The Building Coder

Forum Français and Treeview Performance

As usual, I have been much too active in the Revit API discussion forum recently and worked too little for my taste here in the blog. Here are some of the recent items that I want to share plus a few pictures from my latest mountain outing – Marat's shapka ushanka and Balmer's Graetli – Naveen is a top solution author now – Revit et BIM en Français – Tree view performance optimisation – Underture... Read more →

Five Secrets of Revit API Coding

Joshua Lumley pointed out the recording he made for his BILT submission on five secrets of Revit API C# coding. Before getting to that, here are a couple of pictures from this last weekend's mountain tour – Ruessigrat, Brotmesser and Matthorn – Five secrets of Revit API Coding... Read more →

Reference Intersector and Deleting Reference Planes

We already looked at deleting unnamed non-hosting reference planes back in 2012 and 2014. Some things have changed since then, and the old code requires fixing and updating. Other interesting topics also want to be mentioned – Embodyment workshop – Bös Fulen mountain hike – Using ReferenceIntersector to place lighting fixture on ceiling face – Reformat stable representation string for dimensioning – Deleting unnamed non-hosting reference planes updated... Read more →

BAM Digital Construction and Drawing a Model Line

I am attending the BAM Digital Construction Live event in the UK and presenting on Forge for that domain. Today, I'll share my slide deck from this event and welcome my colleague Xiaodong answering his first Revit API cases – Forge for Digital Construction – Welcome Xiaodong and invoking the Draw Model Line command... Read more →

Dynamo on the Web?

Do you Dynamo? Do you have a potential application for Autodesk Dynamo on the Cloud? If yes, we want to talk to you... Read more →

Happy New Top CAD Blog, Public Models and Forge

Happy New Year! I had a really good break, although I spent the last ten days being ill and coming to grips with a serious sinusitis. I was still able to climb the Schafberg at Wildhaus once – Autodesk Forge Accelerator – Top CAD Blogs of 2015 – Public Revit models... Read more →

Clicks, DMU, Surfaces, FireRating Feedback, Vacation

Let me list some of the topics we discussed today in the Revit API discussion forum before I head off for vacation: Reacting to Windows mouse clicks in Revit. Reacting to changes and setting parameters using DMU or DocumentChanged. Creating a surface in Revit. FireRating in the Cloud feedback. Vacation Time Now. Summer has seriously arrived in Europe, and the weather is really good as well, for a change. I took advantage of it this weekend and climbed the Alphubel... Read more →

Creating a Sloped Wall

Several questions concerning programmatic creation of sloped walls came up recently, so let's take a look at that, point to some existing samples, and implement a fantastic new one that does it all, including mass family creation, instance insertion and face creation in one fell swoop: How to programmatically create a sloped wall Sloped wall versus sloped slab Creating a sloped wall from mass The Creator CreateModelLine method The Building Coder Samples download Floor creation fails for foundation floor types... Read more →

Basel.js Meetup View and Data API Demo

I am busy right now answering Revit API cases as usual, and preparing my Basel.js meetup View and Data API presentation for tomorrow evening. One of the cases caused me to add yet another iteration to last Friday's note on how to empower yourself to search for an answer on the Internet. Also, before I get to the technical stuff, let me mention that I went climbing again last weekend, after a long break, and in spite of the rather... Read more →

Properties in DWF, IFC, Tables and Extensible Storage

Let's discuss a couple of questions that accumulated recently on various aspects of properties in general: Properties in DWF export Mapping Revit and IFC properties Storing a table in a project Updating versus adding new extensible storage schemas Before getting to that, I'll briefly mention the happy fact that I yesterday went on my first outdoor climb for a while, up the Balmflue south ridge, a nice long route of 16 rope lengths in the Swiss Jura hills close to... Read more →

Access to Individual Elements in Linked Projects

Access to individual elements in linked projects is a relatively simple matter, but can still cause some confusion, as we can see below. We looked at various aspects of linking files and accessing the linked element data and geometry in the past, e.g. Linked files Hiding linked files List linked elements Access to linked file geometry List linked files and TransmissionData Linked element geometry access Selecting a face in a linked file Arnošt Löbel's AU 2012 class CP3455 on managing... Read more →

