The Building Coder

MacroManager, Materials and Getting Started

I am answering Revit API discussion forum threads and developer cases like crazy. Instead, as usual at this time of the year, I should be focussing and putting higher priority on the exciting upcoming events. I keep promising myself to do so and stop answering cases. Then I address just one more... Here are some of the upcoming events and recent Revit API issues – Events – Forge Accelerators, DevDay, RTC and AU – Accessing the MacroManager to Delete Document Macros – Getting Started and Changing the Colour of a Wall – Getting Started and Using the Visual Studio Revit Add-In Wizard Auto-Installer... Read more →

Forge and Autodesk University Call for Proposals

In the beginning of the week, I listed my things to do next, including the most important and exciting one, attending and presenting at the Forge DevCon developer conference in San Francisco June 15-16. My to-do list also includes the Forge accelerators being held in Barcelona May 16-20 and in San Francisco June 19-24. Now the calls for proposals have opened for both Autodesk University and the Forge accelerator in San Francisco... Read more →

External Services

It's been a while since I talked about External Services. The External Services framework was initially introduced and used sparingly in the Revit 2013 MEP API. In Revit 2014, the IFC export was moved to an external service and I presented the user-defined MEP calculation sample, later moved to GitHub. The framework for handling referenced file resources is also implemented as an external service. The motivation to continue this discussion now was given by Arnošt Löbel's class SD10752 on Revit External Services at Autodesk University 2015 in Las Vegas... Read more →

AU, IoC, Banks and Not To Delete While Iterating

Autodesk University is already nearing its end. It went by so fast! I attended a bunch of brilliant classes, took notes during Cyrille Fauvel's cloud and mobile expert panel, and successfully presented my own two, the Revit API expert panel and connecting desktop and cloud. That led to a completely different topic – SpatialElementGeometryCalculator bug fix – do not delete while iterating – SpatialElementGeometryCalculator migration to Revit 2016 – IoC, the Internet of Cows – Two nice Iain Banks Quarry quotes... Read more →

AU Keynote and Revit API Panel

The first day at Autodesk University was jam-packed full and exciting as always. My main highlights were – The Keynote session – The DevHack – Arnošt Löbel's class SD10752 on Revit External Services – The Revit API panel... Read more →

DevDay@AU and Using a Custom Exporter for 2D

Several developers recently asked how to export 2D shapes through a custom exporter. I recently discussed this issue with Arnošt Löbel and below present a summary and combination of several different conversation threads on the topic. First, let me mention that I arrived safe and sound at Autodesk University. I travelled on my birthday last week, so I was upgraded to fly in style – in a sledge – sleeping in the desert – DevDay@AU... Read more →

Connecting Desktop and Cloud at AU and DevDays

I am still working on my Autodesk University preparations, and, as always, lots of Revit API cases, both from ADN and Revit discussion forum threads. Let's look at the current state of affairs regarding AU, DevDays, and two of those threads – AU 2015 – Connecting Desktop and Cloud for AEC – Regeneration invalidates all geometry – Autodesk DevDays 2015 and Cloud Accelerator Week... Read more →

Flatten All Elements to DirectShape

I am still busy preparing my presentations for Autodesk University and making slow progress due to handling too many Revit API issues in between. And blogging, as well. Here is a new cool sample contributed by Nikolay Shulga, Senior Principal Engineer in the Revit development team. In his own words – Name: Flatten – Motivation: I wanted to see whether DirectShapes could be used to lock down a Revit design – remove most intelligence, make it read-only, perhaps improve performance – Spec: converts full Revit elements into DirectShapes that hold the same shape and have the same categories – Implementation: see below – Cool API aspects: copy element’s geometry and use it elsewhere – Cool ways to use it: lock down your project; make a copy of your element for presentation/export – How it can be enhanced: the sky is the limit... Read more →

Connecting Desktop and Cloud, Room Editor Update

Last week, I listed my three Revit Technology Conference classes on connecting the desktop and the cloud, The Building Coder chatroom, and published the full detailed handout of the lab on getting started with Revit macros. This week, I published the notes from the Revit API panel Q&A. So what do we have left to talk about? Oh yes, connecting the desktop and the cloud. That is actually the most interesting of the three, and also the topic of my Autodesk University session – Connecting the desktop and the cloud – Message and Takeaway – The 2D cloud-based round-trip room editor – FireRating in the cloud – The CompHound component tracker – Dotty animated 3D assembly instructions – Conclusion... Read more →

