Annotation Offsets

[magic_man1]

I have done a fair amount of scouring the internet for a solution, to no avail, hopefully someone here can help me.

 

For example, I have a hosted electrical receptacle device with a loaded annotation (2D symbol for printed plan purposes). What I would like to do is add a horizontal annotation offset that allows me to move the symbol left OR right based upon a single properties window field.

 

As it sits right now, I have a reference line to one side of my device center line that is tied to a dimension parameter. Unfortunately Revit does not allow negative lengths, which means moving the annotation in the opposite direction is not possible.

 

I have even tried (without expecting it to work) locking my annotation to two different reference lines (a right and a left parameter), but this produces no change at all. I believe this is because it can't be locked to two parameters, with different values, at the same time.

 

One of the threads I read (http://www.revitcity.com/forums.php?action=viewthread&thread_id=15532) makes mention of this functionality, but does not go into detail on how to make this happen. Given that this thread was quite old, I did not ask this question on that forum yet, but I might.

 

Any help you can give is much appreciated.

 

FYI.. I am using Revit MEP 2011.

[Lee Roy]

Make two identical labels in the annotation family.

 

Assign visibility to a yes/no parameter. For instance, make your standard label on the left side, make a yes/no property that makes visible a copy of the label on the right side. Then a formula for the left-side label that turns it off when the yes/no returns a 'true' value.

 

Both labels can locate off the same length dimension (from centerline) property, just visibility is controlled by one yes/no parameter.

 

I'm at home now, but I can scratch up an annotation symbol when I get to work in morning, for a better idea of what I'm saying...or you can just use it and tweak it to your liking, if you want.

 

I hope I make sense. I know things work right in my head, but putting them into words hardly ever works right; I stumble a lot and leave things out.