The Revit 2016 offers a whole host of exciting new functionality that I am dying to try out, e.g.:
- Custom exporter supports 2D output
- Improved ReferenceIntersector linked model support
- DirectShape supports curves, points and references
- Cool new Geometry API functionality
Too little time!
At least I can mention one useful aspect of the new geometry API that came in handy for an issue that came up yesterday.
I am in Dubai right now, preparing for the AngelHack Hackathon.
Here are the topics for today:
- 3D Web Festival in San Francisco
- AngelHack in Dubai
- AngelHack in Athens
- Autodesk University proposals
- Cloning a solid
3D Web Festival in San Francisco
Hey, there is this really cool event coming up in San Francisco on May 13th, the 3D Web Festival, sponsored by Autodesk, Goo Technologies and Leap Motion:
If you know any folks in the Bay Area who might be interested in seeing and experiencing what's possible today with 3D on the web, please let them know.
AngelHack and I♥3D in Dubai
As said, I am in Dubai right now, for the first time in my life.
Here are my first impressions wandering around Jumeirah Beach Residence, aka JBR.
Tonight we hold the AngelHack Dubai Pre-Hackathon Meetup and Workshop to get all interested AngelHack Dubai Hackathon participants up to speed on the View and Data API in preparation for two hot and frantic days of hacking over the weekend – which is Friday and Saturday here, of course.
AngelHack and I♥3D in Athens
We also just held the inaugural I love 3D – Athens meetup, on April 24th, at The Cube, Greece's biggest coworking space.
Cyrille Fauvel and Peter Schlipf presented the View and Data API, Fusion360, AutoCAD I/O and Recap360 to a group 30 enthusiastic local developers:
They loved it.
I will be going there too soon, for the Angelhack in Athens, on June 5-7.
Again, we have scheduled an AngelHack workshop meetup session on Friday evening to get us all well prepared and up to speed for the subsequent hackathon.
I am looking forward to meeting you there!
Autodesk University proposals
The Autodesk University Call for Proposals has opened.
I am already busy preparing mine :-)
Cloning a solid
Now, finally, back to the Revit API, with a question on cloning solids, very well addressed by one of the Revit 2016 API enhancements:
Question: To clone solids, we have been using the following workaround in the past:
static public Solid Clone( this Solid solid ) { if( solid == null ) { return null; } return BooleanOperationsUtils .ExecuteBooleanOperation( solid, solid, BooleanOperationsType.Union ); }
This function allows us to clone solids to later use them to create or modify DirectShape elements. It works very well in the majority of the cases; however, the ExecuteBooleanOperation function throws an exception on some specific DirectShape elements, saying:
- Exception: "Failed to perform the Boolean operation for the two solids. Error: Autodesk.Revit.Exceptions.InvalidOperationException: Failed to perform the Boolean operation for the two solids"
I would be very grateful if you can give me some directions how to fix this issue.
Answer: Have you noticed the following new functionality provided by the Revit 2016 API Geometry API additions?
Solid – copy
The new method:
- SolidUtils.Clone()
creates a new Solid that is a copy of the input Solid.
That looks as if it should solve your problem for you more elegantly and efficiently.
Response: Thanks for the quick answer.
The SolidUtils.Clone method does indeed solve the issue for Revit 2016. It works perfectly. Thanks!
However, what can I do to fix it in Revit 2015?
Answer: I am very glad to hear that the issue is solved in Revit 2016 by the SolidUtils.Clone enhancement.
For Revit 2015 and previous versions, a better workaround, rather than unioning the original solid with itself, might be to union the shape with a small cube (1" x 1" would work for most shapes) located in the interior of the shape.
Response: Thank you!
I can confirm that the workaround solves the issue I was having with the Revit 2015 API.