Setting the Compound Structure Core and Shell Layers

Modifying the compound layer structure of a wall or floor type is pretty well documented, and we already discussed the use of the SetCompoundStructure method to update the compound layer structure. However, how to define which layers are and are not part of the core is less obvious, which lead to the developer query below. Before I get to that, here is a snapshot of the north-east ridge and summit of the Hinderi Spillgerte (German) that I recently climbed: The... Read more →

ADN Mesh Data Custom Exporter to JSON

I mentioned my idea of implementing a custom exporter to JSON to drive Philippe Leefsma's online 3D WebGL viewer. Well, here it is. Muttenhorn Before getting to that, though, let me briefly mention that I went on a nice mountain with my friend Martin last Saturday, over the Gross Muttenhorn on the south side of the Furka pass. A glacier named Muttgletscher lies over its north-western flanks, and we crossed that on our ascent up to the west ridge. From... Read more →

Grand Canyon and AU Arrival

I always try to arrive early in Las Vegas to acclimatise and recover from jetlag before the conferences begin. I bring my sleeping bag and sleep in the desert. Sleeping in the cold dry winter desert under starlight, watching the sunset, the slow progress of the moon across the sky, the stars rotating over me, is the best acclimatisation I can imagine. I was blessed with some shooting stars during the last night as well. In previous years, I went... Read more →

RevitRubyShell Implementation and Installer

I had a very impressive train ride on Friday evening on my way up to meet my friends to climb the Spitzhorn mountain, happening to take the panoramic express up from Montreux to Gstaad, completely by chance. I was just expecting a normal train ride, but it turned out to be extremely beautiful, the most comfortable way I have yet experienced to get an almost overwhelming impression of Swiss mountain beauty without having to do any hiking, just looking out... Read more →

Melbourne Day Two

On the second day of the Revit API training here in Melbourne, we addressed a number of further interesting issues, both basic and beyond. Our sample code ended up demonstrating the following functionality: Revit MEP model creation: place a duct. Geometrical analysis: retrieving unique geometry vertices from a selected element. Besides that, we looked at extensible storage, and I compiled an updated version of the RstLink sample for Revit Structure 2012. I also received interesting comments on a previous post... Read more →

Point Cloud Unit Conversion

Happy New Year of the Dragon! Top: Happy New Year! Bottom: Lucky Peace! The Chinese dragon is the symbol of emperor and power. Thanks to Joe Ye and nipic.com for the image and translation! Besides programming Revit and climbing mountains, I also like climbing trees: Returning to the Revit API, the topic of units is a recurring theme, and here it is again rearing its beautiful head in the context of point cloud data access: Question: I am working on... Read more →

AU Begins and Point Cloud Overview

Once again I left the desert and the climbing in Red Rock and entered the air conditioned world of conference land. This year I was pretty leisurely about climbing, although I did at least a few climbs every day. I slept well and long, hiked in to Red Rock from the highway, read a book in the desert sunshine, and finally met up with people in the late morning. A memorable experience on my birthday on Saturday was meeting another... Read more →

Project Structure Generator on Autodesk Labs

I arrived safely in Las Vegas after a 12:40 hour flight to Los Angeles, 3:30 hour wait, und another flight of 1:05 hours. Pretty crazy. I had a headache after that, but not too bad, and I slept well out in the desert. Just like in previous years (08, 09, 09b, 10), my daytime jetlag therapy consists of climbing in Red Rock, this time with Sergio Colombo again, whom I first met and climbed with in 2008. We did the... Read more →

Revit IFC Exporter Released as Open Source

In June, Autodesk released the Revit STL exporter as open source. Now we are kicking of another even more exciting new open source project, really hot news for all Revit developers, especially if you are interested in IFC. Before we get to that, here is another little snippet on my weekend activities. Clariden Mountain I spent last Saturday in the Swiss Alps, climbing the Clariden Mountain with my friend Martin. It was not really a climb, just a hike up... Read more →

