Configure database annotations

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Database Annotation. Now, that's not a term you hear very often in Revit.

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But, in effect, it describes very well how the backend relational database that underlies the Revit project works.

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Elevation markers, section markers, column bubbles, callout bubbles, we know all about these in Revit,

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and how they magically know which sheet they belong on.

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In this video, we will actually open up the hood to see how that magic works. This is Revit.

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This is BIM. This is a relational database that underlies BIM.

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So let's have a look at these elevation markers, section markers et cetera, and how it all works.

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We'll continue on with Revit with the project that we had already started.

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So here in Revit 2024 in our recent files, let's click on our small medical center.

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Look, it opens up in our project page.

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That's because we said that to our starting page in the last video.

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So in the Project browser, let's go up to our Floor Plans,

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second floor floor plan, double click to activate that.

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And you notice down here we have this section marker.

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It's in blue, which means it's a hyperlink.

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And it says it's number two, which means it's detail number two on sheet A405.

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Let's just verify this.

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We'll go down to Sheet 405, double click to open it.

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And there, indeed, is view number two, which is our longitudinal building section.

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You notice that the section marker is in blue, which means it's a hyperlink, which means I can double click on it.

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And it's going to go to the longitudinal building section view.

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Now, in that, there are other hyperlinks.

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For example, this is one of A402. Let's have a look at that.

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We go to A402, which are sections.

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And here is drawing number one, and it is indeed that.

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All these markers that are populated means that they are currently reside on a sheet.

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The ones that are blank means that they are not yet placed on a sheet.

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Let's go back to our longitudinal building section, and with nothing selected, it's telling me what the sheet number is.

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The sheet name is the referencing sheet, which is A101, and the referencing detail,

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not only that, but these are grayed out because we cannot change them Revit and its relational database will take care of that.

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Now, how does it actually do that?

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So let's again, open up the hood to inspect what is happening with these particular markers.

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It will take some digging to get to the actual family that represents this.

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So I select the section marker, I go to edit type in my properties, and we see that there's a callout tag and a section tag,

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the section tag is section head filled, and I could actually change that to a variety of other section hits.

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We'll leave it at section head field, and that's the one we want to investigate.

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So I'm gonna back out of this canceling, and let's go open up that section head field.

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So we go to the file tab, and open, and we want to open a family.

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Now, it's telling me that I don't have the content downloaded yet, and it tells me if I require local access,

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then I need to visit this particular download page. So let's do that.

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So I go to my browser type in autodesk.com Revit content and we are looking for the Revit 2024 content.

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Here, we search out US English Content v1 for Revit 2024,

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and I download the executable file.

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The extraction and installation takes some time.

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And once downloaded we can continue. Okay, the installation is complete.

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Let's try going back and opening that again. My file pull down. I want to open a family.

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Now we have the complete library for the US, and we're looking for this section. Okay, great.

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So this is the Revit family of that section marker with a filled head.

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If I click on this one here, I can edit the label, and look, this is where it happens.

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So this one represents the detail number, and the detail numbers,

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part of that relational database that we were talking about.

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I'm gonna cancel this because I don't wanna make any changes.

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Let's look at A101. What is that? I click on edit label, and it is the sheet number.

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So you start to understand that this sheet number is part of the database for the sheets within Revit,

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and the section marker refers to that sheet number.

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And it is this sheet number that is also part of the sheet schedule.

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I click cancel. Now, if I wanted to, I could actually change the geometry of this marker.

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But in this case, we're just going to close out of this. We haven't made any changes.

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All I wanted to show you was how Revit works underneath the hood for this relational database

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as it references drawings and sheets across the entire project.