Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Scalable Symbols for Wall Lights
The Lighting Fixture family category in Revit is missing an important
parameter. The Maintain Annotation Orientation parameter is not
available for this category. This means that you cannot nest an
annotation family into a face-hosted light fixture family and have the
annotation show up when the fixture family is hosted by a vertical
surface. This has left many users frustrated and looking for ways to
work around this shortcoming. The key is that whatever symbology is
put into the family must react to changes in view scale within a project.
Jose Fandos discovered one such workaround that achieves this goal
quite well. He decided to create a face-hosted family that contained
nothing but a nested annotation family of the symbol he wanted for the
fixture family. By making this a shared family, he was able to nest it
into his light fixture family in an elevation view and have it appear
when used in his projects.
As with any workaround, some important factors have to be considered
for it to work properly. The first is that you cannot see the nested
annotation of the intermediate family when placing it in the fixture
family in the Family Editor. You can draw temporary model lines in the
intermediate family to use as placement guides and then delete them by
editing and reloading the family.
The second is that the face-hosted family must have its Shared property
activated in order for the symbol to appear in a project.
You need to be careful with how you name this family. Because it is
shared, it gets loaded into a project when its host family gets loaded. So
if you have multiple fixture families with intermediate families that
have the same name, the intermediate family will be overwritten in the
project if you are not careful.
For example, you can have an exit light family with an intermediate
family named NestedAnnotation. That intermediate family would look
like an exit light. You might also have a wall sconce family with an
