Creating and Adding Shared Parameters

Okay. So at this point, we need to make some we need to make some shared parameters for this family. So the way to do that is go into the family editor and back to the family types and come down here to new parameter. And then up here under parameter properties, we've got an option for making it a family parameter. And And that's what we were doing all day yesterday when we made all the dimensions, you know, equip height, length, width. Those were family parameters that we created. You notice it says in parentheses cannot appear in schedules or tags. That's a clue we can't just use family parameters. Right? We've gotta use shared parameters.

And then it says you click x select to go into to go into the shared parameters file. Since my install of Revit already knows or is it's already linked to the Rev X shared parameters file, it just came up with the shared parameters file. But in this demonstration, we're assuming, again, desert island air gaps don't have access to the shared parameters file. So I'm going to what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna create a new one. And if if you don't if your installed Revit doesn't isn't familiar with any shared parameters files, you would just see something like a you don't have a shared primal.

You need to create one window. So I'm gonna say create, and I'm going to say files. I'm gonna say session two SP file. Okay. And before I can add any shared parameters, I need to define a group.

So I'm gonna create a new group, and I'm gonna call, you know, mechanical equipment, something like that. Group definitions and names is something that you can change after the fact, so not not a big deal here. You could change your mind on this. But that's that's when the easy easy mode is now off because now it matters. So, okay, I'm ready to create my first shared parameter.

Gonna click on new under parameters. And so now we have our first our first decision where the consequences of not liking our decision in this moment are large. So you you can change the name of shared parameters later using plug ins that that will allow you to do so, but I'm still pretty sure that that would be a big pain. So try to come up with a shared naming a shared parameter naming convention that you're happy with. The Rev X naming convention is lowercase s for shared, very clever, and then all caps, trying to be descriptive and starting with a hierarchy of, you know, what kind of equipment it is, category of equipment, and on down.

So lowercase s, e f for exhaust fan, o a for outside air, you know, CFM for airflow, or just say airflow, that sort of thing. I'm not going to copy that naming convention because I'm so paranoid about this shared parameter getting into my stuff. I'm gonna make sure that I've got a I'm gonna name it something that doesn't look like it's a RevAx shared parameter because that that would be, like, three hours of my life right there. So I'm just gonna say EF airflow. Right?

And and so now I've made the momentous decision of what to name it, which I'm not being flippant. It actually matters, like, what you decide to name it because it's a pain to rename it. And now my next momentous decision is what kind of parameter do I want this to be. So the thing that makes the most sense is to give it an actual unit. So I'm going say HVAC, HVAC, and then I've got all these options for what kind of unit this is going to be. And so I'm going to pick airflow, And I'm gonna hit okay. And so now we have our first shared parameter. Here we go. EF airflow. Gonna click okay.

And I want this to be an instance type. And just my preference, I like putting all my shared parameters under other. They're all they all group in one place. And so I'm gonna hit okay, and there we go. We have our shared parameter. Hit okay, and I'm gonna load it into the project. Project one. Don't need to save the changes. Alright. The existing version.

So now if I select this, I can see I've got my shared parameter right here. It says CFM. If I go to my exhaust fan schedule and I go to fields, I now see EF airflow is in on the list. It's an option. And so I just add it in and click okay, and there we go.

And so if I change the value here to 250 and I come back and I click on it, we can see that this has been updated to 250. And a quick word about the units. So if you go to manage project units, this this hierarchy so here we go. This this was the this is the parameter type with units that corresponds to what I what I just chose for my shared parameter. So you can browse through here to see, like, what's going on.

And so this is also where you would, you know, change units from imperial to metric. So I could change this to anything else. And this understanding this would be useful for making decisions about how to hack together a gas flow calc. And then it it also gives, like, the defaults for how the how the unit is gonna display, how many decimal places there are, that sort of thing. So that's where so that's where that lives.

And okay. So I've I've added my first my first shared parameter. I I want a couple more, so I'm gonna go make a couple more. And and just so you know, like, this is this is pretty slow and tedious. You're imagining creating, you know, hundreds of shared parameters. We're gonna show the faster way, but this is the under the hood how it actually works way that's important to understand. So new parameter, shared parameter, select. We need to edit this because we need need to make a few more. So we're gonna make EF external static pressure. We're gonna make that HVAC.

We're gonna make it airflow. Make a new one. We're gonna call it EF, is that saying RPM? And that would be a number, I guess. There might be a unit dedicated to that. But spoiler alert, this is a bad idea, so we're not gonna go with it. But it's important to demonstrate what's happening here. Let's say e f what else might you have for a fan? Wait. That's a good one. So let's go yeah. Let's just do that. Let's go e f wait common wait. Oh, no. It's I think it's structural. Now I'm I'm remembering back a decade when I used to do this. Yeah. There we go. Weight. It's a structural unit.

Okay. That's good for now. I'm not gonna, you know, waste your time looking at every single one, but so we've already got Airflow in. We're gonna add ESP instance other. There it is. Hit okay. Okay. You can't add a you can't add multiple at the same time. This is another reason why you don't do it this way. Oh, whoops. Whoops. Whoops. Cancel. I I hit edit. I should have hit create new. So share parameter, select RPM, instance, other. Okay. Create new. Share parameter. Wait. That is all fine. Okay. So we've got our shared parameters. Great. Okay.

We're gonna push these into the project, and don't need to make save the changes. Okay. So here we are, exhaust fan schedule, and we can add we can go to fields, and we can add our other parameters. Got airflow. Okay. That looks fun. So we hit okay. Alright. And so you oh, I'm I I must have messed up. I meant to change this to oh, yeah. I did. I think you were I thought you were showing that on purpose. But Yeah. No. I didn't. I I made a mistake. So this kind of illustrates in another example of why I don't do this. This is perfect. You know, I'll just go say I I did this on purpose. No.

I should have made that a unit type of pressure. It would have been HVAC pressure would have been the the parameter type, and I didn't. I made a mistake. I I left it at airflow. Right? And so now this parameter is no good. Its name is external static pressure, and its unit type is airflow, which is very wrong. Right? So, like, if I had done this and I always keep going on this, I would immediately remove this parameter from the schedule. I would remove it from the family, and I would go delete it from my shared parameters file because this is not just wrong. It's dangerously wrong. The other one's alright. This one's just a number. Right? So two seven eight five, whatever, and then the weight could be thirty.

And it it's I like that it adds the f. I appreciate that. It's pound force, not pound nice. Okay. So we so we've added these. There's a few more things we can do so we can, you know, align these. We we're gonna get into formatting a little bit.