The Building Coder

Voodoo Magic Retrieves Global Instance Edges

I recently shared Scott Wilson's reference stable representation magic voodoo, and you may have asked yourself what use it is. Well, here is one example making effective use of it, raised and solved by Ola Gunnar Skippervik of Multiconsult – Goal: retrieve family instance edge to create direct shape – Snooping the family instance geometry – Partial answer and suggestion – Confirmation – Summary – Structural concrete setout point add-in... Read more →

Revit Macro Samples Migrated to Revit 2017

I recently received requests for a migration of the macro samples provided in the Revit_Macro_Samples.rvt project. The version included in the Revit 2017 SDK miraculously is still based on Revit 2013 pre-release version, according to the update message displayed when opening it, and the macros cannot be executed successfully due to a number small Revit API enhancements made in the intervening years – Problem – Solution – Sam comes to the rescue – See the diffs on GitHub... Read more →

Trusted Signature and Revit 2017 API Resources

Here is a bunch of long overdue news items to round off this hot week – Trusted add-in signature – Revit 2017 API news summary – ADN training labs for Revit 2017 – ADN Xtra labs Revit 2017 migration – We had an extensive discussion on the topic of equipping each Revit add-in with a trusted signature in order to avoid the warning presented before loading it that otherwise pops up and needs to be manually confirmed by the user... Read more →

Using Routing Preferences to Select and Place a Tap

Today, I address a sequence of Revit MEP related steps required to insert a specific tap or take-off fitting into a duct – How to determine duct face from location point? – How to convert XYZ location to duct face UV coordinates? – How to anchor an object like AutoCAD Architecture? – How to inherit system information? – How to inherit system information – take II – How to control take-off and tap sizing on a duct? – How to select a specific tap type to connect to a duct? – Sample code using routing preferences to select NewTakeOffFitting tap type... Read more →

Automatically Reload Links After Migration

Today, my colleagues Michael Brian Lee and Miroslav Schonauer share a solution for links that are not automatically reloaded after migrating the model to Revit 2016... Read more →

Consistency of IFC GUID and UniqueId

Angel Velez provided further clarification on the relationship between the Revit element UniqueId and the IFC GUID generated from it, prompted by the Revit API discussion forum thread on abnormal modification of Element.UniqueId... Read more →

UnitUtils Converting Units for Unit Weight

Here comes a quick clarification of the units used for the UnitWeight built-in parameter PHY_MATERIAL_PARAM_UNIT_WEIGHT. One example usage is to calculate the total weight of rebars in a project... Read more →

Online Revit API Docs and Convex Hull

Today I happily present a brilliant piece of Revit API news on the documentation side of things, and another handy utility method for your Revit API programming toolbox – Online Revit API Documentation – 2D Convex Hull Algorithm in C# using XYZ points... Read more →

Vacation End, Forge News and Bounding Boxes

I am back from a very relaxing vacation. I did next to nothing, and that felt fine. Meanwhile, obviously, lots of important and exciting Forge community and Revit API related happenings – PyRevit Blog – Forge DevCon 2016 material and 2017 dates – Forge forums closing in favour of StackOverflow – Forge Accelerator in Munich – Bounding Box ExpandToContain Extension Methods – Bounding Box and Lower Left Corner of Rooms – Bounding Box of Selected Elements or Entire Model – Setting 3D section box to selected elements' extents... Read more →