The Building Coder

Developer Center and SDK Update

I enjoyed the first really hot weekend this spring. It was warming up seriously last week in Munich, and now it feels as if we were suddenly catapulted from a hesitant spring straight into summertime. I also took some time to explore the developer centre and Revit 2013 SDK update, though. The Revit Developer Center has been updated to a new layout. The API and the available training material have grown so fast and voluminous that the old layout was... Read more →

Xtra ADN Revit 2013 API Training Labs

I finished the Munich Revit API training yesterday and celebrated with a picnic and a snooze in the sunshine on the on the bank of the river Isar followed by a wave with Maja Mühlbauer in the evening. Today I am heading back home again. Before leaving, let me post the updated ADN Revit API Training material that I used. Lab Projects Most of it is a copy of the migration of the official ADN Revit 2012 API Labs provided... Read more →

Munich API Training

Today is the second day of the Munich Revit API training, with the following participants and a nice mix of interests in formwork and scaffolding, infrastructure, concrete walls and bridges, facade, glass, roof structures, stadiums, parameteric design using Grasshopper and Rhino, generative components, connecting CAD and FEM, bridge engineering in steel and concrete, elevator software and freelance architect and civil engineering consultancy: Anis Naroura Thomas Jarzyna Kai Timmermann Simon Hooper, Bestech Systems Ltd. Andre Ihde, PhD TU Munich Dirk Cleff,... Read more →

Adding a Category to a Shared Parameter Binding

Today is the first day of the Munich Revit API training. While I am getting ready for that, and as a break from the new-fangled 2013 related stuff, here is an important question and and answer with a useful utility method by Miroslav Schonauer for handling shared parameters: Question: I am using VB.NET to iterate through a set of families within a project, add shared parameters to types, and defining the category to apply the parameter to the family using... Read more →

Using Using Automagically Disposes and Rolls Back

I talked about scoping and disposing of transactions last week, and received prompt and interesting comments from two competent and experienced Revit add-in developers, Danny Polkinhorn and Guy Robinson (your name has to end in 'y' to be really good – tongue in cheek). Danny says: Should we also use Try...Catch blocks as well? using( Transaction trans = new Transaction( doc ) ) { try { trans.Start(); //code here trans.Commit(); } catch( Exception ex ) { trans.RollBack(); //exception code here... Read more →

Failure Rollback

I am in full blast preparing and updating material for the Revit API training in Munich starting the day after tomorrow, as well as the upcoming AEC DevCamp conference and another event that I have not even mentioned here yet: Revit 2013 API Webcast We will be holding a webcast on the Revit 2013 API on May 17, Ascension Day (register). A list of all the ADN DevTech training opportunities is provided by the Training Course Schedule, entering "Revit API"... Read more →

Migrate Building Coder Samples to Revit 2013

I migrated The Building Coder samples to Revit 2013. Revit Onebox Before diving into that, however, a short note on Revit Onebox. Here is a comparison matrix of the features provided by the different flavours, all of which are available in the Onebox version. There is even a short 1.5 minute youtube video on the topic. Question: I would like to install the Revit 2013 Onebox product which contains Revit Architecture, Structure and MEP as one product. Where can I... Read more →

Scope and Dispose of Transactions

Arnošt Löbel added an important comment on the sample code that I published for refreshing a view: It is for the best if all transaction objects are always properly scoped, e.g. within a C# 'using' block. This includes transactions, sub-transactions, transaction groups, and other scope-like objects such as StairsEditScope. Not doing so can yield some pretty weird situations when exceptions come into play. In your example, proper scoping can be implemented by adding 'using' statements, which automatically dispose of the... Read more →

Add-In Wizard for Revit 2013

I have been using an updated version of my Visual Studio Revit C# add-in wizard for Revit 2013 for a while and thought you might find it useful as well. It now generates a bit more boiler-plate code up front which can be simply deleted if not needed: UIApplication uiapp = commandData.Application; UIDocument uidoc = uiapp.ActiveUIDocument; Application app = uiapp.Application; Document doc = uidoc.Document; // Access current selection Selection sel = uidoc.Selection; // Retrieve elements from database FilteredElementCollector col =... Read more →

Drag and Drop API

We already looked at what can be done using drag and drop in Revit 2012. At that point, an external Windows application could be used to initiate a standard Revit drag and drop sequence, but we had no control over Revit's behaviour on receiving the dropped files. This has changed in the Revit 2013 API, which provides a drag and drop API as part of the add-in integration features and includes the UIAPI sample in the Revit SDK to demonstrate... Read more →

Revit 2013 Product GUIDs and GUID Algorithm

Every year anew, people ask for the Revit product GUIDs used to identify the Revit installation and stored in the Windows registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall There are different keys for each of the three Revit flavours, plus the Revit 2013 one-box solution, and for 32 and 64 bit operating systems. We discussed this topic in the past for Revit 2010 and previous versions, Revit 2011 and Revit 2012, when the 'perpetual GUID algorithm' was introduced. The install path is much less... Read more →

DevCamp and Refresh Display for a Kinetic Facade

Welcome back from the Easter break, if you had one. We are pretty busy right now preparing for our next conference, the DevCamps. Ah yes, and before that I have to get ready for the Revit API Training in Munich coming up soon. AEC DevCamp and DevLab – Join us at Camp this Summer! The bi-annual Autodesk AEC DevCamp is taking place near Boston on June 6-7. DevCamps are held every other year where software developers like you can learn... Read more →

GetElement method and Get Element Type

In the far distant past, the Revit API boasted a property on the Element class that gave direct access to the element type. It was declared obsolete, and a new way to access the element type had to be implemented, as we discussed two years back. This can still raise an issue even today: Question: I have an old plug-in that I am trying to update to Revit 2013. The code uses a property (element.ObjectType) that has been made obsolete... Read more →

Migrating VSTA Macros to SharpDevelop

As you probably noticed, we held a very successful and exciting Revit API training course and DevLab recently in Melbourne. More face-to-face hands-on trainings are planned, as you can see from the ADN Training Course Schedule, entering "Revit API" as the course name. Revit API Hands-On Training in Munich The next scheduled class that I will be conducting is taking place in Munich, Germany, on April 25-26 (register). If you are interested in participating in a class, you will benefit... Read more →

Idling Enhancements and External Events

Revit 2013 has been released, and I presented an overview of the Revit 2013 API and the new SDK samples last week. One of the areas of enhancement is the Idling event and interaction with modeless dialogues, which also was the subject of Arnošt Löbel's Autodesk University 2011 class CP5381 on asynchronous interactions and managing modeless UI. As I mentioned, the enhancements and new functionality are demonstrated by the new ModelessForm_ExternalEvent and ModelessForm_IdlingEvent SDK samples. Here is an overview of... Read more →