Autodesk DevDays 2015 and CAD Trends

I am back from my vacation in Andalusia. Time to get through the email backlog and back to productive work again. No, not at all, time to get ready for the Revit Technology Conference next week, all-too-quickly followed by Autodesk University and the Autodesk DevDays 2015. Oh dear, in a hurry again. Time flies! The DevDays format is significantly changed from previous years – Autodesk DevDays 2015 with Accelerators – Kean's hsbcad Wood Construction Customer Visit – CAD Trends... Read more →

SVG, In-Memory Family, RevitLookup BoundingBox

The cloud accelerator kept me busy last week, I am working hard on the CompHound project and documenting that work on The 3D Web Coder. Besides that, I submitted several enhancements to various Revit add-in projects. Here are some of my recent activities – CompHound component tracker project development – RevitLookup displays element bounding box – SvgExport for Revit 2016 – In-memory family creation and structural stiffener migration from 2012 to 2016... Read more →

FireRating in the Cloud and RevitLookup Update

I am currently working intensely at the Autodesk Cloud Accelerator in Prague. I spent a lot of my time so far enhancing the FireRating in the Cloud sample. – FireRating in the Cloud enhancements – RevitLookup update to handle null analytical model – Retrieving all model elements... Read more →

Connecting Desktop, Cloud, Lines and Grid Segments

The call for Autodesk University proposals closes today, May 26th, and I quickly submitted my second one before the deadline falls. I also have another contribution from Magson Leone to share with you, a little helper function for calculating (unbounded) grid line intersections: Autodesk University proposal – connect desktop and cloud Intersection of Unbounded Lines Autodesk University Proposal – Connect Desktop and Cloud As said, the AU 2015 call for proposals ends today, so now is your last chance to... Read more →

Autodesk University, Q1, ADN Labs and Wizard Update

I submitted my yearly Autodesk University proposal for the Revit API expert panel. Time for you to submit yours as well. The call for proposals closes in one week – the deadline is May 26th. Besides that, here are some other things I want to point out: Titbits from the Q1 report Autodesk University proposals ADN Revit API labs training material for Revit 2016 Updated Visual Studio add-in wizards for Revit 2016 Titbits from the Q1 Report Autodesk posted a... Read more →

From Hack to App – OBJ Mesh Import to DirectShape

I already took a couple of looks at the DirectShape element in the past: DirectShape Performance and Minimum Size DirectShape versus Families, Category and Texture A much deeper investigation was prompted by Eric Boehlke of truevis.com, knowledgeable in architecture and above all in photogrammetry. Eric visited the DevHack at Autodesk University in December 2014. Together, right there and then, we put together a prototype Revit add-in that reads an OBJ file and creates a DirectShape element from it. Eric continued... Read more →

Back from The Conference Tour and Wrapping Up

Things have been a bit hectic the last couple of weeks, just like every December, what with Autodesk University and the DevDays Conferences. I am still cleaning up various open issues and looking forward to settling down into Christmas real soon now. Here are a couple of items to share from the last few days: AU 2014 classes online Family type preview images InfraWorks 360 REST API Moscow DevDays, Meetups and Hackathon Milano JavaScript Meetup I Love 3D More Wrapping... Read more →

The Revit API Panel at Autodesk University

The Revit API expert panel session took place directly after the keynote session... Read more →

Autodesk University Keynotes

Here are some notes I took this morning at the keynote presentations by Jeff Kowalski, Carl Bass and Emily Pilloton: Jeff Kowalski Carl Bass Emily Pilloton Jeff and Carl expanded Jeff Kowalski Machine learning and generative design. Identify existing components and their relationships. Tell the computer not what to do and how to design, but give it the goal we want to achieve. Computationally grow structures. Two new kinds of technology: intelligent taxonomies: build new work on all the best... Read more →

DevDays Conference at Autodesk University

Today we held the DevDay Conference at AU. Exciting stuff. Before getting to that, let me add one little Revit API exploration that I performed much later in the day, getting closer to midnight, after the ADN party; prompted by my colleague Katsuaki Takamizawa in Japan, I migrated the old Revit 2012 GeometryPartsAnalyzer add-in analysing detailed part layer geometry by splitting selected walls into parts in a temporary transaction using PartUtils.CreateParts to Revit 2015. GeometryPartsAnalyzer retrieving detailed wall layer geometry... Read more →

