Also note that, when placing the intermediary family into the Lighting Fixture family, you canвЂ™t see the annotation. With that done, now the family does what we want when placed in a project. The only key requirement for the intermediary family (aside from being face-based), is that it needs to be set as shared for the symbol to display in the project. We will route around this limitation by first inserting the annotation family into another face-based family, and using this intermediary face-based family to place the annotation the way we want into the final Lighting Fixture. Unfortunately, Revit only allows for placing the nested symbol as shown on the left. And to do that, we need the nested annotation to be placed within the Lighting Fixture family as shown on the right in the image below. In order to see the symbol in plan view, the nested annotation needs to be placed in a plane perpendicular to the plan view when the host family (Lighting Fixture) is placed in a project. It allows the exit sign family shown above вЂ“ faced-based light fixture вЂ“ to display a symbol when viewed in plan. The method described next works around the limitation of not having the Maintain Annotation Orientation in some Revit family categories. You could switch from Lighting Fixtures to Lighting Devices, for example, but we then lose access to other category specific features that we might require. While you could, for example, create a detail item to serve as the annotation when the family is placed on a wall, you would lose the automatic scaling afforded by a symbol created as a generic annotation.ДЄlternatively, you could change the Revit category in order to display the Maintain Annotation Orientation option. The annotation will still display in plan view if we place the Lighting Fixture on a ceiling, but thatвЂ™s not what we are after here. The result is that when placed onto a wall, the annotation fails to display in plan view. As such, there is no annotation orientation option. The second family is set as a Lighting Fixture. The annotation then displays without a problem in plan view when the family is placed onto a wall. The first family is set as a Lighting Device and has the option Maintain Annotation Orientation checked. The images below show the two annotations nested within two families.

In the latter categories, a nested annotation will display in a projectвЂ™s plan view only if the family is placed on a horizontal plane, like a ceiling. In other family categories, like Generic Models, Lighting Fixtures or Specialty Equipment, that same option isnвЂ™t available. Lighting Devices, Fire Alarm Devices and Electrical Fixtures are examples of family categories that have the Maintain Annotation Orientation option. When checked, this option allows the nested annotation to rotate so that it shows both ways вЂ“ when the family is placed vertically or horizontally, e.g. In certain family categories, a face-based family will display the option Maintain Annotation Orientation. The issue lies within the chosen Revit family category. A quick search in Google will show that this is an old wish. It seems to be something that people would like to be able to do, yet, apparently, cannot in Revit. If you have a face-based lighting fixture family with a nested annotation, you will see the annotation in a projectвЂ™s plan view when you place the lighting fixture in a ceiling, but not if you place it onto a wall. But as it turns out, it was possible after all. Had I вЂњknown,вЂќ I might not have even tried.

Little did I know that it couldnвЂ™t be done. вЂњNo problem,вЂќ I thought, and happily set out to work on it.

Back in 2010 I was asked to create a face-based lighting fixture that, when placed on a wall, would display a symbol in plan view.

Lightwrite ignore symbols