The Building Coder

Detailed 2D Text and Other Element Geometry

The 2D custom exporter provides a basis for a new and much more powerful approach to access detailed 2D geometry – Retrieve dimension text height and width – Determine text font geometry – Retrieve 2D geometry of any element... Read more →

Migrating PlaceInstances to Revit 2018

Migrating a Revit add-in to a new release of the Revit API is generally very easy. The API features slight changes from version to version. Modifications are announced a year or two in advance, and signalled during compilation by deprecated API usage warnings. If you clean up your code every year or two and remove all API usage that causes warning messages, you will normally have very little to do to migrate it later on... Read more →

Family Category and Two Energy Model Types

Let's pick up two more topics from the Revit API discussion forum today – Family Category property is not always set – Two different energy analysis model types – gbXML export options – BuildingEnvelopeAnalyzer class – EnergyAnalysisDetailModel creation from building elements and volumes – EnergyAnalysisDetailModelOptions... Read more →

Self-Organising Architecture, Voxel-Based Energy Analysis

I had an interesting chat last week with a group of students from the University of Augsburg on how to perform energy analysis on a bunch of autonomously assembled small building blocks, such as a colony of ants might put together. How can the resulting small building blocks be converted to a valid Revit BIM that can be used for building performance analysis? – BPA is now Insight360 – Self-organising construction and architecture – Back to the ants – project summary – Q & A – Two different energy model types... Read more →

REX Add-In Development and Migration

It's been a while since I talked about REX. Some old dedicated posts include – The REX SDK – Extensions for Revit 2012 – REX Content Generator. More recent mentions occur in my discussion of a framing cross section analyser with and without REX and its migration to Revit 2015. Now the time has come for another look... Read more →

Fill Pattern Viewer Fix and Add Materials for 2016

@kfpopeye discovered and fixed an issue with complex fill patterns in the venerable old WPF Fill Pattern Viewer Control, part of the AddMaterials Revit add-in to load new materials into a project based on a list defined in an Excel spreadsheet – Original implementation for Revit 2011 – Reimplementation for Revit 2014 – Improved error messages and reporting – WPF FillPattern viewer control – Check for already loaded materials – FillPattern viewer benchmarking... Read more →

Filtering Samples and RAC 2016 Features

The issue of simple filtered element collector samples was raised in a private message. I do not like to receive private messages and avoid answering them in private. I always prefer to discuss everything I do in public and enable the entire community to contribute and share when possible. In this case, such a message led to the discussion below. I'll also point to an overview of Revit Architecture 2016 Features... Read more →

PostCommand causes Internal Exceptions, a Break

For the past few years now, the development team has been adding various checks to prevent illegal use of Revit API entry points from outside a valid Revit API context. Read all about the valid Revit API context and how to access it – Idling and External Events for modeless access and driving Revit from outside – New checks were just added in the Revit 2016 service pack 2 which uncovered more long-standing illegal API calls – CompHound connects desktop and cloud – Do not call `PostCommand` from a modeless context – Do Not Call `PostCommand` from an `Idling` Event Handler – Vacation time... Read more →

Dynamo, Centroid & Volume Calculation Migration Blitz

My French colleague Olivier Bayle, co-author of the French AEC-related Village BIM blog, just re-raised the topic of my old solid centroid and volume calculation add-in. Let's also point out one or two of the numerous topics we tackled in the past few days on the Revit API discussion forum: Graphically displaying the centre of gravity using Dynamo GetCentroid on GitHub and blitz migration across four Revit API releases Finding the orientation of welded pipe outlets How to set the... Read more →

Revit API Task Solving Approach, Success, AppStore...

Let's start the week with these topics: General approach to a Revit API programming task Revit API and AppStore success Architecture and AEC market disruption Autodesk 2016 AEC products Africa is really big, man We start off with something Revit API related, then move on to the Revit API and AppStore in general, architecture and AEC in general, and an interesting aspect of the world having almost nothing whatsoever to do with Revit or AEC at all. General Approach to... Read more →

ADN Labs Xtra, Multi-Version Add-Ins and CNC Direct

Let's discuss some more Revit add-in migration aspects and yet another completed migration task: ADN Revit API training labs Xtra migration Multi-version add-ins and CNC Direct ADN Revit API Training Labs Xtra Migration I recently mentioned that the official ADN Revit API Labs Training Material for Revit 2016 is available from the Revit Developer Centre and the Revit API Training GitHub repository. They are used for our standard two- or three-day hands-on Revit API introduction training courses. They are also... Read more →

CNC Direct – Export Wall Parts to DXF and SAT

I implemented the Revit ExportCncFab add-in back in 2013 to export Revit wall parts to DXF or SAT for CNC fabrication. The full source code, Visual Studio solution and add-in manifest lives in the ExportCncFab GitHub repository. The project was prompted by William Spier, who recently published a nice 12-minute YouTube video Revit to CNC Direct describing and demonstrating its practical use and application: In William's words: "Asked Jeremy to write a DLL that allows users to export multiple objects... Read more →

