The Building Coder

Revit 2013 API Webcast Recording

The recording of the Revit 2013 API webcast that we held on May 17 is now available from the ADN DevTech Webcast Recordings Archive, entering "Revit API" as the course topic, or directly from here. The 34 MB zip file includes: ReadMe.txt Slide deck Recording Code Samples The webcast addresses two main areas: an introduction to Revit programming for beginners, including a quick walkthrough of basic concepts, and a discussion of some of the new functionality provided by the Revit... Read more →

Family Instance Element Coordinate System

I spent last weekend in Sweden for my 35 year school anniversary, having graduated from the German school in Stockholm in May 1977. The day after our reunion I visited a friend's summer house on the little lake Kvarnsjön in Huddinge: Back to the Revit API, after having taken a second look at connector orientation, here is another MEP coordinate system topic that can bear updating and coincidentally also has a connection to Scandinavia, since Progman Oy and Olli are... Read more →

Connector Orientation

Today is the Pentecost or Whit Monday holiday in Neuchâtel, and I am in full tilt preparing for the AEC DevCamp in Waltham next week. I will be presenting sessions on the new Revit 2013 UI API features, the Revit MEP API, and extensible storage. I am of course looking forward much more to the many exciting other presentations by my colleagues in the ADN DevTech AEC team and especially by members of the Revit development team, directly from the... Read more →

Pipe Insulation and Insulation Material

I recently looked at the Revit MEP 2013 API and migrated the AdnRme sample to it. To follow up on that, here is an unexpectedly hard Revit MEP 2013 question by Victor Chekalin, who recently created the nice DataStorage sample. The new question leads to some tricky and interesting aspects on how to access data or database elements through the Revit API that are not immediately accessible via the expected route or "normal" channels. Where there's a will, there's a... Read more →

Change Section View Type and Hide Cut Line

Leo raised a couple of questions on section view creation in his comment which Rudolf Honke very kindly answers thus: 1. Hide view: To hide the cutting line in a plan view, you can use this parameter: viewSection.get_Parameter( BuiltInParameter .SECTION_COARSER_SCALE_PULLDOWN_METRIC ) .Set( 1 ); 2. Generate section view: In Revit 2013, you can use the static method public static ViewSection CreateSection( Document document, ElementId viewFamilyTypeId, BoundingBoxXYZ sectionBox ) In Revit 2012, you can use document.Create.NewViewSection( BoundingBoxXYZ ); 3. Change the... Read more →

Family Usage Filtered Element Collector Performance

Since all access to the Revit database and its elements takes place through the filtered element collectors, it is extremely important to make efficient use of them. We have not looked at that topic for quite a while now. Here is an issue that recently cropped up which illustrates some interesting points. I presented a filtered element sample for creating an XML family usage report which iterates over all the loaded families and launches a new filter for each of... Read more →

Revit and Navisworks API Wishlist Surveys

This year's Revit and Navisworks API wishlist surveys are now open, as Mikako Harada pointed out on the AEC DevBlog. Here are the direct links to them: Revit API wishlist survey Navisworks API wishlist survey The API wishlist survey with your feedback on your API needs has a strong influence on the direction of the future API. so please take the time to fill it out. Your feedback will not fall on deaf ears. It will take less than five... Read more →

Prompt User to Avoid Modeless Interaction

Once again on the topic of asynchronous interaction with Revit, which is not supported by the Revit API, and often worked around using the Idling and external events... As I recently pointed out, no Revit API methods at all can be called outside a valid Revit API context, not even the new DoDragDrop method or Application.IsQuiescent property. I already presented two convincing examples in the past of how you could work around a lack of direct API access by interacting... Read more →

Revit API Webcast Tomorrow

Here is a short final reminder about the Revit API webcast taking place tomorrow, 25 hours from now. As I mentioned, we are holding it on Thursday, May 17, Ascension Day (register). You can find it together with all the other ADN DevTech training opportunities in the Training Course Schedule, entering "Revit API" as the course topic. It will be divided into two parts of roughly equal length, presented by Balaji and me. Balaji is taking care of the first... Read more →

