Show Room Occupancy Loads in Revit Schedule

Working with building codes is an important aspect of working as an Architect during the design stages of a project, and knowing the occupancy of each room is a key component to that.  This article will demonstrate how to create a Revit schedule that shows the occupancy load for each room in your BIM file.  It will use a key schedule as the source of information for calculating loads, so this article will address creating that key schedule as well.

There are a few steps involved in the process.

Step 1 – Set Up Parameters

Create the following Shared Parameters in your company’s shared parameters file:

• Occupancy Load Tag Value
  • Type of Parameter = Integer
• Non Calculated Room Area
  • Type of Parameter = Area

Add the 2 above parameters and the following 2 parameters as Project Parameters and assign to the Rooms category as Instance-based.  Go to the Manage tab and select Project Parameters from the Settings panel to add them to the project.

• Area Per Occupant
  • Type of Parameter = Area
• Occupancy Gross or Net
  • Type of Parameter = Text

Step 2 – Create a Key Schedule

Initiate the Schedule command from the View tab.  Create a key schedule based on the Room category named Space Occupancy Classification with the key name of Classification.

Add the following previously created Instance-based project parameters to the key schedule:

• Area Per Occupant
• Occupancy Gross or Net

Add the classification information to the Key Schedule for the each of the classifications listed in the code.  (The International Building Code is used as an example.)

Step 3 – Create an Occupancy Schedule

Create a schedule based upon the Room category named Occupancy Schedule with the following Instance-based parameters:

• Name
• Number
• Area
• Non Calculated Room Area
  • This is for any area that should not be calculated as part of the room, such as casework.  Manually entered to maintain integrity of Room object throughout room and working with MEP Space object for room.
• Net Room Area
  • Calculated Area type parameter with formula:
    • (Area – Non Calculated Room Area)
• Area Per Occupant
• Occupancy Classification
• Occupancy Load Calculated
  • Calculated Integer type parameter with formula:
    • (Net Room Area / Area Per Occupant) + 0.499
    • 0.499 ensures that the value is rounded up to the nearest whole number
• Occupancy Load Tag Value
• Occupancy Load Equal Test
  • Calculated type parameter with formula:
    • Occupancy Load Calculated = Occupancy Load Tag Value
  • Parameter type:  Yes/No

In the Sorting/Grouping tab, sort the schedule based upon the Number parameter and turn on Itemize every instance. Turn on Grand totals and set the option to “Title and totals”.

In the Formatting tab, checkmark the “Calculate totals” option for the Occupancy Load Calculated and Occupancy Load Tag Value parameters.  This will give you occupancy load totals at the bottom of the schedule.

The rooms will need to have some value placed in the Non Calculated Room Area parameter for the calculations to work properly, even if the value is zero.

Unfortunately, since schedule calculated values cannot be added to tags, you will not be able use the Occupant Load Calculated value in a tag if that is desired.  Hence, a workaround is required, so we will use a parameter that can be used in a tag, if one is desired.  (If a tag is not desired, then the Occupancy Load Tag Value and Occupancy Load Equal Test parameters are not needed and the following steps can can ignored.)

The Occupancy Load Tag Value parameter that was added to the schedule is a parameter that can appear in tags.  The problem is that it is a parameter that requires manually entered values and requires the user to type in values that match the Occupant Load Calculated values, which is error prone.  To help with reducing errors, we will flag any rooms where those 2 parameters do not match.

The Occupancy Load Equal Test parameter that was added earlier will automatically say Yes or No as to whether those 2 values match.  Since it is easy to lose track of which rooms have Yes or No values, we will make a conditional format to show that cell in red if it is No.

This effectively flags a room in red if the calculated room occupancy value does not match the manually entered room occupancy value.

Notes:

• The built-in Occupancy parameter is a text parameter and not helpful in this process.
• Revit 2013 changed the conditional format function so that you cannot use a different parameter to control the format of a parameter.  Prior to 2013, you could apply the above conditional format to the Occupancy Load Tag Value and the Occupancy Load Calculated parameters and have them appear red.  That does not work with 2013.
• A tag can now be created that uses the Occupancy Load Tag Value, if desired.

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