The Building Coder

Vipassana and Idling versus External Events

I am leaving for a ten-day Vipassana meditation retreat next week, so I'll cram in this quick Saturday post on the meditation retreat and mindfulness before I have too much to do getting prepared next week. It includes yet another discussion of Idling versus external events for modeless dialogues and dockable panels. Vipassana means 'seeing'. In this case, seeing is enhanced by concentration on my own self, my body, my mind, my thoughts. No talking, no communication whatsoever, no Internet, no mobile devices, no pen and paper, no reading. No input, no output. Sitting... Read more →

ADN Becomes Forge and Barcelona Accelerator

Our fearless leader Jim Quanci already explained the importance of our Forge platform and his vision of the future of making things. Now, after more than 20 years, the time has come to change the name of our team, ADN, the Autodesk Developer Network – It's time for a change – Forge and Cloud – Forge Accelerator in Barcelona – The Block Research Group at ETHZ... Read more →

Pi Day, Meeting, Ski Tour, Revit Server Bar Separator

You may be surprised to hear that today is Pi Day :-) – as well as the birthday of my S.O.S. or significant other's son. I had an exciting week with the ADN team meeting in London followed by a ski tour during the weekend. To round this off, I'll also tuck in one little Revit API item here for you – Happy Pi Day and Dan's birthday – EMEA ADN team meeting in London – Ski tours in the Alvier group – Revit Server model path requires bar separator... Read more →

Entitlement API, Trial Period and Floating License

I had an exciting weekend with ski tours under challenging weather conditions around Oberalppass, Sedrun-Andermatt, skiing on Piz Maler on Friday, piste in a snow storm on Saturday, and climbing Piz Cavradi via the Maighelshuette Sunday morning in splendid conditions, with 50 cm of fresh powder snow for the descent. Here is today's Revit news for you – Trial period, floating license and the Entitlement API – SketchUp Plugin for Grevit – EMEA ADN team meeting in London... Read more →

Implementing the TrackChangesCloud External Event

Today, I'll discuss this morning's work – TrackChanges enhancement idea – The TrackChangesCloud add-in – The TrackChangesCloud external event – Creating and raising an external event – Raising the external event from a separate thread – First test run – Trigger immediate execution by setting Revit foreground window – Complete external application module – Next steps – Download... Read more →

Index, Debug, Curves, Distance, Deleting PrintSetup

Here is another bunch of issues addressed in the Revit API discussion forum and elsewhere in the past day or two – The Building Coder blog source text and index – Reloading add-in DLL for debugging without restart – Drawing curves from a list of points – Determining the distance of a family instance to the floor or elevation – Deleting a PrintSetup or ViewSheetSetting... Read more →

API, SDK and View Section Box Element Intersection

Trying to keep track of the overwhelming information flow provided by the numerous discussions on the Revit API discussion forum is impossible. Here are two little titbits from the past few days – Basic Revit API and SDK Access, Online and Offline – Filtering for Elements Intersecting a View Section Box... Read more →