Getting Classy with Your Revit Models Using the Autodesk Classification Manager

T.J. MEEHAN: My name is T.J. and we're going to talk about classifications in a particular classification manager, which is a free utility for Revit from Autodesk. And we're going to deep dive into kind of what classifications mean and why you need them.

And then talk about how to use that tool. And more importantly, talk about how to use that tool to do other things you may want to do in your models that can be very helpful that help with some limitations in Revit. So that's Jason. I think we'll jump right in. Oh, I just said all of that, didn't I? Good job. Yep.

OK. So I've been in the industry for a long time. I started as an architect, wasn't good as an architect, was more good on the technology side. I was one of those people, probably some of you are this, where, as I was working in architecture, people would come up to me and say, hey, how do you do this in AutoCAD? How do you do this in Revit? Can you help me with my printing?

I was always that person and I loved it. And so now I do that permanently. I oversee a team of about 16 other ex-architects and engineers and contractor's facilities managers. We do a lot of consulting for those groups of people to help them implement BIM workflows, anything design build operate.

This little cartoon pretty much sums up my entire life, as Jason will attest to. I love Excel. I think Excel will solve all of the world's problems at some point. But of course, I'm not always very efficient with how I'm using Excel. But that's probably why I love it. Jason?

JASON KUNKEL: My name is Jason Kunkel. I have been working the industry over 20 years now. I think, like T.J., like a lot of you, started off my career doing design. You don't leave college thinking I want to go and consult and support software. You leave college thinking, I want to be an architect. I want to be an engineer. That's how I started my life.

After a few years of doing design work on large scale projects, I kind of realized I was better buttons and wires and all that stuff. So started off doing CAD management, slid that over to BIM management. Finally, at my prior job, I ended up being the IT director of a pretty large size architectural firm in the mid-Atlantic area.

I've been with CAD for about three years now, doing consulting, doing work on the dark side. I work with T.J. to kind of head up a team of like-minded nerds. And we like what we do and training, blogging, developing, and, specifically today, we're talking kind of on the process and more on the software side of things.

T.J. MEEHAN: So let's talk about classification systems. Go ahead. There are three main classification systems utilized, both in the US and the UK. And they're based on kind of a function in here.

So if you look on the left, classification systems like OmniClass Table 21 and UniFormat are essentially the same type of classification system, all through CSI, Construction Specifications Institute. They are equivalent to, in the UK, the UniClass 2015 Table SS for systems. And this is what is often used during pre-design and design to classify the systems to get a better idea for cost estimation, really. Just overall, what's going to happen with this particular project?

As we move into construction typically, Table 22, which is also MaterFormat, is used. And this is very means and methods focused. On the UniClass side that's Table En, for entities. And so contractors use this a lot. It's structured around the materials that are being used. And that's its purpose, mainly.

When you get into the operations side, often the product tables are what's used in this case. That's OmniClass Table 23. There is no equivalent, like MasterFormat UniFormat with the first two tables. This is the PR table for UniClass 2015. And this is the specific products. This particular unit is an error handling unit, and it has a classification for that. So ultimately, depending on where the project is in its lifecycle, you may be using one or more of these classification systems to help define what's in that model or in that building.

There are some other ones as well that people use specific to facilities. So OmniClass has a bunch of tables in it, UniClass class does too. So if I'm just classifying the building overall, I can use one of those tables. If I'm classifying the spaces within the building or the people that are involved with the project, both OmniClass and UniClass have tables with lists to use for that. The Classification Manager we're going to walk through today has all of these tables in it, already accessible, that you can assign right to your elements very quickly within inside of Revit.

Some other ones that exist out there that people use, and there are hundreds of them, but FICM is a big one for higher education. Many higher ed facilities use FICM to identify their spaces and categorize their spaces. There is FICM database you'll see here and a little bit.

