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Sheet Specs (in Revit) from Word

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    #1

    Sheet Specs (in Revit) from Word

    This procedure has been working smoothly for us, hope you can benefit from it as well.

    The basic workflow is Word -> PDF -> Image -> Revit (sheet). The idea is to do the editing / formatting in Word (or another robust editor), print your specs to "pages" that are the same size and width as a detail column of your title block (our detail boxes are 6" wide), and link those into Revit.

    Word has a page size limitation of 22"x22", so you will not be able to get a full column longer than 22". This may just barely work for 24x36 (depending on your borders), but it's too short for 30x42 or larger. The solution is to work at "75% scale" in Word and scale the print up to 100% in Revit. 75% of a 6" wide column is 4-1/2", so set your paper width for 4-1/2"; the length will vary by your sheet size (17-1/4" for 24x36; 21-1/2" for 30x42). Margins and text font will have to be scaled as well (I use 1/8" margins and 6pt font).

    Organize and format your specs; print to PDF (the 4-1/2" wide sheets). Convert PDF to images (if you have a way to get images directly out of Word, you may not need the PDF step).

    Insert the images onto a Revit sheet, scale them to be 6" wide, arrange on sheet.

    Images need to be re-imported if the text changes.
    Chris Ellersick
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    #2
    You can copy paste text from word to revit it is faster

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      #3
      Originally posted by shyock View Post
      You can copy paste text from word to revit it is faster
      does the Word formatting come with the copy/paste? Don't have time to try it today so I ask innocently
      I'm retired, if you don't like it, go around!

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        #4
        Originally posted by shyock View Post
        You can copy paste text from word to revit it is faster
        How did you do that? I'm trying to copy (Ctrl+C) a simple sentence from Word 2016 and paste (Ctrl+V) on Revit 2016 drafting view and it's not working
        Last edited by sirky004; February 27, 2017, 01:06 AM.

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          #5
          Originally posted by sirky004 View Post
          How did you do that? I'm trying to copy (Ctrl+C) a simple sentence from Word 2016 and paste (Ctrl+V) on Revit 2016 drafting view and it's not working
          I've figured it out.

          Originally posted by Dave Jones View Post
          does the Word formatting come with the copy/paste? Don't have time to try it today so I ask innocently
          short answer: nope
          just dumb texts

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            #6
            The format is not coming with the text.

            You need to create a text annotation first, when you're into it just paste the text copied

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              #7
              I am also quite interested in how text could be linked to Revit.

              So far I think the most efficient way is to write your text in Excel (You could use .html .xml but excel is much more accessible than word), then read the text into parameters using Dynamo/Macro. So create a Detail Item with a multi-line text parameter to contain and display the text.
              Formatting is definitely an issue and there is a max limit 256 characters per text parameter, but this is the most 'BIM' solution with the least manual work once it is set up. If you standardise the excel sheets you can also get people who dont/wont do revit working in a more structured way with their data.

              Or do it the other way around. Just show links in revit (Links work in pdfs) that bring up text from a URL.
              "One must imagine Sisyphus happy." Albert Camus - "The innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may ​do well under the new." Nicolo Machiavelli -"Things that are too complex are not useful, Things that are useful are simple." Mikhail Kalashnikov

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                #8
                Originally posted by josephpeel View Post
                So far I think the most efficient way is to write your text in Excel (You could use .html .xml but excel is much more accessible than word), then read the text into parameters using Dynamo/Macro. So create a Detail Item with a multi-line text parameter to contain and display the text.
                I do something similar (in Excel) for our sheet notes. From what I've found so far, you can only create a numbered list in a text note (on a sheet or view), not in a family. And you'll need to use the API to accomplish that (you can do Python thru Dynamo). And you're limited to the formatting you can use (you need to assign any paragraph formatting thru the API).

                The image workflow is great for specs because there is little need for continual manipulation of the spec data, especially in a situation where you're putting them on sheets in lieu of a Project Manual. Most spec libraries are in Word (or compatible). Third party specs will commonly arrive in Word or a Word-compatible format, so it is easier to integrate them (and match formatting) if your project specs are based in Word. And since you don't have to divide the text into columns (the print driver does that), you don't have to waste time dividing text into columns.
                Chris Ellersick

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                  #9
                  This is interesting. We've been writing our specs in AutoCAD Mtext and importing them into Revit. This works for us because of our legacy CAD standards and about 50% of our projects are still in CAD. But we are talking about re-building our drawing specs from scratch because they're such a pain to assemble. I'll give this method a try!

                  EDIT: Okay, I've been playing around with Word for an hour and I must be missing something. I've set up the columns and scaled the font size down on the 22"x22" sheet, and also defined a custom Multilevel List that matches my Company's spec standard... but how in the heck do you control the indenting? There doesn't seem to be a way to make sure that automatically sets the indents so that it formats like I'm showing in the attached image. I can get the various levels to show up correctly (A. 1. a. etc. ), but how do you set the indenting for each level?

                  Attached Files
                  Last edited by Necro99; May 22, 2017, 02:22 AM.

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                    #10
                    You can't set indenting for each level. It looks at the indent you specified in the text type and uses that (at least I'm pretty sure that's what it does).

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