Drawing rules - Revamp needed?

Hi All,

I'd like to know other user's thoughts and experience with the different "Drawing rules" (Architectural, Structural and Mechanical).

Let me start out with expressing that such technology - if working properly - can make a huge difference when creating drawings from a model. I think this is one of the major parts that sets a BIM application (OBD) apart from a CAD software (MS). Using the DATA behind the objects to place labels, resymbolize geometry, ...

However my experiences with OBD drawing rules have not been really great, so far. For starters I keep getting confused about the different ways Architectural, Structural and Mechanical rules work. I'd say that Architectural rules only add information (cell with text/properties) to the drawing while Structural and Mechanical rules can also alter the way an object is shown (footprint resymbolization, single line resymbolization, ...) besides adding labels to the objects (but in a different way than the architectural rules do).

I was quite surprised only last week to see that structural rules - contrary to architectural and mechanical - cannot be placed/filtered based on the DG properties. Architectural rules on the other hand ONLY work based on DG properties and mechanical rules can be added based on Family/Part.

Then there is the entire subject of label formats. For some rules (eg. Length in the Mechanical rules) the units can be set-up. For other (numeric) labels this is not possible. When I asked support abou the "Format" box and if this allows the user to change the format somehow, they couldn't answer. However when I do add a "Custom" label (eg. Length) I can change the format like this:

Where the "#" at the end means single unit precision. "#.##" would result in two decimals etc.

For Architectural rules (and it's annotation cells) the method is something entirely different, with those options for a numerical value:

Where "MU: Label SU: Label" seems to give me twice the value I need. I want simply "MU: Label". But I have no idea how the "Custom" format works and I couldn't find it here on the forum.

In short, I see a lot of potential: Resymbolizing of elements (why not also architectural elements?) with cells or single/double line, adding labels, using cell labels, ... But the way it works is so confusing and I always seem to want to do something that's just not possible.

I don't see the whole reason to split it up in Architectural, Structural and Mechanical this way. Why not provide a single tool that can use and combine all of those options, limited only by the type of element? It makes sense of course that a door or window cannot be resymbolised with "Single line" because it's not a linear element. 

How are other users using these tools? Are you using them at all? If not, is there some other technology (maybe from recent MS updates) that can do the things I'm looking for?