There are older versions of UniClass, so before the mandate came down for BIM Level 2 and BIM Level 1, [INAUDIBLE] 1192, essentially. There were older versions of UniClass class that people would use. Then UniClass 2015 came out and that's used on most projects.

BOMA, you've probably all heard of BOMA. BOMA's actually built into Revit, but they have a space classifications and that spec is more Australia and New Zealand, what they use. All right. I'm going to turn it over to you.

JASON KUNKEL: All right. So with that, we're going to hop into and talk about the actual piece of software, the Classification Manager for Revit. So the Classification Manager is part of a suite of tools, AutoDesk tools, they are free. They're freely available. All the resources and supporting files are freely available.

These are all the tools in there. We did a class, earlier in the week, on the COBie extension. If you were there, welcome back. We've got the Classification Manager, we've got the Model Checker. The configurator is part-- it's kind of a cousin, it works with the Model Checker. And then the COBie extension there, as well.

The concept along these tools, as kind of a suite of utilities, is to identify and classify your elements in your model. And with the Model Checker you are going to validate and just confirm that that information is correct. And then finally, with COBie, you're going to find a way to hand off and deliver that data outside of the Revit model. So we've got kind of a little story we're trying to tell along here. And that's how they're grouped together and that's how they're [INAUDIBLE].

Who has used the Classification Manager before? All right. So we've got a couple, just a handful of folks. Who is looking at this and not familiar with what this looks like? It looks a little different than what you're used to. OK. So last Monday, literally, we launched a new release of the BIM Interoperability Tools.

So this is the first class that we're kind of showing off the new interface for the Classification Manager. The functionality and the use is pretty much the same. We've added a lot of little features here and there, that have been requested from users throughout the way.

But prior to the release, you would install the Classification Manager, then you would install the Model Checker, and you'd install the COBie extension. They're all together now. So if you want to get one, you're going to get all them together. We found they all worked together.

And we found some people were having trouble support-wise. If they'd install one, it'd keep an old version of the other one, they would start fighting. So just in terms of convenience and for workflow and for processes they all get installed together. They all live in that BIM Interoperability Tools tab now. We've streamlined the interface. We've cleaned things up. So hopefully, the idea is, once you get what used to how one works, you will understand how to use the other ones as well. Anything else about the new release that we need to cover before--

T.J. MEEHAN: Yeah. So, we'll show you at the end kind of where you can get them. There's a website you can download them from. But also, these are going to be part of the Revit install very soon, probably before the end of the year.

So all of you are familiar with the desktop app, the little icon that pops up in corner and says, oh, you have this extension to install or this hot fix to install. They're going to be part of that very soon. Already, if you have one of the older versions installed, it'll tell you that this new release has happened the next time you launch it. And it'll give you a button right there to download it and install it.

JASON KUNKEL: The software is very easy and very straightforward to use. I've got about five slides. I want to walk through them, kind of highlight some elements. And then we're just going to hop into it Revit and demo it.

It was designed for very specific task, but what was exciting to us, once we got out in the wild, people started using it and what T.J is going to demonstrate, is there was a lot more functionality out of just adding defined classifications to the elements. Part of the issue was if you know how you're Revit [INAUDIBLE] set up, or your Revit elements are set up, it has one place in each to identify assembly code or identify classification in the other one.

As you're working along, like T.J. Had in that slide he was showing for design and construct and operate, there are different classification systems that are beneficial to track inside of your model and inside your elements. But if you only got one place in those elements track them, then you've got to erase one classification to put in the next one.

So the Classification Manager was designed to alleviate that issue. It doesn't use those built-in parameters, it creates its own parameters. And we'll show them to you once they're in there. But they're defined parameters, they're shared parameters. So if use it on this model and someone uses on this model, it's all going to be the exact same parameter consistently across.

This is the launch screen, if you go into Setup. You see we got Setup, here's Setup. This is kind of the open screen for all the tools, all the BIM Interoperability Tools, at this point. So the layout is consistent.

