After about five minutes in Revit trying to develop a schedule, it is easy to see how unforgiving the parameters can be. Get the wrong parameter, either from the family or the schedule, and nothing in that field works. It’s no wonder that a lot of firms have moved away from using any Live Schedules and sticking with manually Drafted Schedules. The stress of creating schedules may be gone, but not the time savings from a well-developed system of families and schedules. It is an uphill battle, but once the system is running, the benefits of manipulating data through schedules become a major benefit.
There are many default parameters throughout Revit that automatically show up under certain categories of families. Why not utilize them? Well, in a way they are being utilized by leaving them alone. The setup of parameters is not forgiving and there really is no way around that. Two parameters cannot occupy the same field. So what happens when the setup is not working and there is a deadline looming before lunchtime? It is imperative to give yourself a contingency plan for just that occasion. When you prepare for unexpected circumstances, they don’t become migraines to a project team.
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The ‘Comments’ default parameter is possibly the most useful parameter in Revit. So leave it unused for normal operations! When something does go wrong, it is available to use when there is simply not time to fix what isn't working as planned. Also, many of the default parameters may be used by Manufacturers to represent their product. Utilizing parameters from the Master Library allows for the values in the default parameters to be preserved. One other topic, to cover another day, is the importance of having backup parameters when automatic sizing or calculations don’t function properly. Create content to be populated automatically, but when the system isn't ready for full automatic performance; give yourself a manual override (812ManualOverride). That’s when Live Schedules really get fun!
So, leave the default parameters for backup support and also develop parameters that can be used when needed to get project data on plan before a system is fully functional. The end goal is still completion of a project and documentation of the model, not necessarily getting everything in a model running perfectly.
-Craig
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