The Building Coder

Element Visibility and Multi-Version Add-In Code Base

Current and recurring topics from the Revit API discussion forum, an LLM and a cultural colour topic – Multi-version add-in code base – UIView for element visibility – GPT reads PDF + generates ACC issues – My blue vs. green ... Read more →

API Context, Background Process, PostCommand

More aspects of the Revit API from a modeless context – Background process and Revit API – Revit background processor – Effective Revit API context predicate – PostCommand context and view focus – Protect creativity with no AI – European Union AI Act – The Sakana AI Scientist – Plasma in high school nuclear fusion reactor... Read more →

Modeless Add-Ins and PDF Printing Speed

Topics discussed in the past week – Simultaneous add-in and Revit interaction – Limited PDF printing speed – Family instance code samples – Apple intelligence foundation language models – LLM arena... Read more →

Stable Parameter Identifier and WebView2 Plans

Embedded browser plans are maturing further, and what to use for stable parameter identification – Move from CefSharp to WebView2 – Stable parameter identifier for use in formula – CrowdStrike outage – Ai models trained on AI-generated data collapse – Open source AI is the path forward... Read more →

APS Accelerator and Q4R4 Chunking with Claude

Vacation time, accelerator time, and chunking TBC for LLM RAG – APS accelerator Barcelona in September – Q4R4 with LLM and RAG – Claude.ai helped chunk TBC blog posts – Vacation... Read more →

Material Assets, Chromium and Sorting Schedules

Material assets, built-in browser functionality, create schedules, search text and miscellaneous LLM-related news items – Personalised material asset properties – CefSharp versus WebView2 embedded browser – Twentytwo on schedule creation – Ugrep enhanced grep – AI mesh understanding – LLM self-reflection, deep stupidity, sans MatMul, and locally the easy way... Read more →

Removing Docs Zip Files, Panels and Buttons

A call for feedback on a planned change downloading a RCM from Docs, a tricky solution to remove ribbon panels and buttons, and a bunch of news bites that I found interesting on sustainability, language and AI discoveries; new EU AEC energy ruling, ecological wooden buildings in Scandinavia, spoken human language speed and information density, AI uses as a hearing aid enhancement, weather forecasting, interface assistant, AI open-source and future directions... Read more →

Revit 2025.1 and Handling Lack of UI in DA

The Revit 2025.1 update release, placing a detail group in ASP Design Automation, lacking the UI, a hacker's guide to LLM and an LLM retrieval augmented generation in 10 lines of code... Read more →

Migrating VB to .NET Core 8 and AI News

Revit 2025 API migration of VB.NET add-ins to .NET Core 8 and advances in LLMs and AI, Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta AI, 3D genAI, web scraping, spatial referring, digital twins... Read more →

Camera Settings, Doors Traversed, Script on the Fly

New exciting Revit API solutions and furious pace of LLM development – Bowerbird C# scripting for Revit – Doors traversed by path of travel – Camera mapping between APS and Revit – Claude 3 can see – Devin, an AI software engineer – Meta Imagine generates images – An LLM for decompiling binary code – Simple climate change overview... Read more →

API Context, Input State and DA4R Debugging

We present a long-awaited solution to check for a valid Revit API context and a whole bunch of short pointers to other mostly AI-related topics of interest – Determining Revit API context – Detect Revit user input state – Easy Revit API – Gemini with image and video input – LLM is not self-aware – Generative AI transformer – Design to reduce junk data – C and C++ are risky – Ultra-processed food is toxic... Read more →

Interactive BIM Notebook, Temporary Graphics and AI

Interactivity and AI keeps growing – BIM interactive notebooks – TemporaryGraphicsManager in action – Classify line styles built-in vs user – The curious case of JavaScript – Magika AI-based file type classification – NotebookLM – AI understands videos better – Airline chatbot invented a refund policy – LLM tokenisation – Diátaxis systematic technical documentation – Amara's law – Talking about progress versus risk... Read more →

Refresh Graphics, Start View and Excel

Refreshing graphics, exchanging data, setting the start view, and random titbits related to AI, politics and climate – UpdateAllOpenViews – Refreshing spot elevation prefix – Excel data exchange options – Defining the start view – How big is a LLM – Base rate fallacy – Last year was hot – Previous climate changes negligeable – PV panel price trend... Read more →