Leaving Ko Tao

After one more dive at Shark Island, my seventh, I decided to give up any more diving due to continued bad visibility. The weather here has not been so great either lately; somewhat cloudy most of the day, heavy rain for a while every evening, quite stormy and windy. It is still lovely to go swimming in the warm sea, though. We are at a nice place on the west side, on Jul Jula Beach. One of my favourite discoveries... Read more →

AU Begins

I left the desert and the climbing in Red Rock and entered the air conditioned world of conference land. My first task Monday morning was the one I found most challenging, the recording session for my virtual class on the Revit Family API, CP9118-1 The New Autodesk Revit Family API: Everything is Relative It was definitely an interesting experience, with an assistant fussing around to set things up and then sitting in a completely darkened room with several technicians managing... Read more →

Visible Elements

I am sitting here cramped up in an economy seat crossing the Atlantic Ocean as I write this. I should urgently be practicing and preparing for my sessions at AU, but somehow it feels as if writing a blog post requires slightly less space, so here goes. I would also like to answer some pending comments, but cannot right now due to lack of Internet access... After revisiting the topic of selecting all model elements in the last post, there... Read more →

Unrotate North

Update: A better algorithm than the one presented below is provided by the discussion on the project location. I spent this weekend on the Rigi Mountain together with seventy other people from the alpine club. Saturday it rained quite hard most of the day, unfortunately, but a couple of us still went on a very nice hike from Rigi Scheidegg across to and over the top of Rigi Hochflueh with a beautiful view down on the Lucerne Lake and the... Read more →

Journal File Replay

In spite of pretty mixed weather I went on a climb in the alps with my friend Robert on Saturday, the route Kurze Kombination (4c) on the mountain Schmalstöckli (2012 m) close to the Lidernenen Hütte. Here I am after the climb, just below the summit: And this is Robert on the summit itself: We would made another climb on the same mountain if the weather had not been pretty grey and moist. Anyway, now it is Monday morning, and... Read more →

Host Reference

Still enjoying my climbing and sunshine holiday with my sons in Avignon. Yesterday we went climbing and exploring the cliffs or 'calanque' of Cassis, east of Marseille (more images): Besides climbing, swimming in the Gard river and Mediterranean Sea, and blogging now and then, my sons are also artistically active: Returning to the Revit API, however: We already touched on the relationship between a host and its hosted elements in some previous posts. The first such topic was the relationship... Read more →

Revit and Dragonfly

Another post from my vacation in the Provence, where we have been climbing in Plan d'Orgon and Collias so far and bathing in the Gard river. Hot climbing in the sun and cool dips in the river are a great combination! This is based on a note I received from Emile Kfouri, the Autodesk Senior BIM Platform Manager in the AEC Solutions Division. The Dragonfly team sent an e-mail recently to inform us that Dragonfly has the ability to export... Read more →

VB Samples and Other Questions

I have been very quiet now for a few days. The reason is that I went on a climbing weekend to Mallorca with my brother and left my laptop in the car while we went for a climb. The car was broken into, and the laptop and all my valuables were stolen, right down to the bicycle keys. Since I had actually used the bicycle to get to the airport, the first thing I had to do on arriving back... Read more →

Happy New Year 2009

This break is great. I am really relaxing, and this machine is taboo ... and yet ... This is just a short note to say that I am having a good time, enjoying life, spending time with my kids and friends, occasionally looking in a mirror to watch at least some of the creases in my face relax a little. On December 26 I went for a brief climbing session just before sunset with my son Cornelius and his friend... Read more →

AU Begins

I have now arrived safely and happily at AU, with a day or two to acclimatise, un-jetlag, enjoy desert and nature and go climbing with Lisa and Steve on limestone in the Gun Club and with Manuela and Norbert on sandstone in the Red Rock Canyon on the way. Here is a list of the climbs I did in Red Rock with some photos: Black Corridor 71 Bonaire 5.9 72 Bon Ez 5.9+ 73 Crude Boys 5.10d 76 Vega Bonds... Read more →