Selecting a Face in a Linked File

Here is a chance to look at an interesting method that we never discussed yet, ConvertToStableRepresentation, and the hidden information that it provides access to. It does what it says, converting a Reference to a stable string representation. Reference and Stable Representation A reference provides a possibility to identify a piece of geometry, even though geometry is transient, not persistent, memory only, generated on the fly. Still, we sometimes need to identify a piece of it and remember which piece... Read more →

DevBlog, DevCamp, Element and Project Wide Data

Every once in a while, I like to start the week with a bang, so here goes, with a risk of information overload on the following topics: ADN AEC DevBlog Autodesk AEC DevCamp Goodbye Kailash Kute Project Wide Data Storage DataStorage Element Simple DataStorage Sample Identifying DataStorage Elements ADN AEC DevBlog I bet you are not half as confused as we always are internally about DevDays, DevLabs, DevNotes, and last but not least DevCamps. I recently mentioned that we are... Read more →

Create a Pipe Cap

Happily mixing the different Revit versions, let me follow up my work on the Revit MEP 2013 API and the updated AdnRme sample by another MEP related topic. Before getting to that, though, here is a brief heads-up for a new technology preview on Autodesk Labs: BIM Coordinator The effective organization of project data in shared or related coordinates is essential to effective collaboration across disciplines and good quality project information. BIM Coordinator for AutoCAD Civil 3D and Revit is... Read more →

The ADN MEP Sample AdnRme for Revit MEP 2013

Yesterday I discussed the Revit 2013 MEP API and the external services framework. In preparation for my Revit MEP API presentation at the upcoming AEC DevCamp in Boston in June, I also migrated the ADN MEP API sample AdnRme to Revit MEP 2013. The initial flat migration was extremely straightforward with zero code changes required. I obviously had to change the Revit API assembly references, which forces an update of the .NET framework version to 4.0. After bumping the framework... Read more →

The Revit 2013 MEP API and External Services

I mentioned a few MEP-specific enhancements in the Revit 2013 API. To recap, the enhancements include: Access to routing preferences, selection of pipe sizes, materials, fitting types, and the RoutingPreferenceTools SDK sample demonstrating its use Pipe and duct friction factors MEPSection base class for duct and pipe sections Viscosity and density at specified temperatures, new FluidType and enhanced FluidTemperature classes Read and write access to panel schedule spare circuit values Access to localized user-visible display strings for enumeration values via... Read more →

The Schedule API and Access to Schedule Data

Somehow I seem to be spending the vast majority of my time just shovelling information back and forth, preparing for conferences and trainings and answering questions. It is always a great pleasure for me to actually get in a teeny weenie bit of programming in between, so I am happy that I managed to find time to create the new little sample application described below. One of the many exciting enhancements in the Revit 2013 API is the new Schedule... Read more →

Read-only and Automatic Transaction Modes

We have been discussing transactions and their disposal quite a bit recently, with lots of interesting input from Guy Robinson and Arnošt Löbel. They just submitted comments on EditFamily requiring a non-modifiable document which highlight another issue in this area worthwhile promoting to a post of its own to ensure that you take notice: Guy says: ... maybe it's time to recommend using the Manual transaction mode only and the removal of Automatic mode. This would pave the way for... Read more →

DevDays Online on What's New in Revit 2013

A recording of the "What's New in the Revit 2013 API" presentation from the DevDays conferences that we presented on the world-wide tour during the winter months is now live, both by selecting "DevDaysOnline-Revit2013API" in the public ADN webcast recording archive (download recording) and on the members-only ADN web site. The 88 MB download contains the following: Recording – MP4 and supporting files (73,682,898 bytes) Presentation – DevDays Online - Revit 2013_Whats New.pptx (4,915,103 bytes) Sample code ReadMe.txt RoutingPreferenceAPI ScheduleAPI... Read more →

Edit Family Requires No Transaction

I recently received a note from Matt Mason pointing out that the behaviour of the EditFamily method changed in Revit 2013, and a suggestion to highlight this fact. The suggestion is very valid, since his note was quickly followed up by a matching question by Woong Ki Sung on reloading a family, who ran into the very same issue: Question: I am testing some code to edit family types in Revit 2013, and I have a transaction problem even though... Read more →