While this blog is dedicated to the AEC industry, this time I am addressing an issue specifically for engineers. In Revit MEP, you can have a schedule that refers to two different category types by using nested schedules. This allows you to do something like listing all of the spaces in a project, and also list specific items that are in each space. While this capability has a lot of potential, this article will describe the process of listing each space in the project with what electrical fixtures (with circuits) are in each space. The following image is the final product of this article:
The first step in creating a nested schedule for this example is to generate a regular schedule by going to the View tab and selecting Schedule/Quantities from the Schedules dropdown on the Create panel.
In the New Schedule dialog box, select Spaces. (I am naming this schedule ELECTRICAL FIXTURES BY SPACE for this example.) Make sure that the Schedule Building Components option is selected. Pick the OK button.
In the Fields tab of the Schedule Properties dialog box, select Number and Name from the available fields and pick the Add –> button. If Number is not listed at the top, then select it and pick the Move Up button. If move fields are desired, those can also be selected.
Go to the Sorting/Grouping tab and Sort by: Number. At the bottom of the dialog box, place a checkmark next to Itemize every instance to have every space be listed individually.
Go to the Formatting tab and select the Number field. Change the Heading: to read as SPACE NO. and the Alignment to be Center. Select the Name field and change the Heading: to read as SPACE NAME and the Alignment to be Left. Pick OK to generate the basic schedule.
The following image shows the schedule that is created at this point (this example only has 2 spaces).
In the Properties palette for this schedule view, select the Edit… button adjacent to the Embedded Schedule parameter. In the Embedded Schedule tab, place a checkmark next to the Embedded Schedule option and select the Electrical Fixtures category. Pick the Embedded Schedule Properties button at the bottom of the dialog box.
In the Fields tab of the Schedule Properties dialog box, highlight the Circuit Number and Family Type categories and pick the Add –> button.
Go to the Sorting/Grouping tab and Sort by: Circuit Number. At the bottom of the dialog box, place a checkmark next to Itemize every instance to have every fixture be listed individually.
Go to the Formatting tab and select the Circuit Number field. Change the Heading: to read as CIRCUIT NO. and the Alignment to be Right. Select the Family and Type field and change the Heading: to read as FIXTURE TYPE and the Alignment to be Left. Pick OK to exit the dialog boxes.
The schedule should now appear as shown in the image shown at the beginning of the article.
This example was just creating the basic nested schedule and did not address appearance issues or filtering to get only specific information in the schedule. A schedule as described here can get quite large, so it is recommended to investigate utilizing good filters in the schedule.
There are many different applications to using nested schedules, so hopefully this article will spur thoughts and imaginations for different applications of this capability. Keep in mind that this nested schedule capability is only available with Revit MEP. I wish that Revit Architecture and Revit Structure also had this capability.
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