Easiest way to call out the top-of-wall elevations in plan?

[Ed Wachter]

I'm setting up a plan VP for a complex foundation. I would like to call out the the top-of-wall elevations. There are many of them, and they might change. Is there a way to call out these elevations in a SLVP and have them update if the model changes? Can data tags be used for this? As of now, the only method I can think of is to snap 3D loci to the model, write down the elevations and then manually call out all the elevations in the VP Anno space, and then repeat the process when the elevations change. It would be easy for me to make a mistake. 

 

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks.

Ed

[rDesign]

Are you using Vw 2018 / 2019 as per your signature?

EDIT: Never mind the answer below, I just reread your question and saw you were asking about a plan SLVP. The Vw2023 Elevation Benchmark tools would be of no use.

 

If you were using Vw2023 - and were asking about Elevations / Sections, you could create a Level for each top of foundation and the new-to Vw2023 Elevation Benchmark tool could be associated with each Level and automatically update in the Elevation / Section VPs if they were to change. 

Edited June 15, 2023 by rDesign
Reread question

[Tom W.]

19 minutes ago, Ed Wachter said:

Can data tags be used for this?

Yes

[Ed Wachter]

OK. I'm struggling to understand what data tags can do and how to use them. (BTW, my current project is in VW2021).

 

 

* Does VW2021 have this capability (a tag that can read top-of-wall elevation)?

* Is there an existing tag that will read the top-of-wall elevation, or do I have to create a custom tag? I found an existing tag in VW2022 whose style is called "Z Height Top - Relative to Ground Plane", although it shows "0" regardless of where I place it. Should this style of tag work? 

 

 

Thanks,

Ed

[Tom W.]

I'm not sure about the existing Data Tags but in VW2023 you can use the #ZTBBG# function to return the top of the wall relative to the ground plane. This is also available in VW2022 but not in VW2021 unfortunately.

 

Here is a sample tag in VW2022: Wall Elev Data Tag v2022.vwx

[Ed Wachter]

Thank you @Tom W.. Now I see how the tags work. I'll bring the file forward to 2023 so I can use them. In our office we tend to fear bringing files forward but I really want to use the tags in this case. If the file behaves badly I'll go backward to 2022 or 2021.

 

Thank you!

Ed

[Ed Wachter]

The tags are working for me in a design layer. However, in the Anno space they mostly show (incorrectly) an elevation of 0". Any thoughts on what I'm missing?

 

Ed

[E|FA]

Try the little drop down in annotation space and select "associate".  Worked for me.

[Ed Wachter]

Thanks. I'm getting used to it. I now realize that I need to move the curser around until the wall gets selected (highlighted), which looks different in the anno space than it does on a design layer. Some walls are not selectable; I haven't figured out why yet. I turned off the footings class because some of those wall types were getting selected instead of the wall above.

 

[Tom W.]

Using the B key (X-ray Select Mode) can help when it comes to selecting the right object with a Data Tag