6 Tips to Master Door Schedules in Revit

In this tutorial, you will learn advanced strategies to master door schedules in Revit. If you are a beginner, make sure to check out our previous guides about schedules:

15 ADVANCED TRICKS TO MASTER REVIT SCHEDULES

9 TIPS TO MASTER REVIT SCHEDULES

You can watch a video version of this post: 

1- Decide if You'll Use Type or Instance Parameters

Each firm has different standards for their door schedules. An important thing you’ll need to figure out is if you will be using type or instance for each parameter. There is no universal answer to this question.

Typically, you might put all dimensions and materials in type parameters.

When a parameter isn’t directly related to the geometry or the general material, instance is usually more suitable. For example, the fire rating and hardware would be instance parameters.

In the schedule below, we’ve used yellow for type parameters and green for instance parameters. Some of the instance parameters (From Room / To Room) are built-in and automatically generated.

You can keep a copy of this “work” schedule for internal use.

In the example of Fire Rating, this is a built-in type parameter. It means you’ll have to create a new Instance project parameter to actually be used in the schedule.

2- Change Units From Feet to Inches

Doors’ dimensions are often set to inches even though the rest of the project might be in feet. You will have to the Formatting menu and select one of the field. In this case, we pick the height.

Then, uncheck “Use Project Settings”. Select Fractional inches instead of feet and fractional inches.

Set up the rounding option. When it’s done, you can see that the dimensions show up in inches. The same technique could be used to show both metric units in an imperial project or vice-versa.

3- Combine Height and Width

Some users prefer to combine the height and width in the same column. Go to the Fields menu and click on the “Combine Parameters” icon. Then, add Width and Height to the combined parameters field.

When the parameters are added, add a separator. In this case, we type in “ x “, including the space before and after.

You can see the result in the schedule.

You’ll still see the old height and width separate parameters when the parameters are added. You will need to hide them in the Formatting menu. Check the hidden field box for both height and width. These parameters will still be used for the combined parameters you’ve created, but they won’t appear in a specific column.

4- Add "From Room" and "To Room" Parameters

Most users want to see where the room is located with the “From Room” and “To Room” parameters.

Go to the Fields menu. Select From Room or To Room in the “Select available fields from” dropdown menu.

You can pick any parameter from the room. In this case, we’ll pick room number.

By default, From Room and To Room parameters are independent from the direction of opening. To switch the rooms in these two fields, you can use the dropdown menu:

However, there is a little trick to make the door automatically adjust the From Room and To Room parameters. First, you’ll have to edit the door family. Then, in the general properties, activate the “Room Calculation Point”.

You should see a curved green dashed line. The beginning of the arrow represents the “From Room” and the end represents the “To Room”. Load the family back into the project.

As you can see in the schedule below, the room information will automatically update based on the door swing direction. So if you change the info in the schedule, the door will flip.

5- Alternative: Use Room Number & Name Only

Some users prefer to have a single room number. In addition, they like to see the room name. In this case, pick either From Room or To Room. Add the “To Room: Name” parameter as well. You should rename the fields in the schedule to simply number and name. In this case, we also group the parameters with the “Room” header.

If you use this strategy, you can use the drop-down menu of the number to switch the From/To Room. The room name will automatically be updated. Be careful if you’ve activated the Room Calculation Point in the door family though, as it will flip the door.

6- Create a "Door Type" Schedule

In most commercial project, the room schedule typically contains every single door, each with its unique number.

In a residential project, unique door numbers are not necessarily used. A type mark value would be used and the schedule would have a “count” parameter.

In the schedule, make sure to add the Type Mark and Count parameters.

In the Sorting/Grouping menu, sort by Type Mark. Then, uncheck the Itemize every instance box.

You can see the results here. Many fields have the “varies” value, meaning it is an instance parameter. You should remove all instance parameters from this type of schedule or replace them with type parameters instead.

Here is the “door type” schedule. The count parameter is used to show how many doors of that type are used in the project.

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