Revit Tip: Syncing a Drawing Register with Title blocks’ properties

by Dennis Collin

I was asked a question recently if it was possible to get Revit’s Sheet list to read the status of title blocks within a project. For example, if a drawing has been approved or not approved, or to pick up a note for information purposes etc.

The answer is yes using a simple Dynamo script. The first things to understand are that Revit Title block families and Sheets are two different categories. A title block is a graphical component family, that is a drawing frame holding certain characteristics like drawing number, title and so on. A Sheet is a project-based system family into which a title block family can be placed.

Fig 1. Linking title block visual style to an approval status.

The Sheet List schedule accesses the properties on a sheet, with certain built-in parameters linked to properties on the title block. However, for custom parameters such as ‘Sheet Status’, Revit needs a ‘helping hand’ to extract information from custom title block parameters and push the data to the corresponding sheet fields.

Fig 2. Title Frame Family with custom parameters assigned to approval status type.

To start, within the title block family, a custom yes/no type, shared parameter is created to control the visibility of an approval label. This is then set within the title block’s type listing. One sheet type name is set as ‘Approved’, one as ‘Not Approved’. The type name property forms the connection between the title block fand sheet families.

Fig 3. Title Frame family types accessed via the project’s type selector drop down list.

Within the project or project template, a shared text-based parameter is assigned to the Sheets system family, in addition a second parameter of yes/no type called ‘Approved’ is also assigned to the sheets. Either of these parameters can be assigned to a Sheet List schedule and listed in properties as desired.

Fig 4. Same shared parameters assigned to sheet system family.

When changing a title block type, the visibility status changes to the appropriate value i.e. Approved or Not Approved. This is fine for sheet plotting purposes, but to get the information to display on the sheet list, this information needs to be collected and applied to the respective sheet views which will then be shown on Revit’s Sheet list. To do this a Dynamo script is used.

Fig 5. Dynamo script that scans the title block’s type name and applies the  approval status to a custom parameter.

The input groups collect the sheets and the title block families. For the title blocks, the script searches for the text string “Not”, collects the information and then sets the custom shared parameter “Approval_Status” accordingly. Sheets that contain an Approved title block have their Approved parameter toggle set to true and the sheets containing a Not Approved title block the parameter is set to false.

The results can be seen in the Sheet List view below:

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Fig 6. Sheet List connected to title block properties!

A point to remember is that this function is not a live connection and it is one way only. This link is driven by the title block families, should a title block frame change the script would need to be re-run to update the sheet listing. A similar process could be performed to reflect sheets from different design offices within a company. Simply replace the approval status parameter for a text-based location field.

These advanced topics are covered on our Advanced Revit training courses. Visit Arkance Training where course agendas and contact details can be found. If you prefer there is a live chat where one of our team is available to help and provide further information.