Adding Shared Parameters to Projects in Revit

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Adding Shared Parameters to Projects in Revit.

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Finally, we come to Shared Parameters.

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As I mentioned in other videos, Shared Parameters are the most versatile type of custom parameters in Revit.

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But with that versatility comes a need for focused planning, including naming schemes, text file locations, etc.

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A lot of coordination is required for creating Shared Parameters.

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In this video, we will review an extensive set of Shared Parameters from an international standards group,

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and then we'll create two Shared Parameters of our own in a separate file.

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So let's jump back into Revit to see how this is done.

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So once again on the homepage of Revit 2024, let's open up our small medical center parameters to look at these Shared Parameters.

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It opens on the ground floor plan.

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And on the "Manage" tab, let's go to "Shared Parameters".

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Oh, Look at this. The Shared Parameter file cannot be found.

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I told you it takes coordination to create these Shared Parameters.

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So I'll click "Close".

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And that sprouts out to where the Shared Parameters file resides.

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It's in the Ascent Configuration folder.

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And here's the text file. So this is a regular text file I right click and edit this text file.

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But please do not try to edit this manually.

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It's far better to edit it through Revit itself.

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Otherwise, chances are you will break it.

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So I click "Open", it takes a while to read this.

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So this is a very extensive Shared Parameters file from the National BIM Library.

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Notice different groups that I have. This is for General, COBIE.

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These are different parameters that might be useful for COBIE categorization.

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Materials, different materials that might be able to be used.

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So a very extensive multi-purpose Shared Parameters file that can be used in multiple projects and even in families.

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But we want to create our own Shared Parameters file for our own office.

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So I click on "Create".

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It goes to the configuration, and I'm going to call this one "Facilities".

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So now this is my Facilities Parameters file.

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And since it is a new file, obviously there's no Shared Parameters yet.

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The first thing I need to do is to create a new group.

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So in this example, we're going to create a couple of parameters that can be used by Facilities Management,

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Inventory Control Discipline and Inventory Control Number.

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These parameters need to be used across the link projects including Architecture,

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Interior, Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing as well as other disciplines.

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Therefore, it needs to be a Shared Parameter.

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So the group we're going to create is going to be called "Inventory Control", and I click "OK".

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And now I'm going to create a new parameter.

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So for the name of this new parameter, "IC Discipline" with IC meaning Inventory Control.

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It's going to be under my Common Discipline, and the data type is going to be text to accept alphanumeric characters.

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I do want to edit my Tooltip.

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I'm going to call it "Inventory Control Discipline" since many people may not know what IC is abbreviation for.

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Click "OK". "OK".

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Let's create another new parameter and call this one "IC Number". Again, it's a Common Discipline.

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Once again, I'm going to be using Text.

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Even though it is a number,

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Text will allow me the ultimate flexibility if I don't need to do any formulas or mathematical calculations with it.

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Once again, I'm going to edit my Tooltip, and call this "Inventory Control Number".

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Click "OK". OK.

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And now I have two parameters for my Inventory Control.

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So for example, I select IC Number and go to Properties, and notice that this is all Read Only I can't make any changes.

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Now, this makes sense because this is a Shared Parameter that is going to be used across multiple disciplines.

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So if you need to make any changes, it could corrupt existing data.

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Therefore, it is highly recommended that you ensure that everything is set up properly.

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The first time before you start sharing this parameter.

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If you do need to make changes, the only thing you can do is to delete the parameter, and create a new parameter.

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So if I do need to delete a parameter from my Shared files, a warning appears basically stating that.

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Are you sure you want to delete this Shared Parameter because it could be used in multiple projects in schedules and takes,

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I'm going to say No, I'm clicking OK to close out of my Shared Parameters file.

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So that was really step one, setting up the Shared Parameters file and or loading the Shared Parameters file.

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Step number two is to use this in this particular project.

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So on my Manage tab, I go to Project Parameters,

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you notice that the Building Sector Project Parameter exists from the previous video.

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And I want to create a new parameter.

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This one is a Shared Parameter. So I click on Shared Parameter, and go to Select, and under my Inventory Control.

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I want to select IC Discipline and click OK.

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Now there's not too much I can change here because it is a Shared Parameter, but I do want to group it under Identity Data.

