Optional Gray Fill in Revit Annotative Families

I was recently working with a client on getting electrical receptacles to show with a solid gray fill to represent when the receptacle is connected to an emergency power circuit.  Since receptacles are shown as annotative symbols in plan views, it created a different situation than can be done in non-annotative families.  In non-annotative families, you can create the solid fill and send it to the back so linework can be seen on top of the fill.  With an annotative family, fill patterns are in masking regions and will cover any linework that might also be in the family.  This meant that a different approach needed to be utilized to get the circular solid gray fill to not cover the symbolic lines going through the electrical receptacle.

This article will look at how to create the fill to display correctly, and also how to make the fill display only when you specify that the receptacle is on an emergency power circuit.

The 3 easy steps to accomplish this task are:

Step 1 – Creating the Fill

Open the electrical receptacle annotation family.  From the Create tab, start the Filled Region command on the Detail panel.  Select the Edit Type button on the Properties palette and then pick the Solid Black type.  Select the Rename button and give it the name of Solid Gray and pick the OK button.  In the Type Properties dialog box, change the color to a gray of your choice and pick the OK button.

The circular portion of the receptacle symbol is divided into 3 different sections by the linework.  This means that separate fills will need to be created for the various portions so that none of the fill actually covers the symbol linework.  All 3 portions cannot be created as one Filled Region as edges of the same Filled Region cannot overlap; however, this process can be done with 2 Filled Regions.  Create one filled region that is composed of the left and right portions, and then repeat the Filled Region command for the middle portion of the symbol.  The following illustration shows the 2 different Fill Regions and the completed look.

Step 2 – Controlling the display of the Filled Region in the Annotation family

Create a parameter in the annotation family.  Select the Family Types button on the Properties panel of the Create tab.  Pick the Add… button under the Parameters heading in the lower right portion of the Family Types dialog box and create a parameter with the following settings:

• Name = Fill Shown
• Type of Parameter = Yes/No
• Group Parameter Under = Graphics
• Instance Based

Highlight the 2 Filled Regions that were just created.  In the Properties palette, pick the small button to the right of the Visible parameter.

In the Associate Family Parameter dialog box, pick the Fill Shown parameter and the OK button.  This will make the Filled Regions be visible whenever the Fill Shown parameter has a checkmark in it.  Have a checkmark on the Fill Shown parameter by default.

Load the annotation family back into the receptacle family.

Step 3 – Controlling the display of the Filled Region in the Receptacle family

Create a parameter in the Receptacle family.  Select the Family Types button on the Properties panel of the Create tab.  Pick the Add… button under the Parameters heading in the lower right portion of the Family Types dialog box and create a parameter with the following settings:

• Name = Emergency Power
• Type of Parameter = Yes/No
• Group Parameter Under = Electrical – Circuiting
• Instance Based

Highlight the receptacle annotation symbol family.  In the Properties palette, pick the small button to the right of the Fill Shown parameter.  In the Associate Family Parameter dialog box, pick the Emergency Power parameter and the OK button.  This will make the Filled Regions be visible whenever the Emergency Power parameter has a checkmark in it.

Summary

Since the Emergency Power parameter is instance based, each receptacle can have the display of the gray fill be controlled individually.

This same process can be used for other similar situations when a fill needs to be applied to an annotation family and linework still needs to be seen “over” the fill.

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