The middle area there is my recent databases that I've looked at and also a browse to get a locally saved database. And when I say database for the Classification Manager, it's an Excel file. That's all it is. So if you got Excel, you can edit your database.

At the bottom here there's two portals. The public library actually looks to our website, looks at a list of files on there. And then it will give you here what's available, here is kind of the default databases for you. If you have any locally saved or created databases on your network server, you can configure your Classification Manager to point to him and find him here.

So there's an INI file, you hit the path of the INI file, and that shows up. If you have nothing in there, you don't get that portal. If you have no internet connection, you don't get the other portal. So it's kind of streamlined. That was an odd blink.

Once you click on one, you get some information up top, as to some metadata and previously saved, who the author was, and kind of the description. You don't get that on your own local files because it's just Excel. It will say, this is the path of the Excel file. So that description is only going to work when you click on something in the public library.

What are the benefits that we have with the new version? If you are used to the old version, you know that we installed the databases inside the application folder. Since they're stored online now, whenever we need to make an update we don't have to push a new install out.

So we literally just made an update about a half hour ago, in fact. We might have found a typo in the Excel file. We fixed the typo. We put it back on the website. And now it's updated for everybody to immediately use. I cannot confirm nor deny that we found a typo. It was an Excel formula, so I'll just let you imagine who was responsible for that portion of the issues.

So utilizing this, I select the database slash Excel file I want to use. I click Finish. And then my Revit model will know to point to that Excel file. I think I'm a little too loud there. Sorry, my laptop keeps yelling at me. It'll know what you point to and that's the classification database it's going to use when I start assigning classifications.

So set up, I set up my model once and then I go into assigned classifications. So this is the assigned classification dialogue. We've got four tabs alongside, they match up with the different types of systems that T.J. was talking about. We've got Element, we've got Contact, we've got Facility, and we've got Spaces.

So Contact is the first one. You can see along the left hand side there, there's a navigation page that allows me to navigate between the different classification types. Excuse me. You've got a description up top of the name of the classification, a description of it, and then what parameters will it be filling in when I assign the classification.

So we're in the Contacts tab now. Contact is associated with the COBie extension, so there's no Revit element associated with it. It's in the Extensible Storage. So that's why there's no parameter showing up there. But this is just the list of classification. I got a little search filter. I can start typing and it'll filter that list down. And then when I find what I like, I click on it, I click Assign, and then the classification is assigned.

So the next few pages are going to look very similar. We're just kind of working our way down. This one is Facility. This is going to assign some data to my project information. You can see there we've got classification.facility.number and facility.description as the default parameters that it's going to fill into there.

We've got an Options bar at the bottom, Assign Similar Classification, and there's some cross-linking that we'll talk about once we actually open up the database file. Set COBie parameters. So if you're using the COBie extension, you could force some of those COBie parameters from the classifications.

This is really the big one to pay attention to, Blanks Only. So if that's checked, that means it's not going to overwrite any data already in those parameters. If I clear it, it's going to overwrite anything that's in those parameters that I'm trying to assign my classifications for.

T.J. MEEHAN: So if you select 100 doors, and three of them have already signed a classification, you can check Blanks Only and it'll only assign to the other 47 and ignore those 3. It can be very helpful.

JASON KUNKEL: Next one down is Space. This is the tab you're going to get if you initially select a room or a space element and you try to assign classification. It looks pretty much like the other one. Not much different going on here.

And then finally, we get into the fourth one, which is Element. This one you can see up top, I have different tabs. I have different tabs up top. Each database can handle X number of classification systems inside of it.

So prior release you could only get one for facility, one for contact, and one for rooms, and then up to five for elements. We've removed that restriction. So you can have a theoretical limit of whatever Excel can handle for each one. Obviously, there's a practical limit. I mean, you don't want a database with 50 tabs that you have to scroll through. That just gets obnoxious. So you want some sort of organization to make sure you're not overwhelming your users with the systems you've got in there.

