The Building Coder

View and Data API Presentation Material

I presented the Autodesk View and Data API at the Basel.js meetup yesterday evening. Now I would like to share the material that I showed with you as well: Appetiser demos Introduction Slide deck and notes Curl shell scripts for authorisation, model upload and translation Demo script Resources Holiday and vacation This should provide a handy snapshot and point of reference for my colleagues as well :-) Appetiser Demos Before we even start talking about this, let's take a really... Read more →

Launching a Stand-alone Executable

A colleague of mine asked for some help implementing a Revit add-in to launch an external stand-alone Windows executable from the Revit user interface. Since this might be useful to others as well, here is a summary of our discussion and solution: Question: I am working on a windows application using GBS API to perform building parametric analysis (energy consumption in terms of comparison of window glazing materials, building orientation). Currently, I am exporting the gbxml file, saving it on... Read more →

Basel.js Meetup View and Data API Demo

I am busy right now answering Revit API cases as usual, and preparing my Basel.js meetup View and Data API presentation for tomorrow evening. One of the cases caused me to add yet another iteration to last Friday's note on how to empower yourself to search for an answer on the Internet. Also, before I get to the technical stuff, let me mention that I went climbing again last weekend, after a long break, and in spite of the rather... Read more →

Teaching a Man How To Fish and Schedule Creation

As you all know, we at ADN spend a significant amount of our time ensuring that API information is available and easy to find for all. In order to find something, though, you often need to invest at least a minimum amount of effort in searching. This can be practiced, of course, and I obtain a useful answer to almost every question I ever have on any subject whatsoever from a single Internet search. Here are two examples of performing... Read more →

Wishlist, Blogging, Smartgeometry, Dynamo and FormIt

Here is today's bunch of exciting topics: Revit API wishlist survey results Blogging tips and tricks Smartgeometry 2014 conference Dynamo enhancements Dynamo and FormIt win Best in Show at AIA 2014 Completely lacking hardcore API stuff, for a change. Revit API Wishlist Survey Results The results of the Revit API wishlist survey are in. Most participants: Are shipping a Revit add-in used in production Work in architectural design Automate repetitive tasks Ask for more access to 3D model elements and... Read more →

Upgrading Family Files Silently, Part 2

Last week, I provided some suggestions for upgrading family files silently, i.e. suppressing the warning messages displayed for every family file that requires updating when being loaded into a project, requiring a user confirmation for each one: Use a Revit file updater, e.g. the file upgrader on Autodesk labs provided by the ADN team. Handle the pop-up messages yourself using one of the techniques for handling dialogues and failures. Determine the Revit version used to save the family files before... Read more →

CreateLinkReference Sample Code

The Revit 2014 API introduced a whole bunch of linked RVT document interaction enhancements: Identifying links Obtaining linked documents Link creation Link load and unload Link path type Conversion of geometric references Room tag creation from linked rooms Picking in links They all provide important and useful functionality. Let's take a look at one of them in particular as well as another issue that just cropped up: Conversion of a geometric reference in a linked RVT model Triggering a dynamic... Read more →

The Road Ahead

Here is a recent presentation that I would like to share with you by Jim Quanci, Senior Director of the Autodesk Developer Network ADN, on current business aspects of interest to Autodesk, the industry in general, and obviously also us Revit API developers. To enjoy this best, please scroll through Jim's slide deck in parallel with the following text that I extracted from it: The Road Ahead – Prepare Yourself and Your Company Lets start with some important questions: Do... Read more →

Upgrading Family Files Silently

Here is a recent case that I like and can share with you just as it is: Question: My add-in loads a number of predefined families into the current document. However, if many of them were saved in a previous version of Revit, a popup message saying the family file is being upgraded is displayed for each one. Is there a way to load the families silently, so that the upgrade is still performed but the prompt is either not... 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 →

Moving an External Command Button within the Ribbon

I recently presented Frode Tørresdal's unofficial custom ribbon button implementation showing how you can add a custom button that Revit knows nothing about to the ribbon and hook it up with the Idling event to perform some action requiring access to the Revit API. It would be much simpler, safer and more effective if we could implement a normal official Revit external command instead and create a button anywhere we want in the Revit ribbon to drive that. Well, happily,... Read more →

IFC GUID Algorithm Update and Family Modification

Two short topics for today, an important little IFC GUID algorithm bug fix and some thoughts on detecting family modification. IFC GUID Algorithm in C# Update Håkon Clausen implemented a bug fix update and created a GitHub repository for the IFC GUID algorithm in C# that he originally published back in June 2010. Here are the details on the update and a direct link to his IfcGuid GitHub repository. Detecting Family Modification For ages, content creators and developers have been... Read more →

Referenced Files as a Service

Many presentations at the Autodesk Technical Summit were confidential, but not all. One important class on published functionality of general interest that we can share here is 1-3 Referenced Files as a Service – a new way to provide data to Revit by Diane Christoforo, Revit Senior Software Engineer. Abstract How did we transform Revit to reference data from services instead of files? When one Revit project can consist of many different files – CAD links, other linked Revit models,... Read more →