.NET Core, C4R Views and Interactive Hot Reloading

Importing cloud-based APS parameters in desktop project, pondering .NET Core, publishing views the cloud, and hot tips for hot reloading for interactive Revit API testing and debugging – APS parameters API Revit import – .NET Core migration webinar recording – C4R publish view to cloud API – Revit polyglot notebook – Hot reloading in Visual Studio With Dynamo and Revit – Assigning invisible graphics linestyle – ChatGPT system prompt – RIP John Walker... Read more →

Valid Revit API Context, LLM and LTG

Revit API, climate, and AI – Valid Revit API context – Extensible storage in APS – Large language model course – Token-free selective state space model – L'humanité en péril – The limits to growth... Read more →

Journals, Logging, Progress Bar, AEC, AI and CO2

A nice new collection of Revit API, AI and AEC related topics – Accountability, Logging and Journals – WPF progress bar with abort button – Sublime text – Interesting AI motivation: ensure it goes well – Now you see it, now you don't – BIM-GPT AI BIM information retrieval – AEC greenwashing – IKEA life at home report – Climpact carbon footprint action comparison... Read more →

Dependency Injection and Model Checker API

Happy New Year! – AU 2023 classes – Dependency injection for Revit API – RevitLookup updates – Model checker API docs – ChatGPT and Maestro AI for Revit scripting – Construction spending rising in the US – Free Will – Vuca... Read more →

3D View, Curved Section and Browser Round-Trip

RevitLookup update, roundtrip interaction between your own browser instance and external command, BIM element location, structural 3D view, curved section view – RevitLookup 2024.0.10 – Calling Revit command from Chromium browser – Chromium browser Js round trip callback – Element location – Create a structural-only 3D view – Creating a curved section in Dynamo – Carbon footprint of AI – Sending data by pigeon – Permaculture farm – The Valley of Code... Read more →

.NET Core Preview and Open Source Add-In Projects

Open-source related discussions, interesting Revit API and AI related news – Revit preview release with C# 7 – RevitLookup 2024.0.9 is here – RevitPythonDocs for Dynamo and pyRevit – New Revit SDK sample browser and launcher – Purge add-in with rave reviews – SpeedCad tools OptionsBar and StatusBar – Managing multiple Revit API versions – DesignScript, Rhino, and other geometry libraries – Trading glass beads for AI IP... Read more →

Journal Magic, Adjacent Rooms and Room Boundary

Taking a look at journal files, room boundaries, adjacent rooms, a ForgeTypeId question and where AI might lead – Harry's journal file magic – Closed contiguous room boundary loop – Challenges identifying adjacent rooms – ForgeTypeId for 'Other' parameter group – AI may obsolete all apps... Read more →

DLL Paradise and a Fall

APS overview – DLL paradise for Revit add-ins via named pipe IPC – Interprocess communication strategies and best practices – Using named pipes to communicate between different .NET versions – Interactions between .NET 4.8 and .NET 7 – Server / client transmission protocol – Connection management – Two-way communication... Read more →

Xgbxml Fixes Building Geometry Gaps

A mighty beautiful Python solution for fixing gaps in the building geometry and new AI-related titbits – Fixing building geometry gaps – Open and render gbXML BIM model – Identify gaps in geometry – Add missing surfaces – Verify waterproof – LLaVA large language and vision assistant – Moonvalley text to video – DETR model detects objects in images... Read more →

No Geometry, Touching Geometry and Cut Geometry

Discussions of BIM, geometry, pyRevit and AI news – pyRevit discourse – The BIM has no geometry – Get touching elements – What is a stable representation of a reference? – CUT_EDGE reference voodoo – Revit and IFC coordinate systems – Chinese influencer deepfakes livestreaming 24/7 – Generative AI use and misuse... Read more →

15 Years, Polygon Areas and .NET Core

A birthday celebration, a forward-looking statement or two and observations on geometry, AI and emissions – 15 years of The Building Coder – Revit API with .NET Core – Bye-bye document macro? – Polygon area algorithms – AI recreates Pink Floyd from brain activity – Create ML model with one sentence? – Compress greenhouse gas emissions... Read more →