But, again, I simply come in here, I assign my classification. I can filter down, I can search. I select it, and I click Assign. The one extra thing up there is the Filter dropdown. When I click that, that's a list of Revit categories. So we've tried to associate the classifications with the appropriate Revit categories. So if I'm really working on doors, I hit Filter, Doors, it's only to show me the classifications that make sense for doors. So, with that--

T.J. MEEHAN: Jason, one thing I should mention. You're probably going to show this, but we added Search recently. And that search is dynamic. It will automatically start filtering as you type letters. You don't have to type letters and hit the Search button. I can just start typing in door, it'll automatically filter that whole list for any classification that has the word door in it somewhere in there. It's not case sensitive.

JASON KUNKEL: So let's just hop into Revit. Like I said, this is a pretty straightforward piece of software to use. So hopefully this is not going to overwhelm or frighten anybody. But I'm in my model, I go to my BIM Interoperability Tools tab. The first thing I need to do is associate a database with this model. So this database knows what Excel file it's going to read whenever I want to populate some my classification information.

So first button, Setup. I go in here. Here is that preview. Here's my recent list. Here's that public library. I'm going to not grab US right from here. I actually had loaded it locally, just in case it took too long. We're going to use Us because we're in the US, even though the UK database actually has Quidditch equipment in the classification systems. So if you need to classify Quidditch equipment, be sure you use the UK database.

So I've selected US.

T.J. MEEHAN: It's very helpful.

JASON KUNKEL: You can see it's pointing to the path there. I'm going to say Finish. And now that database is assigned to this model. So all I need to do at this point is select an element, and Assign Classification. If I simply assign a classification at this point, since I have no Revit element selected, it's going to go to my facility information. It's going to say, I don't know what you want to classify, so maybe you want to classify the whole project.

So I'm going to open it up. I'm going to load the database in. It's building the relationships between those tabs, as it's opening up and as it's looking through there. And now it's going to take me into the Facility tab.

So I'm going to grab-- we'll say this is a Convention Exhibition Facility. These are the parameters it's going to start filling out. There's actually two pieces of data fields, a number and a description field. So that's what it's telling me up there. And then once I hit Assign, gives me a little pop up, says Assigned.

I can close that. I can come into Manage, I can come into my project information. And I've got facility.description, facility.number. And those are those two pieces of classification that I told it to assign.

One thing it did, as I assigned, it kind of loaded in that database. If I come down here, it created all these holder parameters for it. It knew I was using the US database, it knew these were the default parameters for the US database, so it went ahead and created them. If you've kind of used shared parameters and added parameters, you know ordering them can be a little hairy. That's why they're a little out of order, but there is a number and a description for each of those default databases in the US Classification Excel file.

If I was using UK, this would only show me the UK parameters in there.

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] values? No default values?

JASON KUNKEL: No default values. I mean, the idea is now I'm going to go and I'm going to assign the classifications to these elements, based on the database that I need to assign.

AUDIENCE: Can you do both, the US and the UK , at the same time.

JASON KUNKEL: So the question is, can you do both?

AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

JASON KUNKEL: The question is if you can use both, US and UK? And I'm repeating because they're recording us, not because I don't think I can hear you. So, you couldn't out of the box, but you can create a custom database that you just merge the sheets into each other into a single Excel file. And that would work fine.

T.J. MEEHAN: I think if you load both, they would build the parameters for both, but in one of the crosswalks. Meaning, if I picked a UniClass number, it's not going to automatically grab the OmniClass equivalent number. We don't have a database that goes across the pond, let's say.

JASON KUNKEL: And also you'd have to switch between the two in Setup. So if today I need to assign UK, I have to go Setup UK, and then I'd have to go Setup US, and then back and forth and back and forth. So, making one file out this is pretty straightforward, and that should be pretty easy to do.

