Revit API Connecting Desktop and Cloud @ TUDa

The RTC Revit Technology Conference Europe and my stay here in Porto is nearing its end:

• Wrapping up in Porto
• Connecting BIM and Cloud @ TUDa
• Creating a Revit add-in with one single click
• Connecting Revit and Forge in 55 minutes

Wrapping up in Porto

Here are some pictures of the Ponte Luis I from the evening event and the morning walk to Alfândega do Porto:

I have a rather busy time ahead, leaving early Sunday morning straight to Munich for the one-week Forge accelerator workshop.

I am flying there with the Portuguese transavia airline.

I only mention that to point out that they have implemented the most perfect online check-in experience I ever used. This is the first time ever that I was completely and enthusiastically happy with it 100% from start to finish.

I wish every web site was like theirs.

Connecting BIM and Cloud @ TUDa

The Forge accelerator in Munich is immediately followed by the next one-day workshop:

Connecting BIM and cloud @ TUDa

I lead that one all on my own at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Institut für Numerische Methoden und Informatik im Bauwesen, the institute for numerical methods and computer science in the construction industry at the technical university in the very pleasant German city Darmstadt, in Hessen, just south of Frankfurt.

The agenda is simple:

• 10:45-12:15 presentation – Connecting desktop and cloud
• 13:00-17:00 hands-on workshop with two topics:
  • Revit API – creating a Revit add-in with one single click
  • Connecting BIM with the cloud – connecting Revit and Forge in 55 minutes

Creating a Revit Add-In with One Single Click

I can create a new Revit add-in DLL, compile, load and execute it with one single click or two using the Visual Studio Revit add-in wizards, and I demonstrate that live in a handful of seconds. Obviously, if everything were as simple as one single click, life would be extremely boring and no challenge at all.

It makes things a lot more interesting if you understand what is going on under the hood.

That is easily achieved by working through the Revit API getting started material, looking at the basic installation sections of the Revit API Developer Guide, and installing the Revit SDK from the Revit Developer Centre.

With that material in hand, you will understand and be able to make good and exciting use of the single-click functionality provided by the Visual Studio Revit add-in wizards.

The most effective way to get started programming with the Revit API is to work through the step-by-step instructions provided by the DevTV and My First Revit Plugin video tutorials.

• DevTV – Introduction to Revit Programming
• DevTV – Introduction to Revit Programming Part 2
• My First Revit Plug-in tutorial

After that, you can dive in deeper by working through the self-documenting ADN Revit API Training Labs. They consist of a series of hands-on lab exercises in both C# and VB.NET accompanied by detailed step-by-step training instruction documents.

Visit the Revit Developer Centre to download the Revit SDK containing documentation and samples:

• Install the Revit API help file RevitAPI.chm as a desktop shortcut and keep at hand at all times, or refer to the online Revit API documentation at www.revitapidocs.com.
• Install the SDK samples solution SDKSamples.sln for global source code searches.
• Install the RvtSamples external application to launch and debug the SDK samples.
• For more in-depth training, work through the ADN Revit API Training Labs.
• For the developer guide, visit Revit Online Help > Developers (2016 2015)
  • The Revit SDK provides the basic Revit API help file documentation in RevitAPI.chm.
  • The Revit API Developer Guide provides in-depth explanations.

I already wrote similar instructions for preparing for a hands-on Revit API training back in 2012 which are also still absolutely relevant.

Connecting Revit and Forge in 55 Minutes

Connecting Revit and Forge is extremely simple, thanks to the large amount of existing boiler-plate code available, mainly in the GitHub Developer-Autodesk and Autodesk-Forge collections.

We take a closer look at the roomedit3dv3 sample enabling a super simple minimal round-trip editing operation in the Forge viewer sending back a trivial transformation to be applied to a single Revit BIM element via socket.io.

This web server application is based on Philippe Leefsma's forge-boilers.nodejs node.js-based boilerplate projects for the Autodesk Forge Web Services APIs.

It also includes a viewer extension for selecting and translating elements based on Philippe's Viewing.Extension.Transform viewer extension, from his huge library of JavaScript viewer extensions.

All in all, I cannot have added much more than one or a couple of dozen lines of code to the boilerplate provided by Philippe.

Here is the full detailed description of all my research and implementation efforts right from the start:

• Introduction and first search for a starting point
• The Birth of Roomedit3dv3
• Roomedit3dv3 Broadcast Architecture
• Roomedit3dv3 Transform Viewer Extension
• Retrieving and Broadcasting the Roomedit3dv3 Translation
• Roomedit3dv3 Up and Running with Demo Recording
• Recording of the complete Connecting Desktop and Cloud presentation

Let's see whether (and hope that) I manage to package this in a suitable format for a 55-minute hands-on lab in the coming week.