General notes key schedules

Kenyon_Graham · July 30, 2019, 6:17am

Hi,

I am trying to generate a general notes sheet using a schedule. I have followed what I think are the correct steps but cannot seem to generate

Excel sheet with the notes in columns A and B, data as far as row 8
Simple dynamo script using excel read, pls note I struggle to get the more capable plugins to work
Revit project set up and saved, with a drawing title block imported
Creating a schedule to import the General Notes, using a Lighting Devices category

The data just does not seem to generate, its close but I am unaware as to what the problem is. What am I missing.

One other issue is with the General Notes schedule title that is generated. When it fails and I re-run the definition and the name in the scheduleview create.schedule flags a warning that the name is not unique

All help appreciated.

Running Revit 2017 with Dynamo 1.3.1 with excel 2010…thanks

Revit Screenshot seems in order

GEN_Notes_101018_part.xlsx (9.7 KB)
Read_Excel_KL.dyn (13.2 KB)

Nick_Boyts · October 10, 2017, 5:19pm

You’re close. The main problem is that your key schedule does not have a parameter called Description. You need to add this parameter before writing your key values to the schedule.

awilliams · October 10, 2017, 7:05pm

I thought this, too, but tried switching “Description” to the available field “Comments” and it only produced the column for “Key Name”. Same outcome when adding the parameter “Description”…

awilliams · October 10, 2017, 7:11pm

@Kenyon_Graham can you send a screenshot of what node you are inputting in for “scheduleType” in the ScheduleView.CreateSchedule node? When I open your .dyn file, I am shown an unresolved node. When I switch it with the Revit ScheduleType node (shown in image below) and run your script, it does generate the schedule and its data but isn’t producing the Description column.

The reason you are getting a warning when you re-run is because you have already created the schedule when you ran it the previous time. You have to delete the schedule that was created in a previous run to rerun it, or provide a new name.

Nick_Boyts · October 11, 2017, 3:41pm

Creating a Key Schedule with ScheduleView.CreateSchedule creates a blank schedule with only the Key Name parameter. The Key Schedule node only adds lines to an existing schedule, so the Comments parameter has to be added to the newly created schedule before the keys are added.

awilliams · October 10, 2017, 8:18pm

Ahhh thank you, I hadn’t inspected the Archilab Key Schedule node and was assuming it had the add schedule fields packaged in with it. I misread your comment above and thought you meant the parameter needed to be added to the project & category. Should have looked at it for longer before I replied

I’m still wondering what the unresolved node is that I got when I opened the file - was it unresolved on your end? I ran it in 2018, could that be why I saw it as unresolved (as in maybe the Schedule Type node I used varies between Revit versions)?

Nick_Boyts · October 10, 2017, 8:22pm

Mine worked fine in 2017. I’m guessing it’s just a miss-match between the original archi-lab node and the core node that was added later. I still have both in my library so I couldn’t tell you which one it is.

Kenyon_Graham · July 30, 2019, 6:17am

Amy, thanks for the interest, sorry for not getting back to you sooner, I am in a different time zone and left my laptop in the office

The screenshot capture both the basic Archilad and Revit nodesGeneralNotesReadExcel.dyn (9.9 KB)

I have added the dynamo nodes to the definition.

Frustratingly I did manage to get the general notes generated last Friday, left it until Monday and could not replicate

Nick I am trying to work through the definition that you have generated however some of the nodes I cannot generate notably the field code block that resorts to an Archilab or Revit keyword.

The packages I have installed are:

Nick_Boyts · October 11, 2017, 1:25pm

All the nodes should be in core Dynamo if you’re using 1.3 (or Archi-lab for one or two earlier versions).
The code block is just taking the field parameters, getting their names (ie. a string), and comparing it to the parameter name I want to add (Comments in this case). You should be able to recreate the code block just as I have, or you can piece it together with the appropriate nodes.

Kenyon_Graham · July 30, 2019, 6:17am

Hi Nick,

I had some issues getting a code block generated but managed it:

I’m afraid it just does not seem to want to work, it’s really frustrating. Revit schedule seems to be ok.

GeneralNotesReadExcel_Rev_A.dyn (14.2 KB)

I’ve attached the definition

Nick_Boyts · October 11, 2017, 1:18pm

What does your error say? It may be trying to create a schedule that already exists again.

Kenyon_Graham · October 11, 2017, 1:52pm

Wow, how frustrating

I set up a new project and suitably named schedule. error screenshot attached.

I did change to a Generic model category probably the only difference.

Nick_Boyts · October 11, 2017, 2:00pm

You created the schedule manually then ran your graph?

Also, do you have a parameter named Description available to your schedule? The parameter has to exist before it can be added, it won’t create new parameters for you. I’m pretty sure the only parameters available to a new key schedule are Key Name and Comments.

Kenyon_Graham · October 11, 2017, 2:40pm

Yip, created the schedule then ran the graph

You are right In the generic model category, there is only key name and comments

However, I set up a new parameter Description.

In schedules/quantities, I set up a new parameter description in the generic model category, added Description as that parameter.

awilliams · October 11, 2017, 3:42pm

If you create the schedule before running the graph, that eliminates the need for the ScheduleView.CreateSchedule part of your script. Once you’ve made it in Revit, you can just retrieve the schedule view and feed that into the rest of your script. Otherwise you are trying to create a schedule that already exists and it will not work because it is not a unique name.

Nick_Boyts · June 16, 2020, 2:58pm

Your graph is creating the schedule for you. If you create the schedule then run the graph Dynamo tries to create a schedule that already exists and fails.

So you have three options:

Create the schedule and add the parameter in Revit first and remove the portion of your graph that creates the schedule.
Create the parameter and add it to the schedule using Dynamo.
Just use the Comments parameter instead. (Easiest)

Kenyon_Graham · October 11, 2017, 3:41pm

Nick/Amy many thanks, the penny eventually dropped.

You were both right I was creating the schedule twice, notes imported woohoo!!!

Amy …with the unique name I just did not understand why that was occurring Hamster in the wheel.

Again thanks

Kenyon

gautham · July 25, 2019, 3:09pm

Hi Nick,
could you please help me out with my follow up question?
Just like u have added the parameter “Comments” I wanna add more parameters to the schedule which I have recieved from Architect. I was able to add those parameters, however I am not able to type in a value to the newly added parameters in the schedule… can u please help me out? Dy1

Nick_Boyts · July 29, 2019, 2:37pm

This is a Revit issue. You added the parameters to the schedule, but the same parameters still need to be available to the families being scheduled. If you edit the field from within the schedule you should be able to modify it like a project parameter and apply it to the categories you’re scheduling.

leonardo.guevara · July 31, 2019, 3:45pm

Hello, thank you very much everyone for your comments have really helped me a lot to develop the routine, but someone could explain to me very clearly how can I add more columns of information?