T.J. MEEHAN: We have not yet seen a project that needed both UniClass and OmniClass class in it. But if that becomes more of a demand, we could certainly build a database that has both of those and post it up.

JASON KUNKEL: I'm going to cancel that guy. All the default parameters in the Classification Manager are type parameters, so that's what they come in as. There's a lot of back and forth and ups and downs, but we've kind of settled on type. It's not going to solve all your conditions. There's to be that 1 out of every 1,000 elements, you're like, this should be instance. But we had to pick one, and the vast majority of the time we decided should be a type classification, so it's in a type of classification.

T.J.'s going to walk through creating custom databases. If you do that, if you put your own custom parameters, you can insert into an instance parameter from your own databases. So, right now I've got this door selected. And I'm going to go back to Interoperability Tools. I'm going to go to Assign.

And now that I have a door selected, you'll see it takes me down to my Element parameter. These are the different classification systems that are inside that Excel file. And I can arrow over to kind of see them all. I'm going to come back over here into 22 Elements. Is that right, Excel man?

T.J. MEEHAN: For what?

JASON KUNKEL: For where can I find the doors?

T.J. MEEHAN: You can find doors in any of those databases.

JASON KUNKEL: Nice. We're going to stay on 22. Scroll down if I need to check my options down here. So that's the Blanks Only. That's the Set COBie Parameters. I've got my category filter dropdown here. So I know I'm on doors. If I want, I can filter out doors this way. But like T.J. mentioned, this is a recent-ish addition. This is my preferred way to get things. I just start typing door and you can see, as I was typing, it started removing options from that list.

So I go find the door I want. This is going to be this guy. I click Assign. I get a pop up, it said Assigned. It pops up there and tells me to also assign another classification. So I'm on Table 22 and I have, down in my options, checked Assign Similar Fill Classifications. So in one of the other tabs there is a one to one relationship between what I selected and something on itself. So it went and it wrote both of those in there, or all three of those in there. That flashes a little fast, we're still massaging it, frankly. So it's assigned, it's in there.

One thing I wanted to note, especially if you're used to the old one, the window didn't close. So this is a non-modal window. You can actually hold this and just drag it over to your other monitor. So I can come in now, I don't need to close my Classification Manager, I can come and grab this door. Do I have a door selected? I grabbed a column accidentally. Let me grab that door. And I can just keep assigning my classifications by grabbing Element, Assigning, grabbing Element, Assigning, grabbing Element, and Assigning.

I was doing one at a time. It is a type parameter so it's pushing to the type, but there's no reason I can't just do a cross selection and filter out directly inside of Revit and just do a bunch at once as well. It's going to support that and it'll just push that data right into those parameters.

T.J. MEEHAN: You can also select in the tree, in your Project Navigator. You're don't even have to see it in a view. I can be in a drafting view somewhere and I can go down into my tree down here and I can pick on those and go up to Assign. Sometimes that's easier.

JASON KUNKEL: Yes?

AUDIENCE: So if you wanted to [INAUDIBLE], how would you do it? [INAUDIBLE] project, use this tool, assign it, and send it back out?

JASON KUNKEL: So the Classification Manager will work in the Family Editor. So you can open up your family and just do them there. If you don't want to go through that route, the shared parameters file is just a text file on the Install folder, and you can just point Share Parameters, load them in. If you've got one of the utilities that will just do a mass addition of the parameters to a bunch of families, that's probably a good way to do it. Yep.

So we've assigned our classifications. Now if I take a look at my Edit Type Properties, you'll see that these guys have now been filled in. I only selected the one, but it populated both because there was that one-to-one relationship between my master format and my OmniClass 22 parameters.

Beyond that, like I said, it's a pretty straightforward piece of software to use. I'll grab a room, just so you can see how that works. I'm going to say, Assign On The Room. And now I'm in my Space tab. I don't get the filter for the category, because I'm either in a space or a room.

