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Michael Wilson/4 min read

Tagging Nested Family Elements for a Furniture System: A Step-by-Step Guide

Nested Family Tagging Workflow

1

Set Family as Shared

In family editor: Family Category > Shared box checked.

2

Reload into Project

Update parent family with shared nested family.

3

Tag Nested Items

Now Annotate > Tag by Category sees nested elements.

4

Verify in Schedules

Nested items appear in schedules independently.

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So, a similar concept that we have related to tagging elements that are part of a nested family would be the one that we created.

So, a similar concept that we have related to tagging elements that are part of a nested family would be the one that we created. And so, because we set this up appropriately by giving those parameters the ability to share between each other, we can actually tag the Standing Desk, the chair, and the File Cabinet independently from the overall workstation itself. And so, if I were to go to Tag by Category again and place a tag on the workstation, you notice we're not getting a preview here.

And that's because workstation is going to be on a different category than just furniture. It's actually furniture systems. So, I'll go ahead and click on that.

We'll load that family. And I'm going to look for the Furniture System Tag this time and click open. And I'll add the tag for the workstation.

And notice also, because it's a different type, it doesn't have that leader arrowhead. So, we'll need to go in and add that. So, this is going to be called WS-1.

And I'll say yes because I want them to all have that tag because they're all the same. And while we're at it, we might as well add that leader. So, we'll say edit type.

Leader arrowhead is going to go ahead and be Dot Filled 1/16", just like all the other ones. And then we can go ahead and tag the rest of these elements. So, I'll use the Tag by Category command again.

And by holding down Tab on this one, you can see I now get the options to tag those different elements. So, I'll start with the Standing Desk. And I'll just line these up because it's always nice to have your tags all lined up.

And what I did here is I didn't press TAB at the appropriate location or time there. And I missed it because I moved my mouse before I hit the tag. So, we'll go ahead and do it again.

Tag by Category. And that's a common error. But you just want to go ahead and you can delete it again and you can go back and make sure you're hitting Tab.

And you know that you're on the right element because you can see here that it's just all blue and the tag is clear. But if I start moving around like I did previously, you can see it goes back to what we had before with the WS-1 tag. So, I'm going to press TAB till I have the Standing Desk.

And I'll go ahead and move that up. And then I'll go in and I'll add the designation SD-1. So, if you run into this situation again, the last thing that you want to do is, like say I was trying to tag the File Cabinet here.

The last thing I would want to do is change this tag to be the File Cabinet that we're trying to tag. Because if I do that, then what I've done is I've now made changes to this one as well. And you'll just be fighting yourself because you'll be like, oh no, that was supposed to be WS-1.

So, I'll change that to WS-1. Say yes, because I'm editing the type parameter. But then now it goes back to WS-1 here.

So, it's important to make sure that you're using the appropriate tags and you're tagging the appropriate elements. Because these are type tags or type marks. So, that means the type parameter itself goes across multiple different elements.

And so, if you're changing the tag in one area, it's going to change everywhere. So, I'll add this one for the File Cabinet. And this was going to be FC-2.

Okay, and then we'll do the same thing for the Task Chair here. And just keeping everything kind of lined up. And this is going to be C-2.

And there we go. We've got all of our chairs and our furniture tagged for our workstations. And they're all the same, so we kind of have an understanding that they will be typical.