Learn Generic Annotations for the users of AutoCAD, a Generic Annotation Symbol in Revit is a block with attributes from AutoCAD. Understand in brief What Is Generic Annotations in Revit? Also, check how to create a generic schedule and enhance your learning
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• Let's take few moments to explain Generic Annotations to those who are not familiar with it.
• A Generic Annotations symbol in Revit is primarily a block with characteristics from AutoCAD.
In simple words, it is a simple symbol with a user-editable text field(s). The likable thing about
it is that the text fields can accept any data information you want and you can also even
schedule all the values in a “Note Block” schedule. For the BIM purists, Generic Annotations
are NOT very “intelligent.” It is because the data does not get reported from the model like a
standard tag. Instead of that, the data exists in the fields of the Generic Annotation object
mainly. However, intelligent or not, they have their individual uses and, in some cases, can be
simply what you require in your documentation purposes.
Firstly, let's get familiar with Generic Annotations
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Few unfortunate terminologies hurdle to succeed when using them. However, they
are:
• To create a new Generic Annotation family, you need to use
the Generic Annotation.rte family template. (go to
Application menu>New>Annotation Symbol). Do not
change the category.
• Now to place a Generic Annotation family in your project,
you need to use the Symbol tool. (Annotate tab > Symbol
panel > Symbol tool).
• Now, to schedule the values, you can input in the fields,
and create a Note Block schedule. (View tab > Create panel
> Schedules drop-down > Note Block).
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Did you get it? The family is a Generic Annotation, the tool is
Symbol, and the schedule is Note Block.
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• The list will seem empty. It occurs because we left the
category set to Generic Annotations. That's what we need.
• Here you can also add custom parameters to the symbol.
These will form the fields that we can edit. You can also
click the Add Parameter icon, and configure the setting as
you prefer, usually a Text parameter, so that you can type in
whatever you want.
• However, in some cases, you may wish over Number or
Integer. Add it to the label. Thus, you can add as many as
you want.
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A fascinating tidbit is here.
• In Generic Annotation, you can add many other additional parameters exceeding what you require to perform in
the symbol. Therefore, you can add “hidden” or "Unknown" fields. Any parameters that you have added, but not
included on the label will still be able to get values assigned to the project and more importantly, it will even
appear in the Note Block schedule! When you click OK out of the dialog, you can also add any graphics like a circle
or hexagon if you choose.
• So far so good. However, nothing is new here. We need to do so for pretty sometimes in Revit.
• Now the exciting part of Generic Annotation in Revit is creating a different label. To create, (Create tab > Text
panel > Label button). You can also add the dimension parameter to the label. It primarily means that the symbol
will be able to show you how large it is!
• Hence, the dimension will be now both a Driving as well as a Reporting Parameter.
• In Revit, Annotation families are valuable. They are view-specific, adjust to the scale of the view and can also
embed in other families. All of the Revit tags, as well as the symbols, are annotation families. However, ONLY
Generic annotation families (Symbols) can report to Note Block schedules. They are beneficial in those
circumstances where an actual tag will not work, like specific types of finish annotation or other particular
documentation.
• To conclude, this was all about the Generic Annotations in Revit. Hope you find it helpful and knowledgeable.
• You can also share your views below.
