The Building Coder

Re-Researching Lighting Family Instance Placement

The placement of family instances can sometimes be a tricky topic in the Revit API. Programmatically, this is always achieved using the NewFamilyInstance method. However, this method provides 13 different overloads to choose from, which can be a non-trivial task: NewFamilyInstance(Face, Line, FamilySymbol) – Inserts a new instance of a family onto a face of an existing element, using a line on that face for its position, and a type/symbol. NewFamilyInstance(Line, FamilySymbol, View) – Add a line based detail family... Read more →

First Cloud Accelerator Success – Second Coming Up

The first Autodesk Cloud Accelerator completed last week with great success. As a result, the Autodesk Cloud Accelerator v2 has already been announced, in quick succession, on June 1-12, 2015. What is this cloud accelerator thing? Simply put, a two-week intensive workshop for creative developers, hosted by Autodesk in San Francisco, to expand your business in the cloud. Read more about it on the web site and in my announcement of the first Autodesk Cloud Accelerator two months ago. Apply... Read more →

Split Personality and Revit API Class Diagram

Developers have been requesting a Revit API class diagram for years. There used to be one back in the dawn of time, up until the Revit 2010 API. Now the question came up again with a happy resolution in the Revit API discussion forum thread on the 2014 Revit object model. Before I get to that, I have an important personal announcement to make: The 3D Web Coder Commenced, Embarked, Blasted Off and Away In an attempt to clarify the... Read more →

IFCExportUtils Determine Door and Window Area

Last week we discussed the SpatialElementGeometryCalculator sample for calculating gross and net wall areas that in turn led to the discovery of the FindInserts method to retrieve all openings in a wall. Both of these were prompted by the Revit API discussion forum thread on door/window areas raised by Phillip Miller of Kiwi Codes Solutions Ltd. Another question that arose in that thread regards the meaning of the built-in parameter HOST_AREA_COMPUTED and how to best calculate the area of a... Read more →

FindInserts Retrieves All Openings in All Wall Types

On Tuesday, I presented the new SpatialElementGeometryCalculator sample for calculating gross and net wall areas. It discusses a whole bunch of interesting aspects, e.g.: Use of the SpatialElementGeometryCalculator class. Porting a VB.NET Revit add-in to C#. Use of the temporary transaction trick. Use of filtered element collectors to determine all openings in a wall. Filtered element collector optimisation possibilities, e.g. integer instead of string comparison, use of a parameter filter instead of .NET post-processing. Vilo submitted a very relevant comment... Read more →

Calculating Gross and Net Wall Areas

Determination of gross and net areas and volumes is fundamental to BIM. Here is an interesting solution to determine the gross and net area of a wall, i.e. with and without its openings, making use of the SpatialElementGeometryCalculator and the temporary transaction trick. The question was raised and solved by Phillip Miller of Kiwi Codes Solutions Ltd, starting with the Revit API discussion forum thread on door/window areas: Question: I need to determine the cut areas of windows and doors... Read more →

Element Selection Changed Event

Many add-in developers are interested in being notified when the current selection changes in the Revit user interface. Among other things, it led to the implementation of the selection watcher using the Idling event and was one aspect of the discussion of element level events. Checking for Selection Changes in Idling Event Handler Ken Goulding submitted a comment on that, saying: When you mentioned "Element Level", I was hoping that included element selection events, but that does not seem to... Read more →

Framing Cross Section Analyser and REX in Revit 2015

Back in December 2013, I discussed structural cross section analysis, i.e. determination of the cross section profile of beam, columns, braces, etc., and several completely different approaches one can take to achieve that. I also demonstrated how to make use of the powerful functionality provided by the REX toolkit without building the entire add-in on top of the REX framework. By the way, here are some other earlier discussions of REX: The REX SDK Extensions for Revit 2012 REX Content... Read more →

State of the View and Data API, vA3C and Edge Ids

Today, let's take a look again at the current state of the View and Data API, vA3C and a case or two from the Revit API discussion forum: View and Data API news RvtVa3c enhancement filters parameters Defining keys or geometric references for curve vertices View and Data API News Question: I am interested in the Autodesk View and Data API that you wrote about last year. I am wondering what the current state and plans are for the Autodesk... Read more →

List and Switch Design Options Using UI Automation

Yesterday, we discussed a Revit add-in using .NET UI Automation to retrieve the current state of the Revit thin lines setting. Today, let's look at another application demonstrating use of that functionality to determine, list and set the Revit design options from a stand-alone executable application. Once again, this sample is presented by Revitalizer, aka Rudolf Honke of Mensch und Maschine acadGraph, who already contributed numerous other examples making use of the .NET UI Automation library to hack the Revit... Read more →

Thin Lines Add-in Using UI Automation

Revit add-in developers have repeatedly requested access to the Thin Lines setting provided in the Revit user interface, leading to Revit API discussion forum threads on view thin lines, exported image line weight (thin line) and rendering setting and a Revit API wish list item CF-192 – As an add-in developer, I need the API ability to detect and modify the "Thin lines" setting, so that the user can automatically get the environment configured in the way they like. Happily,... Read more →

Automatically Open a Project on Startup

Yesterday, I talked about the interesting activity, numerous answers and my participation in the Revit API discussion forum and edited the thread and GitHub solution for opening and activating a Revit document in an event handler. Today, we look at the related issue of loading a Revit RVT project file automatically on start-up. Before getting into that, here is a quick note on the deprecated SolidArray class: SolidArray Removal In the long distant past, the Revit API defined a considerable... Read more →

Opening and Activating Document in an Event Handler

I have been a busy beaver with the Revit API on the discussion forum in the past few days, and on GitHub as well. I want to take a closer look at two related issues that date back a little bit further: Switching active documents is not allowed during API event handling Loading a RVT project file automatically on start-up Let's discuss the first today and save the second for later. Before getting to that, I also want to mention... Read more →

A Dockable Web Browser

The Revit API supports add-ins defining their own dockable panels, similar to the built-in Revit project browser and element properties panels. Here is The Building Coder topic list of Dockable Panel related discussions: What's New in the Revit 2014 API A Simpler Dockable Panel Sample RevitRubyShell for Revit 2014 Revit 2014 Update Release 1 Open MEP Connector Warning Revit 2014 Update Release 2 I have repeatedly been asked bow to host a web browser in a dockable panel, and this... Read more →

PostRequestForElementTypePlacement Sample

I am back from my vacation in the snow, full of new energy, and up to both ears in hot Revit API cases again instead of that frozen stuff :-) The creation document NewFamilyInstance method provides the traditional way to programmatically create a new family instance within a project, or a nested instance within a family document. It does not support any user interaction whatsoever. A little bit of user interaction is provided by the PromptForFamilyInstancePlacement method introduced in the... Read more →