ArchSample, Active Transaction and AdnRme for 2016

Today, let me point out ArchSample, a heretofore unmentioned Revit SDK sample that I happened to notice answering a recent case, how to determine a currently active transaction, and an update to the ADN Revit MEP sample AdnRme: ArchSample and Retrieving Element Properties How to determine active or current transaction AdnRme for Revit MEP 2016 Before getting to those, let me add that I am still travelling in Greece, heading back to Athens now from the Greek island of Euboea... Read more →

Revit 2016 SP1 and Sheets Missing from Print Dialogue

Today, I can present the explanation and prophylactic measure required to prevent a problem of sheets missing from print dialogue. It was only occasionally reported, and I finally heard about the fact and its resolution last week. In brief, when creating sheets programmatically, only create one sheet per transaction! Before looking at that in more detail, I'll just mention that the Revit 2016 service pack 1 was automatically installed for me when I started up Revit today. First of all,... Read more →

Geometry Creation and Line Intersection Exceptions

Today, let's look at some geometry related questions, a small enhancement of the line intersection we discussed two days ago, NURB spline and solid creation: Creating a NURB spline GeometryCreationUtilities, moving and copying solids Line intersection enhancements Built-in parameter checker for Revit 2016 1001 discussion forum posts Creating a NURB Spline This question was raised by anarchyfree in the Revit API discussion thread on a NurbSpline creation error: Question: I'm working on a Revit plugin that in part accepts curves... Read more →

RevitLookup in Python Shell and Multi-Release Solution

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... Read more →

Migrating The Building Coder Samples to Revit 2016

I finally tackled the task of migrating The Building Coder Samples to Revit 2016. I also have another update on RevitLookup to report: Preparation Fixing the compilation errors Installing RvtSamples RevitLookup update displays all built-in parameter names Preparation Before doing anything else, I ensured that the entire project compiles for Revit 2015 with zero warnings. This guarantees that I am not using any API functionality that was already deprecated in Revit 2015 and therefore removed in 2016. I then replaced... Read more →

Autodesk University, Q1, ADN Labs and Wizard Update

I submitted my yearly Autodesk University proposal for the Revit API expert panel. Time for you to submit yours as well. The call for proposals closes in one week – the deadline is May 26th. Besides that, here are some other things I want to point out: Titbits from the Q1 report Autodesk University proposals ADN Revit API labs training material for Revit 2016 Updated Visual Studio add-in wizards for Revit 2016 Titbits from the Q1 Report Autodesk posted a... Read more →

Compatibilizar entre versões – API Compatibility Helper

Once again, the time has come to migrate add-ins to the new version of the Revit API. Magson Leone in Brazil has been through this process every year now since Revit 2012 and got tired of maintaining separate versions of his code for each release of Revit. He solved the problem by using Reflection to implement a whole host of Revit API compatibility helper methods that reroute the call to the proper underlying API method for any Revit API version.... Read more →

CopyElements, Revit 2016 Scalability, Python and Ruby

Here are a bunch of infos on and updates for Revit 2016, as well as some important hints on the use of the ElementTransformUtils.CopyElements method: CopyElements view argument is for 2D only Revit 2016 scalability enhancements Revit 2016 Python shell Revit 2016 Ruby shell RevitLookup for Revit 2016 CopyElements View Argument is for 2D only You should only use the ElementTransformUtils.CopyElements views argument when working with view dependent elements, i.e., 2D elements. This was pointed out by Arnošt Löbel in... Read more →

Cloning a Solid, AngelHack, 3D Web Fest and Dubai

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 And much, much more... 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... Read more →

Add-in Migration to Revit 2016 and Updated Wizards

I updated my Visual Studio Revit C# and VB add-in wizards for Revit 2016. Before presenting them, a quick important note on how to approach resolving issues that you may encounter migrating your existing add-ins: Please read What's New in the Revit 2016 API! Revit add-in wizards for Revit 2016 Revit add-in wizard customisation Revit add-in wizard usage Download and installation Please Read What's New in the Revit 2016 API! Every major Revit API release so far enhanced the existing... Read more →

What's New in the Revit 2016 API

Here is the online version of the 'What's New' section of the Revit 2016 API help file. The information provided here is extracted from the document 'Revit Platform API Changes and Additions.docx' provided with the Revit SDK. As said, is also included in the 'What's New' section in the Revit API help file RevitAPI.chm. This is very important information, even for later reference. The explanation of the changes and enhancements are well worth referring to later on as well, to... Read more →

Revit 2016 API News and DevDays Online Recording

Revit 2016 has been released! Let's dive straight in to the new Revit API functionality, plus a note on table of contents for video recordings: Revit 2016 API news – DevDays Online slide deck, recording, notes and sample code Video recording table of contents RevitLookup for Revit 2016 Revit 2016 API News – DevDays Online Slide Deck, Recording, Notes and Sample Code Here is the Revit 2016 DevDays Online recording material, based on the presentations shown at the confidential Autodesk... Read more →