I find it comical and I see it all the time. I sometimes click "apply" and then "cancel" when someone walks me through something like this, just to watch them cry out in terror. Or I skip "apply" and click the "apply-and-close-dialog-window" power button, efficiently labeled "okay". When clicking "apply" it doesn't matter whether "okay" or "cancel" is clicked next, since "apply" is like a progress save which keeps the dialog window open. Undoing changes after clicking "apply" can (only) be undone with ctrl+z, "cancel" does nothing at this point.

[@8020BIM]

@@prozaque I agree with everything you listed above. It is just an odd way to label the functions to be honest. Very confusing for new users altogether. I really appreciate the way you have broken it down in your last comment - got a giggle at the suggestion of Okay being the power button 😂

[@prozaque]

@@8020BIM I agree with you here. I find Revit actually too complex for new users to be really useful. I mean, our drawings have never looked this terrible. New users, meaning people new to the AEC industry, have to learn so much stuff already, codes, how buildings go together, energy and sustainability, building materials, the logic of how to document design intent, contract documents, ... you name it. Every extra hour they needlessly spend on trying to figure out Revit is not well spent in my opinion. If Revit would only have some user access control, like network filesystems have for example, you could at least prevent the kids from damaging too much, but no, everybody gets to access view templates, and nobody seems to really understand the logic behind them.

[@hneutralguy1887]

Really useful video! But is there a way to have a parameter for the label to ensure that the leader is always close to the text? The issue I'm having is that after following your example, the leaders only work properly on the left-hand side of the text. If I want to switch the leader to right, there is a big offset (gap) from the text. (To note that I applied the visibility parameter to the number, and I kept only the texts for the annotations).

[@8020BIM]

Hi Neutralguy - So I believe that the extent of your Generic Annotation Family Text box might be the issue here - go into the family itself, drag the text box extents back to somethign maybe a little more suitable and see if htat helps. Let me know if this works out. Niall

[@rndm89]

amazing, i couldn't figure out how to get my notes to stay view specific (they kept changing across all views), found this tutorial after i had made a bunch of annotation tags for each view. made a complete mess, but this is so much tidier. Thank you

[@8020BIM]

That's great, glad to hear you found it useful. Thanks for the feedback. All the best, Niall

[@mariochavez268]

work! Cheers

[@caesar7821]

Great thnak you !! keed posting more videos like this

[@8020BIM]

Thanks for the positive feedback Caesar - I am hoping to get back making videos again very soon. Stay tuned! Niall

[@Nicholas.Tsagkos]

Cool, could it be done without the numbers? I prefer text only.

[@8020BIM]

Hi Nikos. Yes, it can be done without the numbers. In the schedule the numbers can be kept but turned into a "Hidden" column so they do not appear on the sheets. The Annotation family can also forego the Number label also. Hope this helps! Regards Niall

[@biancatheuma6084]

Hi there, thank-you for sharing. I get stuck on filtering these notes between multiple levels. EG; ground level to level 8 - I'd like to filter out notes that do not appear on all reflected ceiling plan sheets. Thank-you!

[@8020BIM]

Hi Bianca - The filtering of the notes can be controlled on a per view basis. I haven't run a check myself on yoru specific query but the schedules control the notes on a per view basis, so you should be able to apply a paramter that is specific to each level. Sorry it is not more informative but hopefully this is enough to help guide you at the least. Niall

[@01gauch]

Thanks

[@jmperez37]

Great video. Thank you.

[@8020BIM]

You are most welcome John, glad you found it informative. Niall

[@distritobim3578]

Thank you for the video, but I think that, fot the purpose you are using them, it would have been better to create those parameters as type parameters, not instance parameters. Then, you could create different types of Generic Annotations, and, if you changed the value of a parameter in one type of Generic Annotation, it would automatically change it in the other instances of that type.

[@8020BIM]

Hi Nuria, thanks for the feedback. I actually mentioned this point briefly in the video. The intention of this tutorial was to make it user friendly for those who may not be accustomed to working with different parameter types in Revit, trying to have a level of foresight for potentially multiple users accessing /annotating within a workshared model at the same time . But yes, absolutely you are correct. Type parameters with this method are also very effective and I would recommend them if you have the knowledge to use them effectively.

[@distritobim3578]

@@8020BIM Yes, not many people use this tool, and not many people understand that a generic annotation is an annotation family that can have it´s own types, like any other family. In any case, however you use it, it´s much better than using simple text! Thanks for your answer!

[@SirKombabomba]

Brilliant video on drawing notes- Thanx

[@8020BIM]

Glad you found it useful!

[@TonyPegg]

Fantastic video! I have used my work at home time to take advantage of learning Revit and have relied a lot on videos like this one. You are very thorough and explain everything. I have a question concerning the placement of the arrows. Sometimes, I would like to mirror notes, so that the number and text note is reversed and I can have my leader to the right. Can the family created be modified to do this or would I need to create a new family, such as annotation note left and annotation note right? Thank you in advance.

