Hi everyone, I have asked this question on the Revit forum and one user suggested that one solution would be a Dynamo script. I’m not great at Dynamo so thought I’d ask some of you experts here for some friendly advice/direction. I want to be able to generate Job Numbers each time I start a new project. My Job Numbers are like most everyone else’s, i.e. 24-001, 24-002, etc. Is this possible within Dynamo given that I would be starting a new drawing from my template and would need the script to pick up from the last number in each new file? I would like to tie this to a field in the titleblock so that when I run the script, the job number displays in the titleblock, and I can then name my file using that information.
This is starting to get outside of Revit file management and into project database management. It’s all technically possible with Dynamo but you probably need a better system for managing and creating project files.
To answer your question though, assuming you specify where all your previous projects exist and they have a standard naming convention that includes the project number, yes, you could read all the previous numbers and use the next incremental value for a new (blank) project. From that point on you would probably just read the project number from the file itself, otherwise your script would find the current file and think that it needs to increment again.
This sounds easier in my head if you change the project number in your titleblock template and then duplicate it each time you use it ie: using a type parameter.
It is doable is dynamo but it wont work the way you expect ie: its not “automatic” someone still needs to press a button somewhere and know where the script is located.
Thank you guys for the replies. So, let me ask a different question, how do you guys handle project numbers? For me, sometimes it’s a month or more between starting a new project. And I save in a few different locations. I’ve looked for apps that do this with no luck so far.
Why not have a folder system for all jobs - one folder per year.
Then job 001 (or whatever) is project 1 for 2024 and has it’s own folder and all the stuff for the entire job gets stored in here.
Job 002 again, has its own folder stored in the master folder for 2024.
Dead easy to see what number comes next, you just go to 2024 folder and look at what sub-folders are in there.
I’m guessing you’re not doing large jobs or you’d have a CDE.
Also, job number can be stored as a project parameter which is on all title blocks (so appears automatically) along with client and project name etc.
Revit template - you can set one up and just use it each time you start a new project so you’ve got all your view templates/ standard disclaimers/ standard title blocks/ standard whatever ready to go.
Follow iso19650. Think it’s approx 6 digits for a project reference number at the start of that naming convention. But double check. You make that a project parameter though I believe there is a default one called project number. Then add that parameter to your sheets as well as project info via the project parameters menu. When you make a new sheets, the title block in it will automatically show the project number if you also add the same parameters to the title block family. You can add more for the zone and originator code. Which is in line with iso19650 and would likely be the same on every drawing in the model. Would have to be shared parameters as well to add them to the project, and the title block family.
I’d read up on iso19650 as that’s a good starting point for naming convention and aligns with most of the industry. Then I’d happily talk you through how we set it up to adhere to those standards.
My issue is that I do projects for several different builders. Some are models that are built over and over. For that reason, I organize those files into folders that are specific to those builders so I don’t have to go back years to find certain jobs. At the same time, I do projects for homeowners as well, which the system you describe works well for. This is where it became messy for me. I like to be able to sort by number, search by number, etc. But with homeowners being one category and builders being another, it’s nearly impossible to remember what the last project number was. The solution realistically I guess would be to write it down each time I guess. It just seems like it would/should be really easy in Revit as it literally sequentially numbers almost everything. Even duplicating a family like “3d Toilet” becomes “3d Toilet 2” automatically.
Excel spreadsheet so you can search?
This is interesting, I have never heard of ISO 19650. I’m starting to look into this.
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I’ve had a few people recommend this as well now. I’ll look into this as well. Thank you.
I would have a two reference file approach here.
First setup a txt file in the same directory as the .dyn file that just has a single integer or double value in it, call it ‘latestProject.txt’.
Each time the .dyn file is run it would look for a ‘projectNumber.txt’ file in the given directory. If not found then it would go to the first txt file and read in the value, increment it by one, save over the ‘latestProject.txt’, and then save it again as ‘projectNumber.txt’ in the project directory. Then use the value from projectNumber.txt to populate the information parameter. 
Yeah you aren’t the first to think about this. Iso19650 is a pretty robust naming convention. It’s industry standard so when working with other consultants it’s easy to know what’s what just from a drawing name. There’s some wiggle room to customise it a little but the more you deviate from it, the less inline you are with other consultants. So the harder to organise all consultants information in one place. Eg like on a CDE.
Strongly recommend adopting this convention.
Revit is not the tool you should use for managing your project database and file structure. This is definitely something that you, as a firm, need to think about and standardize. Whatever works best for you is going to be the easiest thing to automate with Revit, so start there and then move on to automating the Revit content. Once you have a working system it does become really easy in Revit, but you need to determine your project standards first.
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When you say Iso19650 naming: you have to remember that the naming convention is contained with the UK national annex . That those not looking at BS EN ISO19650 part 2 will have no clue what you are talking about.
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Or should I say, The National Annex at the end of 19650-2 will vary between regions and countries.
As when creating ISO19650, the international working committee rejected the naming convention set out in BS1192. The National Annex is a fudge to allow each country to continue to use a naming convention that works for them. 19650 Part 2 only states that an information container is to have a Unique ID. Also, not all ISO National mirror committees have written a national annex as part of their version of the standard.
For instance, the UK National Annex states the classification should be to Uniclass 2015. While the US National Annex states classification to Omiclass.
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