The Building Coder

Revit 2021 Unit Types in Family Type Catalogues

Unfortunately, the new unit type name functionality can cause a problem loading a family with a type catalogue – Unit type update affects family type catalogue loading – New FreeCodeCamp courses – Padlocking The Building Coder... Read more →

Swissbau Basel and Comparing Family Part Atoms

Here is a last-minute announcement that I will be attending the Swissbau Basel on Wednesday, a quick hint to answer a support case that just came in today, a forum thread issue, and a pointer to a drum solo – Attending Swissbau Basel on Wednesday – Comparing families using part atoms – Maximum area rectangle in polygon – Neil Peart drum solo... Read more →

Comparing Symbols and Comparison Operators

Family symbols, aka family types, should normally be relied on to be constant. However, since families and types can actually be edited at will, they are sometimes not. Hence, the need to check and compare may arise... Read more →

Pet Change – Python + Dynamo Swap Nested Family

Pieter Schipper worked hard at solving the task of swapping nested families using Python and Dynamo and very kindly shares his solution here with us today, including his four Python scripts – Task at hand – Problems faced – Solution and detailed implementation – Collect all family instances in document – Export families via SaveAs – Update Nested Family Definitions – Reload updated families... Read more →

GetSimilarTypes, SnappingService and Title Labels

So many interesting discussions and inspiring solutions in the Revit API discussion forum! Here are a few, plus one non-forum beginner case – GetSimilarTypes filters for curtain wall door symbols – SnappingService – what does it actually do? – Get title block label parameters... Read more →

Secret Reference Line Faces

The open source space around the Revit API is continuously growing richer, solutions are shared and exciting discoveries are made, both in the Revit API discussion forum and elsewhere – Debugging, code signing and HOK Mission Control – Creating connectors on a reference line... Read more →

Protecting a Family from Tampering

The Forge accelerator in Rome is winding down with the demonstrations of what was achieved being recorded as I write. An interesting conversation I had at the celebratory dinner last night gave me an idea for a solution to a longstanding question on family tampering protection – Roma accelerator group photo – Protecting a family from tampering – Implementing a canonical key for geometrical objects... Read more →

NewFamilySymbolProfile Sample Add-In

Questions on how to use NewFamilySymbolProfile have come up a couple of times in the Revit API discussion forum. The short answer is: retrieve the family symbol from the profile family, then call the creation application NewFamilySymbolProfile method. I implemented a new sample add-in for you to demonstrate the steps using the Profiles_L-Angles.rfa profile family... Read more →

WPF Revit Family Browser and Vacation

I am away on vacation. In the meantime, Roman Lavrov shared his Revit Family Browser, saying: I am working on family browser for Revit using Revit API and WPF. Your blog helps me a lot, so I decide to share my work with you. I think, some ideas will be useful for other coders. If you have time, please take a look my program on GitHub at github.com/RomanLavrov/RevitFamilyBrowser... Read more →

Happy New Year, C++, Crypto and Content

Happy New Year to one and all! I had a great break over Christmas and New Year and hope you did as well. I continued checking into the Revit API discussion forum throughout and had several interesting discussions with the busy souls hanging out there – C++, audio, crypto and security – Prayer of the Mothers – Avoid remaking CAD content... Read more →

Roomedit3d Broadcast, Teigha BIM, Forge Webinar 3

My discussion with Philippe on integrating roomedit3dv3 with the rest of his Forge node.js boilerplate samples continues, as does the Forge hackathon webinar series. Furthermore, the Open Design Alliance made an interesting Revit related announcement – REST vs WebSocket and Roomedit3dv3 broadcast architecture – Teigha BIM announcement – Forge webinar series... Read more →

Avoid CAD Import in RFA, AAG16 and Endtrip

Some interesting topics of the day for this first cloudy one after a truly wonderful Indian summer – Avoid imported CAD content in RFA family definitions – Advances in Architectural Geometry 2016 – Endtrip full sound replacement... Read more →

tbc – The Building Coder Source and Index on GitHub

Developers frequently lament bad search functionality on Typepad-hosted blogs. Furthermore, it is always handy to have an offline local copy of any kind of important documentation you need to consult regularly. With a local copy of The Building Coder source text, you can use your standard system tools to search and index locally in any form you like. Finally, wouldn't it be nice to have a simple line-by-line index of all The Building Coder blog posts ever published? – Publishing The Building Coder source and index on GitHub – GitHub size limitations – Alternative blogging platforms – Fork and clone to create your own local installation – El Perro Semihundido by Goya... Read more →

Modelling Small Details

I am back from the BIM Programming conference and workshops in Madrid and rather flooded, so here is just a quick note on how to you can model small details in Revit, courtesy of Jose Ignacio Montes of Avatar BIM. As you are perfectly well aware, Revit will not allow you to model things smaller than 1/8th of an inch directly in the project environment. Jose presents a simple workaround using an imported DWG file... Read more →

Sharing, Dynamo and a Chinese Book

I returned from the Autodesk Cloud Accelerator in Prague, where I finished off cleaning up the FireRating in the Cloud sample and made some good inroads into the new CompHound project. Some learning resources and sharing philosophy – Håvard Vasshaug on Learning Dynamo and Sharing Content – Open Source BIM, IFC and FreeCAD – Chinese Revit API Book... Read more →