The DevDays 2014 Conferences Have Started

Our tour of DevDays 2014 developer conferences in 16 cities around the world from November through January has started. Our indefatigable leader Jim Quanci is already on the road, this time accompanied by Philippe Leefsma, attending all of the venues world-wide. I will 'just' be attending the DevDay conference at Autodesk University in Las Vegas and all the Western European venues: Paris, London, Gothenburg, Munich and Milano. Here is Daniel Du presenting the zero client WebGL based Autodesk View and... Read more →

Autodesk Open Source All Over – Germany and Japan

Here are some notes on Autodesk Open Source involvement from AU Germany, the Japan hackathon, and two other nice topics for today: Autodesk University Germany Japanese View and Data API hackathon projects CAD Term Translation Cool presentation gimmick Autodesk University Germany In the keynote session, Carl Bass introduced Spark, Autodesk's new 3D printer and total commitment to open source: Connected – Spark connects digital information to 3D printers in a new and streamlined way, making it easier to visualize and... Read more →

Worksharing and Duplicating Element Geometry

I had two more interesting email conversations on Revit API questions, on add-ins in a worksharing environment and duplicating element geometry for detailing and fabrication. Actually, both of these topics have been discussed in the past, so a lot of the work I did was to dig out the existing material again to make these developer partners happy. Today I therefore have an opportunity to talk about the Revit API and nothing but the Revit API again for a change,... Read more →

Autodesk View and Data API Notes and Samples

Here is a summary of my notes from three presentations on the Autodesk View and Data API given by Cyrille Fauvel and Philippe Leefsma, in the two introductory workshops at HackZurich on Friday evening, October 10 and at HackaBxl in Brussels on October 17. Philippe also presented a very nice and absolutely minimal basic viewer sample in node.js demonstrating how to implement a private web service to obtain the authorisation token without exposing your key and secret in your JavaScript... Read more →

ADVA Webinar, Free Student Software and AU

Here are pointers to some relevant non-API news items of interest: Free webinar introducing the new Autodesk View and Data API Free Autodesk software for all students everywhere AU class enrolment Free Webinar – Introducing the new Autodesk View and Data API We already held a webinar on the new Autodesk View and Data API in September. Here are the old description and full details of that, and, for the first time, we proudly present the detailed notes of the... Read more →

Events, Again, and Creating an Extrusion Roof

Jon and Scott Wilson discussed some issues creating extrusion roofs on arbitrary planes in the Revit API discussion forum in the past couple of days. One neat spin-off is a simple little external command that shows the basic use of the NewExtrusionRoof method, so I took the opportunity of adding that to The Building Coder samples. Before getting to the details of that, here is a little update on the upcoming events: October hackathons and AU Germany Autodesk University in... Read more →

DevDay, Meetup and Hackathon Event Calendar

Here is a list of upcoming events, most of which I will be involved in in one way or another: DevDays 2014 DevDay & DevHack in Las Vegas Meetups and Hackathons DevDays 2014 Here is the list of cities and dates where our DevDays events 2014 will be held around the world later this year. These events are accessible to ADN members. If you are not an ADN member and still would be interested in learning more about application development... Read more →

Autodesk View and Data API

I was away for a few days last week in the beautiful Italian speaking southern part of Switzerland. Back again, as usual, I am confronted with a host of Revit API issues. The most important event last week for me by far, though, was the release of the Autodesk View and Data API. Some of my Autodesk University related tasks and upcoming meetup events are also related to that: Autodesk View and Data API View and Data API presentations Autodesk... Read more →

RevitLookup for UR1, ADN, AEC and AU News

Here are some of the non-confidential items from the new confidential April 17 Autodesk Developer News newsletter, plus one or two additional items of interest from myself and elsewhere: AEC Technology Symposium Migrate Autodesk Exchange Apps and publish 2015 versions Proposals for Autodesk University 2014 Proposals for Autodesk University Germany 2014 Autodesk ReCap Connect Partnership Program RevitLookup for Revit 2015 UR1 Happy Easter! AEC Technology Symposium I already pointed out the upcoming AEC Technology Symposium in New York City on... Read more →

Lots of Clouds

Let me recapitulate my cloud related explorations for my simplified 2D BIM editor, since I will be discussing it again at a web-based BIM workshop later this week. Before getting to that, though, talking about cloud related topics reminds me of some others of completely different nature that are near and dear to me: Clouds in La Palma Cloud Atlas Cloud-based simplified BIM editor Autodesk cloud service overview Updated RevitLookup on GitHub Above, in and under the Clouds of la... Read more →