And then it works just the exact same way. I grab the classification. I say Assign. This will get assigned to the instance level, simply because we can't get type control of rooms or spaces, but it comes on here to classification.space.number or classification.space.description.

Questions on the functionality of the tool? It's hopefully, click, click, and you get the data in there. Hopefully pretty straightforward to use, at that point. All right. I'm going to quickly-ish hop back in here. Real quick, mention the default databases.

So these are the ones that show up in the public library. They are hosted online. So if I associate it with that online database, it will read that online database when I need to up my Revit model again or refresh the database. So if we make changes between the day you start and the day you're done, you will get those changes, which may or may not be what you want.

So there's a Download button next to each of them, you can just click it, download that Excel file locally, maybe stick in your Project folder, be sure you have got the database frozen in time, and then you point to your downloaded copy, or if you need to make some modifications. We've had folks who take one of the systems and they just delete half the stuff in there because they don't care about it. They never see it. It makes it a little easier to manage.

Like I said, they're stored online, they can be downloaded. We're updating them as we find changes. As we find new classification systems, we're going to put them up there. So that list will grow. I mentioned they're kind of relational-ish , so if I assign one from one classification that matches another one, it'll go in there. There is a locally installed copy in the Program Files Directory. That one will not be kept up to date magically, like the ones online, obviously. Whenever we get a new install of the program, you will get the latest, but there could be a disconnect. We've done because we certainly have clients who have issues internet-accessing stuff, just for security reasons. So, with that--

T.J. MEEHAN: So let's talk about custom databases. How do you build your own and why would you want to build your own? So I'm going to start by just showing you how the out-of-the-box databases are structured so you can see, because it is pretty simple. Let me run over to Excel.

So this is the US database, right here. And I'll zoom in a little bit so you can see it. Every tab in Excel equates to the database you want to use. You can name those tabs whatever you want. It's totally up to you what you want to name them. Inside, you'll see the first six rows are where you would edit your information, in particular, these cells right here is where you would plug-in your information. And notice what it is. I give it a title. I give it a description. I give it a version. And then you'll see the fourth one is Function.

If you remember, in the Classification Manager I can assign two contacts, to Facility, to Spaces, or to Elements. So it needs to say one of those things. And out-of-the-box, you'll see each of them will say one of those four things. And that's how it shows up within it. So these all say element, but if I move down to here, this one said Facility. And so it knows just where to show it when you're in that Classification Manager. Where was I at? UniFormat.

So a couple of things that happen here. Obviously, these rows you don't want to change. Starting here is where you plug-in your number and description on whatever you want that to be inside of there. You'll notice as I scroll over, there's a couple of other columns in here. And that first column is Level. This is how it knows how to tree

Things. How do I build a tree, a subtree, of items? And so, the very first level is the name in the database. And then after that I have Row 9, which is UniFormat Number 10, is Level 2. And then you'll see it goes down 3, 4. And that's how the tree is built.

This is the format that comes with all the databases that come with Revit, itself. If you've ever dealt with those assembly code databases or OmniClass databases, it's the same thing. In fact, you can actually copy, from Row 8, those first three columns all the way down and paste them into a text file and replace your out-of-the-box databases, if you're still using Assembly Code within Revit.

The other column, you'll notice in here, is something called Category. So when Jason changed the filter to say doors, only show me classifications that apply to doors, it's looking in that column and trying to find a value. And so, if I scroll down and get through the general stuff, see all these codes right here? So again, this is how Revit has set it up to give you these codes to equate to a family category. Of course, we do not expect you to memorize these codes or know what these codes mean.

So the very first tab within any of the databases is some instructions on what we're talking about and all the codes of all the different Family Types. Notice they all start with a negative, they all have seven digits, 200 something. And we've organized them by discipline so that you can find them pretty quickly. So if you're building your own database and you want that added functionality for people to be able to filter by Family Category, you could plug this code into that fourth column. It is not necessary. You don't have to do it. It's just if you want to do it.