[@8020BIM]

Thanks Tony, appreciate the positive feedback and glad you have found value in the video. I would recommend duplicating the annotative family, then editing it and making the mirror image (swapping the position of the number and text box). Then, merely select which one you would like in the properties drop down in your live project, as quick as mirroring and then you can use the match properties tool to select multiple annotative items to change at once to their mirror image which means they do not need to be repositioned. Let me know if this works for you or if you would like some additional info. All the best, hope you are keeping well with everything going on. Niall Let me know if this does the trick for you

[@TonyPegg]

@@8020BIM I have tried to do that. However, when I add the leader, it appears on the left side of the text, not connected to the number box. From the threads, I have been reading this is a common problem. However, I have not found a solution.

[@8020BIM]

@@TonyPegg Interesting - I will have to look into this Tony to be honest, will let you knwo if I come up with a solution :)

[@TonyPegg]

@@8020BIM Thanks, appreciated. I took screenshots, but can't attach them in comments.

[@cyberdesign06]

I created the Notes as shown above and it work perfectly well. But when I use the notes in 'Legends' to annotate wall types etc, the annotations are not reflected in the Note Block. Can you help? Thank you so much for the wonderful video. It is very informative and helpful.

[@8020BIM]

Hi Shoaib, thanks for the Feedback. HAve you Created the Generic Annotation family as guided from 02:30 onwards first? You need to place the Generic annotation as the reference for your walls throughout the project? You shouldn't need to use Legends at all in this process so think there may be a bit of a misunderstanding here. If you can be a little more specific I will try my best to help :)

[@cesardaniel13.04]

your ti to explain sotNice tutorialng

[@mingchan9228]

How do you make that red highlight on object?

[@datatran07]

Option to use key notes instead

[@8020BIM]

Absolutely, Keynotes are fantastic - particularly when you have non Revit Design team members contributing to the Keynote document. This is merely one method among many.

[@jasonbravo6741]

How can you make it so that you're able to insert data rows in the schedule? Thanks!

[@8020BIM]

Hi Jason, thanks for reaching out with your question. This type of scheudle is not like other text based schedules, so far as you cannot simply add new data rows as you might wish. It is a reporting type schedule so acts much more in accordance to Window and Door schedules for example, which the families have to placed within the model to be visible as a data row within the schedule. So, with this method you must copy the genric annotation, update the information in the properties bar and it will populate the schedule with another row. I hope this is informative for you. PLease let me know if you need any additional guidance and I'll do my best to help. Niall

[@AL3X2580]

is there anyway to filter the legend thatsorts by sheet? so that annotations not used on the drawing wont show up for that specific sheet? like you can do with keynotes?

[@charleskrug9836]

Hi! I'm wondering if you could schedule notes that are inside a link? If I make a schedule, it seems I cannot 'include elements in links' ...

[@8020BIM]

Hi Charles, thanks for reaching out - my apologies I only saw the comment now. In short, I do not think it is possible. However, truthfully I cannot recall if there is a way to include linked elements with this format of annotation for certain. I will try review when I get an opportunity and come back to you with an answer. Niall

[@hendrik-jansmit8064]

Hi there, is it possible to hide those annotations in Schedules on sheets where it is not shown in a view placed on that specific sheet?

[@8020BIM]

Hi Hendrik, thanks for the question. My apologies I did not see this comment until now. This should be achievable through a filter set applied to the schedules, although you will then need a schedule per view in the project. I would recommend still continuing with a master schedule once the filtered schedules are in place for all of your specific views. Hope this provides some guidance. Niall

[@ice19711]

Brilliant, shout yourself a beer or two !!

[@8020BIM]

Chance would be a fine thing getting a few beers in this weather :D Thanks for the Public Sub Leigh, appreciate the support. Niall

[@dpsmanila7931]

Man the software scares it's terrifying

[@8020BIM]

I understand, it can be intimidating to get started with. Once you get over a few basic projects however you get a feel for it. Unfortunately it can be a little less than intuitively sometimes which doesn't help.

[@Mario-i2i1c]

Grazie.

[@cerio_gamer7185]

Somnic wats up bruh can yuh teach bro

[@grouchyman9560]

If you are consistent with the language in your text notes then the "Find and Replace" tool can totally update changes to text across multiple views and sheets. The coded notes technique you demonstrate here is very helpful for sure, but the beginning of your video is really misleading.

[@8020BIM]

Agreed, I clarified this in a further video and associated article, merely forgot about the find and replace function when recording. Thanks for sharing.

[@darthhulka-burger3187]

Life & work was much easier & efficient before we got sucked into krap like REVIT. Most of us can get our work done much faster in AUTOCAD... shoot, I can get more done with hand SKs & a pot of coffee with a GC, or Owner.

[@manzilmanandhar7546]

Imma be honest great content but i need more emotion in that voice. I don’t rember much from the video and i just watched it. I’m sure

[@CMgraffix]

pleaae stop zooming around while talking, hard to watch

[@8020BIM]

Yeah old habits die hard - have improved that reflex somewhat in recent videos :D