Room Tags in Revit are annotation elements that can be used to display information about the rooms. It is a bit confusing, but Rooms and Tags are individual but related Revit components. Rooms can be seen as 3D model elements, while Room Tags are annotative elements.
It is good to know that Revit has the possibility to let you customize your own Room Tag. This simply means that you can add extra information to your rooms with the help of Shared Parameters.
In this article, we will take a look at which Room Tag properties are available in Revit, how to place Room Tags, and how to customize your own Room Tag.
Room Tags
Room Tags are elements that are categorized as annotations. These tags can be used to display various information about the rooms. You can think about values for Revit-related parameters, like a room name, number, computed area, and volume. But it is also possible to add some custom-made parameters to the Room Tags in Revit.
The tags can be displayed inside plan views and section views. I mostly only use these tags in views that are placed on sheets to show the output and room information.
Room Tags Properties
Before we continue on how to place a room tag in Revit, let’s talk about the different properties these tags have. The properties can be split into Type Properties and Instance Properties.
Contrary to most families inside Revit, the default Room Tag family Type Parameters can be modified and changed, because they are not built-in. This makes the family fully customizable.
Type Properties
The default Room Tag family that Revit comes with, is called M_Room Tag.rfa and contains the following Type Parameters.
| Type parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Show Volume | To display the computed volume inside the tag. When the label says: “Not Computed”, then turn it on with the computation settings, read about it here. |
| Show Room Number | To display the designated room number inside the tag. |
| Show Area | To display the computed area of the room inside the tag. |
| Leader Arrowhead | To specify a type of arrowhead on the leader of the tag, you can read about arrowheads here. |
Instance Properties
| Instance parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Leader Line | To turn on or off the leader line that is connected to the tag. |
| Orientation | To specify the orientation of the room tag. The options to choose from are Horizontal, Vertical, or Model. |
| Angle | To specify the angle value of the room tag. The tag will be rotated counterclockwise. With this parameter, it is possible to bulk-rotate all your selected tags at once. |
The Leader Line of the Room Tag can be set to on or off within the Options Bar or Properties browser. After placing the tag it can be changed and customized by dragging the blue dots.
Before or after tagging a room, area, or space it is possible to specify the orientation of the tag. This can be set inside the Options Bar, or Properties browser. There are three options at your disposal:
- Horizontal: this setting is the default and displays the tag horizontally inside the view.
- Vertical: displays the tag vertically inside the view.
- Model: with this setting, the tag can be aligned with walls and boundary lines. Besides that, it is possible to rotate the tag to a valued angle.
To rotate the tag you can follow one of the three steps below.
Method 1
- Click on the Room Tag
- Inside the Properties browser select Orientation: Model > Press the Spacebar (multiple) to rotate the Room Tag automatically until it’s aligned to your needs.
Method 2
- Click on the Room Tag in Revit
- Go to the Modify tab and click on Rotate (RO) function
- Click to specify the start ray of rotation > Move the cursor and click to the end ray of rotation or fill in a value and Press Enter
Method 3
- Click on the Room Tag
- Inside the Properties Browser go to the Angle parameter and fill in a value.
Notice that with methods 2 and 3 the Orientation will automatically change to Model.
Place Room Tag
Now that is clear what kind of Type and Instance properties there are, let’s talk about how to place these Room Tags. There are various ways to place a Room Tag inside your views.
1. Tag on Placement
At first, Revit has a feature that is called: Tag on Placement, which will automatically place a tag while placing Rooms.
Keep in mind that this feature only tags the rooms in the view you are originally placing the rooms at. When duplicating views (without detailing) the tags will not be there. Also, other views will not have the Room Tags, which makes the tags independent.
- Open the Architecture tab
- Go to the Room & Area panel > Click on Room
- Inside the Modify tab click Tag on Placement
- Choose a type of Room Tag in the properties browser
- Place the Room and Room Tag at once by clicking inside the boundary
2. Tag Room
If you want to tag previously placed rooms in other views that are not tagged yet, you can use the Tag Room (RT) function in Revit. When using this function, the rooms will be highlighted inside the boundaries, so you can easily see what rooms you can tag up.
- Open the Architecture tab
- Go to the Room & Area panel > Click on Tag Room button
- Choose a type of Room Tag in the properties browser
- Hover over the defined rooms and click to set the Room Tag
After clicking the tag to the room you can see that the room information will appear inside the tag.
3. Tag all not Tagged Rooms
As you might have noticed, there is also an option to mass-tag all multiple categories that are not tagged yet. The function is called: Tag All Not Tagged. In this case, we are using this function for tagging the Rooms. It’s a great way to quickly tag all rooms inside a view at once and speed up your work. Make sure you have opened the view you want to tag and follow the steps below.
- Open the Architecture tab
- Go to the Room & Area panel > Click on the dropdown menu > Click on Tag All Not Tagged
An alternative way is to go to the Annotate tab > Tag panel > Tag All
- The Tag All Not Tagged window will open > Choose what object has to be tagged
- Choose the Category to be tagged, in this case, we use Room Tags
- Make a choice of Room Tag Type
- Set options such as a Leader or Tag Orientation if needed
- Click on Apply > All not tagged rooms will be tagged at once inside the view
Create a Custom Room Tag in Revit
To create custom Room Tags in Revit I recommend reading this article first: How to use Shared Parameters in Revit because Room Tag families are using Shared Parameters to show them inside your project.
Before we start creating a custom room tag, you can choose to start with an empty Metric Room Tag.rfa family, or take the premade M_Room Tag.rfa family that is inside the basic Revit templates. In this case, we start with an empty Room Tag family.
Room Tag with Built-in parameters
- Open the File tab
- Hover over New > Click on Family
- Select the Metric Room Tag family inside the Annotations folder > Click on Open
- Inside the family browser go to the Text panel > Click on Label > Click inside the workspace to open the Edit Label window
- Inside the Edit Label window choose a parameter and add it to the label > Press OK
Repeat steps 4 and 5 to place all the parameters you like.
Room Tag with Custom Shared Parameter
To add a custom Shared Parameter to your Room Tag family create a new Label and follow the steps below.
- Click on Add Parameter
- Click on Select… inside the parameter Properties window
- Choose a Shared Parameter > Click on OK
After you are done with placing the labels, you can click on the Load into Project and place the new room tag in your Revit model. Do not forget to add the Shared Parameter to your Project Parameters under the category: Rooms. Otherwise, you are not able to fill in and read out a value.
Wrapping Up
Room Tags in Revit can be used to display information about the different rooms, such as room numbers, names, computed areas, etc. The tags are categorized as annotations and will be used inside plan views or sections as 2D output.
Room tags have their own Type and Instance Properties that can be modified. Also, there are a couple of options on how you can place the tags inside your views. And last but not least, the Room Tags are fully customizable with built-in and shared parameters inside the family editor.
I hope you found this article useful, if you have any questions then just drop a comment below.
