Residential Door Tag in Revit

Specifying information concerning doors on architectural plans is an important aspect of conveying information to the contractor working in the field.  Residential designers and commercial designers tend to have different approaches to this situation as commercial projects generally utilize a door schedule referencing a number tag at the door and residential projects generally have the door size shown directly on the floor plan.  While it seems like a door size tag for residential projects would be a basic feature in Revit, there are no default tags to display the door size in typical methods.  In this article, we will take a look at a process to create a typical residential door tag.  This process can then be modified slightly to create other variations of the door size tag and also window size tags. 

The first step in creating a typical residential door size tag is to create new parameters to be used in the tag since the default door parameters will not work as desired.

Create Shared Parameters

The parameters used for the door size tag will need to be shared parameters since only shared parameters can be used in tags.

• Select the Shared Parameters button from the Settings panel of the Manage tab.
• Select your organization’s shared parameters file using the Browse… button at the top of the Edit Shared Parameters dialog box.
• Using the New.. button under the Parameters section, create the following new parameters then pick the OK button.
  • Tag Width Feet
    • Discipline = Common
    • Type of Parameter = Integer
    • (For a 2′-8″ wide door, this will end up reading as “2” after the formula is added to the parameter.)
  • Tag Width Inches Total
    • Discipline = Common
    • Type of Parameter = Integer
    • (For a 2′-8″ wide door, this will end up reading as “24” after the formula is added to the parameter.)
  • Tag Width Inches Partial
    • Discipline = Common
    • Type of Parameter = Integer
    • (For a 2′-8″ wide door, this will end up reading as “8” after the formula is added to the parameter.)
  • Tag Height Feet
    • Discipline = Common
    • Type of Parameter = Integer
    • (For a 6′-8″ high door, this will end up reading as “6” after the formula is added to the parameter.)
  • Tag Height Inches Total
    • Discipline = Common
    • Type of Parameter = Integer
    • (For a 6′-8″ high door, this will end up reading as “80” after the formula is added to the parameter.)
  • Tag Height Inches Partial
    • Discipline = Common
    • Type of Parameter = Integer
    • (For a 6′-8″ high door, this will end up reading as “8” after the formula is added to the parameter.)

Add Parameters to Door Families

The above parameters will need to be added to each door family that is used in the project.  Ideally, the parameters would be added as project parameters, but project parameters cannot contain formulas.  To get the parameters to read as required for the door size tags, the parameters will require formulas.  Therefore, the only option is to add the parameters to each family.

• Open a door family and select the Family Types button from the Properties panel on the Create tab.
• Pick the Add… button in the Family Types dialog box to add the following Instance based shared parameters that were just created:
  • Tag Width Feet
  • Tag Width Inches Partial
  • Tag Width Inches Total
  • Tag Height Feet
  • Tag Width Inches Partial
  • Tag Width Inches Total

• After adding each of the above parameters, add formulas to each of the parameters as follows:

• The rounddown function was added in the 2012 version.  Prior to 2012, the formula would need to be:
  • (Height – 0′  6″) / 1′
• The above parameters will allow for most of the variations seen in residential door tags.  The “Total” and “Partial” parameter options will likely not both be required, but provide flexibility to either see just total inches in the tag or to see the feet and inch option.
  • If a design firm desires to just see the total inches option for door width (ie showing 32 for a 2′-8″ wide door), then the Tag Width Inches Partial parameter can be eliminated.
•  (If the above parameters are added to window families, then window size tags can also be created using these parameters.)
• Note that these parameters and formulas must be added to each door family used in the project.

Create Door Tag

Many different variations of door tags can be created from the above parameters.  The following step for creating a tag is just one example of one of the common residential door tags.

• Create a new family using the Annotations -> Door Tag.rft family template.
• Select the Label function from the Text panel of the Create tab and pick a location near the intersecting reference planes, which is the insertion point for the tag.
• In the Edit Label dialog box that appears, pick the Add Parameter button in the lower left corner of the dialog box.
• In the Parameter Properties dialog box that appears, pick the Select… button and select the Tag Width Feet shared parameter.  Pick the OK button twice.
• In the Edit Label dialog box, highlight the Tag Width Feet parameter in the left panel and pick the green arrow icon in the center of the dialog box.  That will place the Tag Width Feet parameter name in the right panel.
  • The Sample Value may be changed to something like “X” so that it is easier to place the label in the desired location in the family and not see the entire parameter name string.  Pick the OK button.

• Select the Label function again, and repeat the above 3 steps to add and place the Tag Width Inches Partial parameter.
  • Repeat this step for the Tag Height Feet and the Tag Height Inches Partial parameters.
• After all four of the above parameter labels have been added to the annotation family, arrange each of the labels as desired in relationship to each other.
  • It may be desirable to make the Feet parameters be right justified and the Inch parameters be left justified text for consistent readability in the project file.  This is done by highlighting each of the labels and changing the Horizontal Align parameter in the Properties palette for the label.
  • The following image shows the labels in an arrangement for the inches to be in superscript form on the plan:

The following image shows a common door tag created using the above directions and placed on a door:

The following images show the label settings for another common door size tag configuration:

The following images show the label settings for another common door size tag configuration:

All of the above instructions can be utilized to create a window tag showing the overall window size.

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