Link the Door Number to the Room Number in Architectural Desktop

Okay, since I've several "how'd you do that" questions about linking door numbers to room numbers, I thought I'd add a little description on how to do this. It works pretty much the same way for Architectural Desktop 2006 and 2007, and will probably work the same way for the next release (I'll update this as needed).

You'll want to set this up in your base template - if you started from the AEC Model templates, you'll already have some examples of property set definitions in the template. To access these, go to the Format menu and choose Style Manager. Browse to the documentation objects and follow these steps:

1. Create the ROOMOBJECTS property set definition - right click on the property set definitions, and then choose New to create a new property set - name it ROOMOBJECTS.
2. In the dialogue area to the right, choose the Applies To tab - make sure the applies to option is set to objects, then check the box for spaces.
3. Select the Definitions tab - choose the top right icon for creating a Manual Definition - name this one NUMBER and choose OK. Check the settings under the Format column - let's change this to Upper Case, so we can type in any number or letter combination we want, and any text in the room number will come out upper case. After you're finished, choose Apply at the bottom of the dialogue, but don't close the dialogue yet (if you do, hit enter to repeat the last command and reopen the Style Manager).
4. Go back to the left side of the dialogue - right click on property set definitions again and choose New to create another Property set - name this one DOOROBJECTS.
5. In the dialogue area to the right, choose the Applies To tab - make sure the applies to option is set to objects, then check the box for doors.
6. Select the Definitions tab - choose the fourth icon from the top right icon and create a Location property definition - name this one NUMBER, then scroll down under the Space property definition in the dialogue and find the ROOMOBJECTS property definition - make sure that NUMBER is checked here - this is what links the door number to the room number - choose OK to close the dialogue. Check the settings under the Format column - we need to change this to Case - Upper, the same that we did for the room number. Choose OK to close the Style Manager and save your template.

Now you can edit any existing door tag (the ones that ship with Architectural Desktop are great examples to start from). Most of these are multi-view blocks that contain nested blocks, but you can use the Define Schedule Tag tool (located under the Format Menu) to create your own tag - if you do this in your template, the tag will always be there when you create a new drawing, but you can also build this in a separate drawing such as the Schedule Tables master style drawing locate in your C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Autodesk\ADT 2007\enu\Styles\Imperial folder.

If you open this drawing you'll see there are several Multi-view block definitions already created, including one called Aec6_Door_Tag. This particular symbol uses a plan block named Aec6_Door_Tag_Basic_P - insert this into your drawing at 1:1 scale (set this in the bottom right corner of your drawing prior to placing the tag). Right click on the block in the drawing and choose Block Editor - and notice that the attribute for this block is already called DOOROBJECTS:NUMBER - by naming the attribute using the property set name first, then adding a colon between the set and the definition, this is what tells the tag where to get its information from. So, in this case, we don't have to do anything - this tag will read the DOOROBJECTS property set definition and get the information from the ROOMOBJECTS' Number property set definition.

The location definition knows where to get the room number from by the use a "STAR" grip - typically, when a door is placed, and the DOOROBJECTS property definitions are added to a door from the Extended data tab of the properties dialogue, the star will appear when the door is selected. From here you can drag the star into any room that has a space located - and the door will get its information from the room. The act of tagging a door will also add the property set definitions to the door, but I personally like adding the definitions to the door itself in the base plan - and have it fill the tag out automatically.

Try this out and let us know if it works for you - if you want to know how to use this data in your door schedule, let me know and I'll add to the post.

Happy Documenting!

David B.