GasTools, Cmd Ids, Key Schedule et al

A nice, varied bouquet of topics – GasTools – Key schedule browser API – Revit command id list – AI generates 3D model from 2D drawings – Careful with infant screen use – Baroque typography in the digital world... Read more →

Bounding Boxes Axis Alignment and Transformation

Aspects of axis-aligned bounding boxes, SVG paths and AI news – BoundingBox is axis-aligned – BoundingBox transformation – Interactive explanation of SVG path – Claude.AI – Relativising the impact of AI... Read more →

BRepBuilder and Toposurface Interior

An update for the Revit SDK, an in-depth discussion of Revit geometry generation, a Toposurface issue and a hint at where the software development industry may be headed – Revit SDK update – BRepBuilder organisation – Change Toposurface interior point to boundary – To code or not to code, that is the question... Read more →

Dark Icons, NewFamilyInstance and AI News

Hacks for dark icons supporting Revit 2024 theme switching and news from the ever-accelerating AI revolution – Dark theme icons by ImageMagick – Embed dark theme icon name in BitMapSource – New NewFamilyInstance overload – Open-source AI surging ahead – Timeline of major milestones crossed – Non-technical explanation of AI and deep learning – Using AI to read your thoughts – AI emergent abilities may not be emergent after all – Risk of AI manipulation... Read more →

News Reel, Roadmap and RevitLookup Updates

More news and updates related to Revit 2024, and some little titbits on AI and literature: – News reel and AEC roadmaps – Revit API training – RevitLookup 2024 updates – Free Dolly open-source instruction-tuned LLM – Websites powered by AI – Walkaway by Cory Doctorow... Read more →

UV, Emergence, Fuzz and the get_ Prefix

Current topics of interest from the Revit API discussion forum and elsewhere – Switch metric + imperial units – What is UV? – What is fuzz? – What is get_Parameter and get_Geometry? – Default localised workset names – Bing Chat Python and Dynamo tutor – Claude on Slack summarises and answers questions – Emergence and sparks of artificial general intelligence... Read more →

IFC, Dimension and Reference Intersector with Links

Pros and cons of the reference intersector and how to use it with linked files and filtered element collectors, a design automation IFC exporter, dimensioning linked elements using the reference stable representation and new forays with large language models – Reference intersector with filters and links – Revit IFC exporter for APS DA – Stable representation voodoo with links – Running Dalai LLaMa locally – ChatGPT invented a game... Read more →

Lookup Ideas, Jigs and ACC Docs Access

A request for new ideas for enhancing RevitLookup, implementing a pickpoint rubber band and opening BIMs on ACC Docs – Request for RevitLookup ideas – Transient elements for jig – Opening a model in ACC Docs – Stop using JPEG – Stop using voice id... Read more →

Back to Basics and ChatGPT

Impressed and intrigued by what ChatGPT can and cannot do, trying out new aspects myself and with my friends – Element filtering – XYZ trigonometry – Projecting points – Using ChatGPT with Revit API – Generative AI and multi-modal learning – ChatGPT in academia, education, building a VM, DIY, payment plan, Solarpunk... Read more →

Exploring ARM, ChatGPT, Nairobi and the TSP

I am still in Nairobi, Kenya, getting to know the lay of the land and team here, as well as setting up my new computer; meanwhile, OpenAI ChatGPT is making global waves and first explorative steps are being made to use it with the Revit API – Outings in Nairobi – ChatGPT in Kiswahili – for music and poetry mimicry – for Revit API – for Revit interaction – teaching about the birds and the bees – limitations and improvement – acrostic poem – VS2022 on MacBook Pro M1 with Parallels – Chasing the travelling salesman... Read more →

Unit Test Your Revit Add-In

The Building Coder blog standalone on GitHub, APS accelerator in Dublin, AU announcements, learning Revit API, retrieving all fabrication item materials, Revit add-in unit testing, AI-generated code, podcasts, news and more... Read more →

IFC Property Set, Bulk Instances and Vary by Group

Today, we talk about Forge, IFC, family instance creation in bulk, parameters that vary by group instance and a handy spell checker – Forge hackathon – Forge IFC exporter – NewFamilyInstances2 creates 27000 instances – Set parameter to vary by group instance – AI-enhanced web-based spell checker... Read more →

