Here is some exciting news from Daren Thomas on RevitLookup and the Revit Python Shell.
The Python and Ruby shells came up a couple of times recently, and I also mentioned Daren's initial thoughts on making the RevitLookup snoop functionality easily accessible from within the interactive Python IDE:
- Curved wall elevation profile implementation in Python
- Live development
- Revit 2016 Python shell and RevitLookup incorporation
- Revit 2016 Ruby shell
This idea has now come to fruition, and more easily than one might expect.
In Daren's own words:
The current version of RPS now includes a function 'lookup' in the startup script. Passing in an Element or an ElementId object will open up the "Snoop Objects" window if RevitLookup is installed. Otherwise, a message will be displayed directing the user to the RevitLookup GitHub repository.
I describe it in more detail in this discussion on RevitLookup and RevitPythonShell.
Also, here is a technique I found useful in the RPS project: I edit the .csproj file itself and change the way the Revit API assembly DLLs RevitAPI.dll and RevitAPIUI.dll are referenced:
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug 2014'">
<Reference Include="RevitAPI">
<HintPath>..\RequiredLibraries\Revit2014\RevitAPI.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>
<Reference Include="RevitAPIUI">
<HintPath>..\RequiredLibraries\Revit2014\RevitAPIUI.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug 2015'">
<Reference Include="RevitAPI">
<HintPath>..\RequiredLibraries\Revit2015\RevitAPI.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>
<Reference Include="RevitAPIUI">
<HintPath>..\RequiredLibraries\Revit2015\RevitAPIUI.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>
</ItemGroup>
<ItemGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Debug 2016'">
<Reference Include="RevitAPI">
<HintPath>..\RequiredLibraries\Revit2016\RevitAPI.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>
<Reference Include="RevitAPIUI">
<HintPath>..\RequiredLibraries\Revit2016\RevitAPIUI.dll</HintPath>
</Reference>
</ItemGroup>
I then included the API files for each supported version in a RequiredLibraries folder. When you change the configuration in Visual Studio (e.g., from "Debug 2014" to "Debug 2016"), the referenced assemblies also change (I think – you might need to reload Visual Studio) and compilation works just fine!
This technique can be extended to add conditional compilation (but I think that is already handled by the VS UI).
Anyway. I'd say this is a first stab at the RPS/RevitLookup collaboration we discussed a week or two ago and is quite useful already.
Many thanks to Daren for the good news!
Congratulations on getting it up and running with such minimal fuss!
The multi-version support you implemented looks very nice and useful too.
