The Building Coder

RVT Properties to XLS and Forge Accelerators

Are you interested in easy access to your Revit model properties? Well, you can have that even without a need to install Revit. The Forge Model Derivative API extracts a streamlined copy of all geometry, BIM element hierarchy and properties from over fifty file formats, and Revit RVT files are just one of them. Augusto Goncalves implemented a Forge sample to read all the properties on all BIM elements in an RVT file and export them to an XLSX spreadsheet – Test run it yourself – Source code on GitHub... Read more →

Revit API Docs 2.0 Beta

Gui Talarico created an extremely useful online version of the contents of the Revit API help file RevitAPI.chm. It sports significant advantages over the locally hosted Windows help file – Online access from anywhere, any platform, OS, device – Share links to specific topics for discussion with peers – Covers and compares between multiple versions of the Revit API; During the expansion cover Revit 2017.1, Gui implemented a number of other significant enhancements... Read more →

RevitLookup Extensible Storage Restored

I already discussed the first clean-up of the new Reflection based version of RevitLookup; here comes the second one, restoring access to view extensible storage data – Recent changes to RevitLookup – Restore access to extensible storage data – Download and access to old functionality... Read more →

Add-In Templates Supporting Edit and Continue

Last week, I presented Andrey Bushman's new Visual Studio templates for Revit add-ins. Furthermore, we discussed many aspects of edit and continue in the past, including the solution to use the Add-in Manager. These two topics have now met and united, because Andrey added support for that and a bunch of other new functionality in his commit... Read more →

RevitLookup with Reflection Cleanup

Last week, I presented a drastic change to RevitLookup using Reflection to provide more complete coverage of all the Revit database element methods and properties. Victor Chekalin took a critical look at this new version and cleaned it up significantly. Now all is well and order has been restored again – Shock and gripe – Commit summary – 1. Methods and properties extraction – 2. Show enum values – 3. Drill down into SymbolGeometry – 4. Remove duplicate get_ property getter method – 5. Fixed Fine DetailLevel bug – 6. Visual style of separator – Download and access to old functionality – Reaction and read-only assurance... Read more →

New Visual Studio Templates for Revit Add-Ins

I have been maintaining a simple Visual Studio Revit add-in wizard for a number of years. Now Andrey Bushman implemented a set of more advanced and convenient Visual Studio templates for creation of Revit add-ins for his own use. The discussion of those led us to once more revisit the topic of the Visual Studio settings for debugging Revit add-ins – New Visual Studio 2015 templates for Revit add-ins – Use Managed Compatibility Mode or Enable Native Code Debugging? – Machine learning software engineer job in Switzerland – FreeCodeCamp... Read more →

Revit MEP Connector Number

I answered a question in the Revit MEP forum, prompted by Robert Klempau's direct mention in the thread on connector numbers of mechanical equipment. Since it is rather technical and even includes a snippet of Revit source code, let me reiterate it here for better readability and future reference – Question: I created a mechanical exhaust fan with four connectors... Read more →

Setting Active View During Idling

Here is a summary of the discussion and solution for setting ActiveView during the Idling event from the Revit API discussion forum raised and solved by Rudi 'Revitalizer' and Kinjal Desai; As per API documentation, this operation should not be invalid: no open transactions; IsModifiable is ok; IsReadOnly is ok; No pre-action events around. However, trying to do so throws an InvalidOperationException with the message "Setting active view is temporarily disabled"... Read more →

Moving the Section View Location

Today, let's recap the Revit API discussion forum thread on moving the location of a section vie raised by Danny Bentley, BIM Structural Technician at SOM in California, since Danny very kindly created a video and GitHub repo to demonstrate and share the solution, which will certainly be of use to others as well. By the way, Danny also writes Bentley's Revit Dynamo & API blog on his personal exploration of the Revit API and Dynamo... Read more →

RevitLookup Reflection Cross-Version Compatibility

Today, I present a large and drastic contribution to RevitLookup from Andy @awmcc90 McCloskey of RevDev Studios that will help significantly in supporting both past and future releases of Revit – Drastic changes making use of object inspection via Reflection – Cross version compatibility – Removal of events and unused functionality – Commit summary – Snoop / CollectorExts – Utils – Tests – File Changes – Download... Read more →

Multiple Language RESX Resource Files

A large contribution today from Andrey Bushman, and a couple of upcoming Forge events – Supporting multiple language resource files – Creating and using localised resource RESX files – Upcoming Forge accelerators... Read more →

Revit Server API Lib, Truss Members and Layers

Today, we proudly present – NuGet Revit Server REST API Library – RevitLookup Updates – Truss Members and FamilyInstance Sub-Components – GeometryObject Layer Name... Read more →