Purge Unused and eTransmit for DA4R

Today, we return for a summary and a new, deeper look at a recurring topic – eTransmit documentation – Purge via performance advisor – eTransmit functionality in DA4R – Updated Autodesk Revit IFC manual – AI solves programming tasks... Read more →

Sci-Fi, Languages and Pipe Insulation Retrieval

Three quick notes on critical and inspiring sci-fi, programming languages and MEP filtering – Pipe insulation retrieval performance – Programming languages to learn – Agency by William Gibson... Read more →

Naughty Updaters, DIY Add-In Manifest, GD, AI, etc.

Lots of exciting discussion going on in the Revit API discussion forum and elsewhere – No redemption for naughty updaters – DIY Add-in manifest – Generative design in C# – AI identifies and classifies BIM elements in 2D sketch... Read more →

Transient Graphics, Humane AI, BI and Lockdown

A quick look at various methods to integrate transient graphics into Revit and pointers to articles of interest on other current non-API-related topics such as chess AI, basic income and the effectiveness of lockdowns – Transient graphics – AI learns to emulate human-style chess – Basic income as fault-tolerant engineering – Lockdown effectivity... Read more →

Custom Export Precision, Sheet Metadata, Project Id

Many interesting topics on pure Revit API, Forge, BIM360 and AI – Custom export precision – Dismissing a Windows dialogue with JtClicker – AU classes for construction customers – Retrieve sheet metadata in Forge viewer – Determining the BIM 360 project id – AI solves partial differential equations – AI-enhanced video editing... Read more →

High Performance Outline, Line-Plane Intersection

Today let's talk mainly about geometric analysis and performance – High-performance outline optimisation – Simple line-plane intersection – Set base and survey clipped and unclipped – Two German uni BIM360 construction cloud startups – AI-based face streaming hits mainstream... Read more →

Forge Design Automation and DesignScript

Today, I'll mainly pick up some non-desktop issues – DesignScript with Dynamo and Revit – Forge getting started material – Getting started with DA4R – DA4R local debug tool – AI vision model images – Vonnegut on technology... Read more →

On Spaces in Help and Renaming a Parameter

I am busy as ever in the Revit API discussion forum. Today, let's highlight a couple of items that were not discussed there – ContextualHelp with space – On renaming a shared parameter – Build a minimal neural network from scratch... Read more →

Preview, Code Signing and Element Type Predicates

A few interesting threads from the Revit API discussion forum and AI news – Revit add-in code signing YAML – Preview control rotates model – Element type predicates – AI ethics... Read more →

Custom Parameters and Tile Packing

Parameter changes and tile packing using the Revit API and AI, plus some other notes on Forge and general stuff – Parameter type changes to Custom – Determining cut tiles in room – Optimal banana sandwich slice packing with AI – Forge solution showcase – Effect of home office on meeting culture – Motivating kids can be harder than business success... Read more →

Unit Migration Toggle Imperial and Metric Project Unit

I just helped address a wish in the Revit Idea Station. I also started taking a course on AI, designed for absolutely everybody – Single-click imperial and metric project unit toggle – Solution – Elements of AI – crash course for everyone – Zhonghu solo music... Read more →

Visual Studio 2019 Revit Add-in Template Tags

A small enhancement to the Visual Studio Revit Add-in Template, and another interesting little AI surprise – Template tags for Visual Studio 2019 – My wizard works again – OpenAI plays hide and seek and breaks the game... Read more →

Starter Kit, Books and Music

A search for Revit API related books, a very nice new Revit API starter kit, a richer and much more complex literary AI-related book, and a quick bottleneck steel guitar blues recording not related with any technical topic whatsoever – A very basic book on Revit API – Revit API starter kit – Machines like me – Bottleneck blues guitar... Read more →

Revit Camera Settings, Project Plasma, DA4R and AI

Here are this week's interesting items I want to share with you – Map Forge Viewer camera settings back to Revit – Project Quantum becomes Plasma – Mikako's DA4R overview – AI is affecting human game strategies – AI can convert speech to gesture – Barcelona Forge accelerator – Open positions at Autodesk... Read more →