Now in the US and the UniClass class databases we also have what's called the Crosswalks. So the Crosswalks is where you map what's the equivalent of these other tabs? So I have a tab for Master Format, along with UniFormat. What's the equivalent value of that one? There isn't always an equivalent value in there. Again, you guys could use that, you don't have to use it. You can add those columns and plug it in, if you want to.

You'll see that Table 23 really doesn't equate to much between the other ones. And, in fact, Master Format has 700 values, but UniClass has 7,000 values. So there's never going to be a one to one between those specifically. But there are quite a few equivalents as you work through that.

Let's look at a custom database. Oh, I forgot to mention, too, the parameters. So here's the parameters that it's using. It's that simple. It goes off of name. So when you build your own custom database, you just put the name of the parameter. If that parameter has been assigned at the type level or the instance level, it will just find that and add to it. Of course, as with any good modeling and Revit, you want to be careful that you don't have two parameters with the exact same name because it's going to find, from what we can tell, it will find the first one that was created, which is very difficult to identify. So you just have to be careful when you're creating parameters in there.

Now, these particular parameters are designated in our Shared Parameters file that comes with the software. If you build your own custom database, it's not going to create those parameters if they're not already in the model. So be aware of that. It's important that those parameters already created in the model. This will not create parameters for you because you obviously need a lot of data to create parameters, like the type and the type of parameters. Revit likes use the word type a lot.

Let me switch over to this other database in here. And then I'm going to show you a quick demonstration of how this one works. So here I created a Fire Ratings database. And you'll see I actually gave it a date and a name. It's an element, 1. And notice the parameters that I used. I actually used out-of-the-box parameters for this. So you can do that. You don't actually have to create your own custom shared parameters, you can point to parameters that are within Revit, by name, and fill those in. So Type Comments is something that's on every type. Fire Rating is something that's on walls and doors and things like that. I'll do a little bit more on that here in a second.

Move to the next one here. So, why make a Fire Rating one? Let's talk about that for a little bit. So here's the dilemma. I have a whole bunch of architects working, or a whole bunch of engineers working, in this model and one person decides to go to the Fire Rating Parameter in Revit and put in 1hr., all lowercase. And then the next one goes in and puts 1HR, capitalized, with no period. And the next one puts in 1hour, lowercase. And soon I have three different values, meaning the exact same thing.

So if any of you've ever worked in Revit, I'm assuming many of you have, that Revit doesn't really have the ability to build a dropdown list to just say, these are the only values I want people to plug into this parameter. You can't really do that. Now we will build a dropdown list of what people have already typed in, certainly, but you don't get to control that at all. Now there is a way to actually make a dropdown list. Does anybody know?

AUDIENCE: Yeah, key schedules.

T.J. MEEHAN: Key schedules, correct. But the probably key schedules is twofold. First off, it has to use a custom parameter. And secondly, it only works for one family category. I can't assign it to multiple family categories. This is where the Classification Manager can come in. You can build, essentially your pick lists, your list of values you want people to choose from, and then they can just use the Classification Manager to assign those. And our Fire Ratings is a perfect example of this.

So let me show you here. Let me jump into Revit. Oh, thank you. Yeah. It won't like it if I have that Excel file open. Where is my-- so you see in here, I've put some that just say 30 minutes, 30-minute fire rating construction, to standardize that list. I'm going to close this. Revit doesn't want me to have it open in Excel and in Revit at the same time. That's more of a Windows thing, not a Revit thing.

And I'll go run my Setup. And in this case I'll Browse and load that database, my pick list database. And, of course, I can actually grab, not that I would fire rate the walls around a closet, but I can actually multi-select these things. Even though I grabbed the room as well, it's not a big deal because it knows that this is only going to assign to the doors and the walls in here. So I could say that they're a 45-minute rating. I could Assign that.