Calculating a Rolling Offset Between Two Pipes

Here is a nice little MEP related external command that I implemented to calculate a rolling offset for pipes at the CASE BIM Hackathon at AU, prompted by a suggestion by Harry Mattison and Matthew Nelson. It calculates the rolling offset between two selected pipes and generates a model line in the Revit model to display the result. In brief, a rolling offset is an angled pipe segment that connects two pipes with each other. For instance, imagine a situation... Read more →

Sustainably Chugging Along

I continue chugging along here, mainly just answering cases. January and February tend to be peaceful for me after the extreme travelling and conferencing in December. I will also be reducing my overdue vacation time in the next couple of months, so expect another break or two in the flow. Here are today's topics I find interesting or have been looking into myself: Autodesk corporate sustainability AU 2013 classes available on demand AllViews Revit SDK sample enhancement Revit API methods... Read more →

Starting to Clean Up For the Break

I am starting to clear up some open issues before the break. Here are a few that I can handle right here and now: Autodesk University classes ready for viewing and download Building Performance Analysis update Daylighting Analysis Tool for Revit update I will obviously not be able to magically transform the entire backlog of interesting topics I still wish to share and discuss. Still, I am continuously learning to be active and still take things easy, do what I... Read more →

AU Day 3, ReCap & Cloud-based Round-trip Model Editing

When you get to read this, I will be sitting in a plane at 30'000 feet over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean... or somewhere over Greenland, whatever. Thursday was the third and last day of Autodesk University. I went out for a quick beer with some of my ex-Autodesk-colleagues from decades ago on Wednesday evening, and a very nice time was had by all. It turned out to be not quite so quick, however, and not just one beer,... Read more →

AU Day 2, Worksharing and Revit 2014 API Roundtables

Here is my report on Wednesday at Autodesk University, following the DevDay pre-event conference on Monday and the first real day at AU on Tuesday. These are my main activities of the day in chronological order, plus pointers to a fantastic class or two that I missed and want to highlight anyway: Virtually human – modelling the human body using BIM Design to fabrication Revit add-ins that cooperate with worksharing Worksharing roundtable Revit API roundtable Virtually human – modelling the... Read more →

AU Day 1, Revit 2014 API Class and Bounding Box Rotation

Tuesday was the first real day at AU after the DevDay pre-event conference yesterday. Here are my main activities of the day in chronological order: Advanced Revit 2014 API features and samples AU Keynote by Jeff and Carl DevLab and bounding box rotation Adding a marker at the Revit project origin Download Advanced Revit 2014 API Features and Samples I presented my first class DV2010 – Advanced Revit 2014 API Features and Samples right away starting at the very first... Read more →

DevDay@au Chronicle Estorage View Depth Sound of Noise

Monday was the first day at Autodesk University in Las Vegas, dedicated to the forward-looking confidential DevDays conference with the main focus on the rEvolution – where desktop meets the cloud. In spite of the confidential nature of the information discussed, I am sure I can share an at least an outline of the content here in public with you. I'll also touch on a couple of other interesting topics that cropped up on the past few days, such as... Read more →

Arrival at AU and The Story of Stuff

I arrived safe and sound at AU. Last week was pretty hectic with preparations for both AU and DevDays. The weekend was also pretty full. Unlike previous years, I did not leave Europe until the last possible moment, so no visit to the desert for me this time around. The reason was my friend Sonja, who invited 100 friends to a half-day 'Be the Change' or Awakening the Dreamer Symposium on Saturday afternoon along the lines of The Pachamama Alliance.... Read more →

RoomEditorApp Idling and Benchmarking Timer

I solved my two RoomEditorApp Idling issues! They were especially worrying due to the fact that I am planning to present this application in my Autodesk university class DV1736 on Cloud-Based, Real-Time, Round-Trip, 2D Revit Model Editing on Any Mobile Device. By the way, you should now enrol in the AU classes you are interested in – unless you already did :-) Go to the AU class catalogue, sign in, click 'View All Classes', use the filters or keyword search... Read more →

RoomEditorApp for Revit 2014 on GitHub

I discussed my Revit add-in for my cloud-based, real-time, round-trip, 2D Revit model editing application on any mobile device in depth last spring, with the last update on its implementation status published back in May. Even at that time, since I was mainly concentrating on the exciting cloud aspects of the application, I had added quite a bit of functionality to the Revit add-in that I never got around to documenting, such as External application Automatic immediate BIM update from... Read more →