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Also, this is going to be a Type Parameter because of all the casework and furniture systems of this type will have the same discipline.

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Once again, I'll filter my list to Architecture, and I will select Casework for this to belong to as well as Furniture Systems.

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And I click OK.

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Now we have the IC Discipline.

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Let's repeat the same for IC Number. So I click on New Parameter.

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It's a Shared Parameter.

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I'll select the Shared Parameter from Inventory Control.

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So which is IC Number? And we'll group that again under Identity Data.

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But this will be an Instance Parameter because every piece of casework will have a unique number.

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Once again, I'm gonna apply this to my Casework and Furniture Systems and click OK.

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or click OK to dismiss my Project Parameters.

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Since these Project Parameters are now set up based on the Shared Parameter file.

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OK. Let's see how this works now.

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Let's zoom in and select a particular Casework.

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And in my Properties under Identity Data,

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you will see here that we have IC Number going to make this 001.

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But you notice we don't have IC Discipline because that is a Type Parameter,

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and I can edit that through going through my Edit Type in my Edit Type under Identity Data.

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We have IC Discipline, and let's make that capital A.

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Let's try another Casework. No IC Numbers assigned to this. So I'll make this one 002.

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And if I go to edit my Type because it's the same type, it's already set to A.

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If I were to change this to B, it will also change all the Casework to B.

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Now, these are based on Shared Parameters.

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So let's look at creating Project Parameters based on these Shared Parameters in a different file in this Interiors file.

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I'll make the second floor view active.

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And as before I want to make some Project Parameters based on that Shared Parameter.

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So I go to the Manage tab under Project Parameters.

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I want to add a new Project Parameter.

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It's going to be from a Shared Parameter.

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It will be the IC Discipline just as we did before.

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Group this under Identity Data, this is a Type.

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And for this one again, I'll set it to Casework in addition to Furniture,

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Furniture Systems, and Specialty Equipment.

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Click OK. Create one more for the IC Number, which is from my Shared Parameter.

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I'm going to group this under Identity Data.

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It's an Instance Property, and select my Casework, Furniture, Furniture Systems,

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and Specialty Equipment.

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Click OK and click OK again.

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And now, so for some of this Furniture, I can now set my IC Number to 101.

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And if I go to edit my Type, IC Discipline, we'll make this one I for Interior,

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so I can go about and make the Casework,

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different Furnitures, different Specialty Equipments, and assign the parameters for the IC Number, or the Type Parameter for IC Discipline.

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So this was in one Revit file, what we did earlier was in a different Revit file,

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and we managed to associate the Shared Parameters in both files.

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Also note that for the two different Revit files,

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I could assign different categories for these Project Parameters that are based off the common Shared Parameters.

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I'll close out of the Interiors Project since we're done with that.

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Let's look at another example.

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In this case, I'll be opening up my Mechanical Systems Project, and in my 3D Ground Level Coordination View,

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I have a variety of systems here for Electrical and Mechanical.

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Let's create some more Project Parameters for this file.

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We want to create a new one.

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It's based on Shared Parameters.

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I'll select the Discipline, and as I did previously, I'm going to group it under Identity Data.

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And this is a Type.

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Now for my Filter List, I'm going to check Mechanical and Electrical and uncheck Architectural.

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And let's just add some Categories,

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Conduits, duct fittings, ducts, electrical fixtures, and electrical equipment.

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These are all type parameters because they all have the same discipline.

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I'll add another new project parameter based on my shared parameters.

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This one will be IC number. It will be grouped under identity data. This will be an instance.

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It remembers my selection from last time.

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So once again, I can select my conduits ducts, duct fittings,

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electrical fixtures and electrical equipment. Click. Ok.

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And now when I select one of these ducts in our properties under identity data, I have my IC number 233.

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And if I edit my type, I have my IC discipline, let's make it H for HVAC.

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Now, if I select another duct, it has a new IC number 234.

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But the IC discipline is already set H for H VAC because it is the same duct family that we said earlier.

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So there you have it, we looked at shared parameters and how versatile they are.

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We create a shared parameter file that can be loaded into different Revit projects.

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And from these shared parameters, we generate project parameters,

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custom shared parameters can be used in multiple projects to keep consistency in standards,

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and to leverage the information in the model for a full BIM experience.

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Shared parameters are very powerful, but they do require coordination and consistency.