Again, I don't even have to close this. I can go back now and pick on this door and look at the type parameters and you'll see that it now says, 45-minute Fire Rating Construction, under type comments and the Fire Rating now says 45-minutes. In a couple of clicks, I don't have to worry about people spelling it right or leaving the caps lock on or putting the period or not putting the period. And that's a great example of utilizing this for that type of thing.

Another example of standardization. Again, most of you probably know that Revit does not subcategorize elements. In other words, Mechanical Equipment, as a family category, is a little broad because is that a boiler, a chiller, an air handling unit, a pump? What is it? And so often we have to subcategorize those. Well, standardize that. Build a quick database with your kind of abbreviated version and your full description of that and use that to start subcategorizing these. Choose your parameter for it.

So in this case, this one's called TNID. This is the state of Tennessee's. So they have this whole thing they call TNID, Tennessee ID, for everything. And this is how they subcategorize their mechanical equipment on their BIM standards with it. But this is a great way to control that, whatever your subcategory parameter may be. Mayne you just call it subcategory.

That was this example, in here. Western Michigan University does the same thing with theirs. They utilized Classification Manager. And what both of these-- so these are owners. These are owners that have made their BIM requirements publicly available to everybody. They also make these databases publicly available. Because they say if you're going to work on a project with us, we want you to assign the same thing consistently.

So here's the database to do that. Here's the Classification Manager database to do it. It's free software, free database. And, in fact, if any of you are working on projects like that, we're happy to post those databases and make them available to everybody so that the whole team has them right inside the software.

Let's do a little deeper dive of some of this stuff. So, we've mentioned a couple times about the COBie extension. So the COBie extension, obviously, is the tool to use if I'm trying to get COBie data in my Revit models so I can export to a COBie spreadsheet. We did class on this a couple of days ago. The Classification Manager and the COBie extension play nicely together. And you can choose how they play nicely together.

So in the COBie standard, on the Type Worksheet in COBie, there's a Category option. And that Category option typically is the classification. In the US, it would be the OmniClass number. In the UK, it's usually the UniClass number. So if I'm working on COBie, I can actually have the Classification Manager fill in that COBie data using the Classification Manager database to standardize these things.

To get them to talk to each other so that they're using the same parameters together, you can use one of these four methods. And we put them in order. But the first method in here is, if I'm in the Classification Manager, we have a button that just says set COBie Parameters. So instead of it assigning that to classification.OmniClass.21.name and number, it'll go find the COBie parameter, COBie.classification, COBie.type.classification, and assign it to that parameter, instead, just by checking that box.

Of course, that's Classification Manager pushing it to COBie. You could do it the other way around. The COBie extension has settings in it to say, grab the Classification Manager parameters. So if you like those parameters, you can just say use those, and when you export to COBie, it'll grab the data inside of those and do it.

There is some more convoluted methods. The COBie extension has a way to do parameter mapping, so you can actually do a concatenation of these Classification Manager Parameters, if you wanted to get that involved. You can also edit the Classification Manager database and change your parameter names to the those names instead. It's probably more difficult.

JASON KUNKEL: Yep. One quick mention, in terms of the methods. Number one's usually our favorite. You've got to make sure you've actually run the COBie extension and setup your project first. Otherwise, those COBie parameters are not going to be there waiting for the Classification Manager to push the data into. So just a quick note on that one.

T.J. MEEHAN: So, out-of-the-box, Revit actually has some classifications built-in, right? There's the Assembly Code Parameter and then there's an OmniClass Parameter. Anybody know where I find the Assembly Code Parameter? Where do I typically find that?

AUDIENCE: Family Types.

T.J. MEEHAN: Family Types. That's exactly right. So if I pick on this door, let's say, and I edit the type, you'll actually see in here Assembly Code and you see this C2010 assigned to it. And then if you scroll down a little bit more, you'll actually see that Assembly Description says Interior Doors. I can't edit that, right? But there's this world's tiniest button right next to it, and when I click on that little Browse button, it opens up this database.