Back and Preparing for AU and DevDays Conferences

I returned from my nine-day break and am fully invigorated and happily back with the Revit API. Besides handling questions from developers, I also need to deal with the upcoming yearly conference preparations. On one hand, we have Autodesk University, for which registration opened and I need to prepare my three classes. As you know, AU is completely open and public, based on the released Autodesk products, and addresses both end users and developers. The Autodesk Developer Network ADN, supporting... Read more →

Registration Open for Autodesk University 2013

Registration is now open for Autodesk University 2013. It is easier this year, because you use your Autodesk account (Autodesk ID). If you don’t have one, you can easily create it during registration. The AU website has been updated to help you find all of the preconference events scheduled for Monday, the classes and hands-on labs that might interest you, and other activities taking place during the conference. All industry specific activities and class highlights are listed on focused pages... Read more →

What I Do, Wall Layers and Open Transactions

One of my tasks today and tonight will be a minimal little contribution to an in... Read more →

Reload Add-in for Debug Without Restart

We explored and learned a lot of interesting areas during the DevLab at AU on Tuesday last week. One recurring theme is how to effectively debug an add-in without having to restart Revit and reload the entire model each time a change is made to the source code. A long, long time back, right in the beginning of the Revit .NET API, it was briefly possible to use the Visual Studio Edit and Continue feature for that. That was obviously... Read more →

Extra Transaction or Regeneration Required

Whenever your add-in modifies the model in any way and you wish to query the Revit database, you need to pay careful attention to ensure that you do not retrieve stale or invalid data. If anything unexpected whatsoever happens, one of the first things to consider is the possible need for a document regeneration or additional separate transactions between steps. These kinds of issues arise frequently. I discussed adding an extra transaction to modify beam parameters and add openings to... Read more →

AU Classes on Python, UI, Server and Framework APIs

Thursday was another very full and fruitful day at AU. I gave my third and last class, the most exciting one in my eyes, on some UI and integration aspects. I was unable to attend Iffat May's class introducing Python and using it in Revit and Vasari via RevitPythonShell, but I love her material so much I am including it anyway. Adam Nagy presented a class addressing cloud and mobile development and the Revit Server API. Finally, Arnošt Löbel provided... Read more →

AU Classes on the View, MEP and Link APIs

Wednesday was my first normal and full AU day, after completing the developer conference and DevLab activities. I was able to attend two interesting classes held by Revit API developers Steven Mycynek and Arnošt Löbel, and present my own Revit MEP API one. Here they are in chronological order: CP3133 Using the Revit Schedule and View APIs by Steven Mycynek CP4108 Revit MEP Programming: All Systems Go by Jeremy Tammik CP3455 Managing Revit Links with the Revit API by Arnošt... Read more →

The Champions Roundtable at AU

Tuesday we held a DevLab at AU successfully exploring and resolving a bunch of interesting issues. I hope to get around to documenting and sharing some of them soon, before being overwhelmed by other new exciting stuff. The most pressing priority first, though: sharing the notes from the Revit API roundtable session. My first session at AU was a very pleasant, comfortable and fun one, being a roundtable providing a free-for-all exchange of questions, views and feedback between the audience... Read more →

Grand Canyon and AU Arrival

I always try to arrive early in Las Vegas to acclimatise and recover from jetlag before the conferences begin. I bring my sleeping bag and sleep in the desert. Sleeping in the cold dry winter desert under starlight, watching the sunset, the slow progress of the moon across the sky, the stars rotating over me, is the best acclimatisation I can imagine. I was blessed with some shooting stars during the last night as well. In previous years, I went... Read more →

Moving to the Mac

I have been quiet for a whole week now, busy setting up my Mac, learning new functionality, techniques, keyboard shortcuts, editors, you name it. Under Windows, I was already using quite a number of batch files and command line Unix-style tools, so I am very happy to have a real Unix shell to play with now. On the other hand, each batch file needs some fixes applied to convert it to a shell script, and every keystroke needs some additional... Read more →

The Temporary Transaction Trick for Gross Slab Data

Last week I provided an updated version of the CmdSlabBoundary external command to determine a floor slab boundary. Here is a follow-up to that issue: Question: The solution provided to retrieve the slab boundary works fine for me if no openings are cut out. I have a situation where my slabs are cut by openings, however, and I need to retrieve the original uncut gross slab boundary. Here is an example with two slabs A and B and an opening... Read more →