Data Tags for Walls and Steel Members

[blanger]

Hi All -

I'm new to tags and trying to use them to display info about two things -

 

1) Finishes. If I've created a wall and given it a material there are finishes embedded. I'd like to be able to create a label or call out with leader line with finish info for that wall generated by the material. Is this possible? It would save so much typing and ensure accuracy.

 

2) Steel Members. I'd like to have a label as a call out and leader line that will draw from the type of profile used to create the 3D steel unit, such as W27x94.

 

thanks!

Edited June 25, 2022 by blanger

[blanger]

I found this but still cant figure out what I'm doing! 

 

 

[Pat Stanford]

What tool are you using to draw your steel members? If more than one, please attach a sample file with an example of each type of object, preferably in two sizes so I can see what fields are different.

[blanger]

24 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

What tool are you using to draw your steel members? If more than one, please attach a sample file with an example of each type of object, preferably in two sizes so I can see what fields are different.

Thanks Pat - 

I'm trying to shave off time from my documentation by using smarter modeling.  This model uses 3D angles, round tube and I beams. I also just started reading that there may be a way to put the items in a worksheet if each are symbols with their symbol image, type, weight and length. I have a feeling the project with keep changing and having a ready to go schedule of parts would be amazing and save me lots of manual work.  Attaching a sampling.

 Steel Members.vwx

[Tom W.]

10 hours ago, blanger said:

1) Finishes. If I've created a wall and given it a material there are finishes embedded. I'd like to be able to create a label or call out with leader line with finish info for that wall generated by the material. Is this possible? It would save so much typing and ensure accuracy.

 

Have a look at these posts for how to use a Data Tag to call out the names of Materials used by components:

 

 

[Pat Stanford]

Due to the way the data is stored in the Wide Flange (and I am assuming all of the other structural objects), it is going to be very difficult, possibly impossible, to get a data tag to extract the services and size information.

 

The Wide Flange has 14 different series of steel, it stores the size for each of those series in a different field, so to get the current size you have to know which series number to look in. But the series is stored as an integer. So to get the size you then have to concatenate the field name together. I can do this fairly easily with a script. I have not been able to make it work in a data tag.

 

If you know you will always be using the same series of steel, I can give you the field names to get the size for that series. I can probably even give you the ability to have an extra field that will tell you when the Series of the steel object (and therefore the size is incorrect) does not match with what the data tag is expecting.

 

But you would need to have a different data tag for each Series of steel, and possibly for each profile also. I have not even started looking into how to get the data tag to look at different record formats to handle the different shapes.

 

Overall, a very useful request, but quite hard to do.

 

My suggestion is that you put in an enhancement request to add extra fields to all of the structural shape objects that will contain the current Series and the current size that the object is being drawn. Then it would be easy to generate a shape specific data tag and probably possible to generate a data tag that would handle multiple shapes.

[blanger]

47 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

Due to the way the data is stored in the Wide Flange (and I am assuming all of the other structural objects), it is going to be very difficult, possibly impossible, to get a data tag to extract the services and size information.

 

The Wide Flange has 14 different series of steel, it stores the size for each of those series in a different field, so to get the current size you have to know which series number to look in. But the series is stored as an integer. So to get the size you then have to concatenate the field name together. I can do this fairly easily with a script. I have not been able to make it work in a data tag.

 

If you know you will always be using the same series of steel, I can give you the field names to get the size for that series. I can probably even give you the ability to have an extra field that will tell you when the Series of the steel object (and therefore the size is incorrect) does not match with what the data tag is expecting.

 

But you would need to have a different data tag for each Series of steel, and possibly for each profile also. I have not even started looking into how to get the data tag to look at different record formats to handle the different shapes.

 

Overall, a very useful request, but quite hard to do.

 

My suggestion is that you put in an enhancement request to add extra fields to all of the structural shape objects that will contain the current Series and the current size that the object is being drawn. Then it would be easy to generate a shape specific data tag and probably possible to generate a data tag that would handle multiple shapes.

 

Pat - thank you for looking into this - I'm glad asked for help before falling in that rabbit hole.  I will submit an enhancement request.  

 

I have an alternate idea I have for representing this information but could use your help. 

 

Concept:

Make each member a symbol (which I've already done) and name the symbol - for instance - Walk Way Support W27x94 @ 65'-6"

Create a worksheet showing those symbols names, image and qty. 

Use Date Visualization to color each symbol differently.

 

Help needed:

I can get it to summarize symbols in my worksheet but don't know how to

A. include QTY of symbols in drawing

B. restrict worksheet to only the symbols I care to display (perhaps by choosing only one class to include in worksheet) 

 

Any pointers you can give on making that work would be great.  Just yesterday I learned how to make a window worksheet and I'm playing with other types of symbols now. Fun stuff!!! 

 

 

Edited June 26, 2022 by blanger

[Pat Stanford]

To get the quantity use a column with a formula of =Count

 

To limit the objects being shown you need to edit the Database Criteria. Right click on the Database Header Row (ie 3, not 3.1. 3.2, etc) and choose Edit Criteria. Add an additional criteria for Class or whatever you need to limit the functions.

 

Another possibility would be a script that would run through all of the structural objects in the drawing and store the series and size into a custom record.  But you would need to rerun the script to ensure the data is correct if you changed any of the sizes. This could then be accessed either in a worksheet or a data tag.

[blanger]

18 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

To get the quantity use a column with a formula of =Count

 

To limit the objects being shown you need to edit the Database Criteria. Right click on the Database Header Row (ie 3, not 3.1. 3.2, etc) and choose Edit Criteria. Add an additional criteria for Class or whatever you need to limit the functions.

 

Another possibility would be a script that would run through all of the structural objects in the drawing and store the series and size into a custom record.  But you would need to rerun the script to ensure the data is correct if you changed any of the sizes. This could then be accessed either in a worksheet or a data tag.

Brilliant!

The scripted prospect is really interesting but since I don't work with steel as much this symbol approach is great because I will be able to apply it to all kinds of projects, like number of pistachios in a bowl... jk.

Thank you so much!!!  I appreciate you!

[blanger]

@Pat Stanford Is it further possible to put a number or letter in a field associated with each symbol and use a data tag to mark the symbols on a plan in viewport and include that number in the worksheet.

I haven't successfully labeled symbols yet with data tags but I have big dreams!

[blanger]

In case anyone is following along I found this great video by Jonathan Pickup that showed my how to Data Tag structural members.  This is wonderful as it lets me pull the type of into my annotations - - too bad I used the individual 3d profiles instead of structural member tool. I wont make that mistake again (I wonder why the individual member tools even exist unless they predated the more complete structural member tool).  

 

This shows my beam pulling info from the object itself using a data tag with #StructuralMember#.#ProfileSize# and #StructuralMember#.#MemberID#