Rename grids

When creating grids in Revit, Revit will number them in the order that they were created based on the naming sequence last used. If you haven’t been consistent in your creation of grids, you’ll more than likely need to rename them. This can prove problematic as Revit will not allow you to have two grids identically named. If you try, Revit will return an error saying, “The name entered is already in use. Enter a unique name.” As a workaround, it is necessary to rename the grids temporarily before naming them as intended.

Renaming grids with Dynamo

To solve this issue, Parametric Monkey has developed a Dynamo graph, available as part of our Dynamo Package Development service. The graph enables the user to define which axis (X or Y) should be numbered numerically and which will be alphanumeric. For the alphanumeric sequence, the user can control if “I” and “O” should be excluded, as is common when documenting. There is also the ability to reverse the sequence.

To run the graph:

• Select the grids to be modified (#1). Selected elements that are not grids are automatically filtered out.
• Define the X-axis naming convention (#2). If alphanumeric is defined, the Y-axis will automatically be numeric, and vice versa.
• Define the numeric start value (#3).
• Define if the numeric naming should be reversed (#4). If false, values will be ascending. If true, values will be descending.
• Define the digit padding (#5). A precision of ‘1’ will result in no padding, e.g. 1, 2, 3 etc. Whereas a precision of 2 will result in 01, 02, 03, etc.
• Define the alphanumeric start value (#6).
• Define if the alphanumeric naming should be reversed (#7). If false, values will be ascending. If true, values will be descending.
• Define if “I” and “O” should be excluded from the alphanumeric sequence (#8).
• Press Run.

Computational logic

The graph filters the selected grids to return only orthogonal grids. The grids are then grouped based on their orientation and sorted along the X or Y axis. The grids are then temporarily renamed before being updated using the final naming sequence. Note that an error will be returned if selected non-orthogonal or non-selected grids have the same Name value.