The Building Coder

Model Group and DA4R Language in Forge

Today, let's look at two Japanese Forge questions, on model groups and the Revit engine language, another RevitLookup enhancement, and, while we're talking about languages, a surprising scientific discovery on naked mole-rat dialects – Retrieving Revit model group in Forge – Specifying the Revit UI language in DA4R – RevitLookup supports ScheduleDefinition GetField – Naked mole-rats speak in community dialects – Van Gogh 360... Read more →

Parameter Filter Checking Element Type and OCR

An important insight in using a filtered element collector with a parameter filter, a handy open source OCR tool and a few productivity tips – Parameter filter also checks element type – Capture2Text, a handy OCR tool – Productivity tips... Read more →

Sheet View Xform, Coords, Img Export and Title Block

Today, we look at accessing and exporting sheet view coordinates, transforms, images and title block data, including the title block geometry and text values – Extracting title block geometry and text – Element coordinates on sheet – Export view as high quality image... Read more →

Sketch-Based Creation and Editing API Preview

The wish to be able to programmatically access and modify sketch-based elements is long-standing, e.g., for editing an existing slab boundary. Here is an invitation to take a look at the Revit Preview (aka beta), offering a chance to provide feedback on several new sketch-based element creation and editing APIs... Read more →

Forge at AU and Open Source Property Access

Today, we take a look at a fix for the RvtVa3c custom exporter and a Forge issue related to Revit property access – Pull metadata from RVT in BIM 360 – Forge at AU class recordings – RvtVa3c updated and issues fixed... Read more →

Line Subcategory Filter, Modification Tracker and NW

I played around a bit with the NavisWorks API and discovered a nice Revit project modification tracking tool in Dynamo – Filter for detail lines subcategory – Revit project modification tracking – Retrieving all NavisWorks model properties – Node.js best practices – Early history of programming and C... Read more →

Dynamo Book and Texture Bitmap UV Coordinates

The week is coming to an end all too quickly... here are some compelling topics before we enter the weekend – Explaining texture UV mapping using AVF – Más Allá de Dynamo Spanish-language book – A detailed 3D model of a human cell... 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 →

FireRevit, Deprecated API and Elbow Centre Point

Topics for today – Revit 2021 DisplayUnitType – Eliminated TBC samples deprecated API usage – Calculating the elbow centre – FireRevit identifies room location for fire escape routes... Read more →

Save and Restore 3D View Camera Settings

Valerii Nozdrenkov shares a powerful solution to save and restore the complete 3D view camera settings and Ehsan Iran-Nejad publishes his set of Revit cheat sheets – Serialising 3D view camera settings – Revit cheat sheets... Read more →

RevitLookup Continuous Integration and GraphQL

Let's start the week with a look at the new RevitLookup CI system and a GraphQL interface for Revit – RevitLookup CI on GitLab – GitLab CI YAML – GraphQL for Revit – The Tamm Tree... Read more →

Duct Shape, BipChecker Facelift and @ Fonts

I begin this week with a rather mixed bag of interesting issues from the last – Get MEP duct shape update – Determining differences between DLL versions – BipChecker facelift – Fonts with '@' prefix... Read more →

Revit Camera FOV, Forge Partner Talks and Jobs

Today we resuscitate a five-year old Revit API answer, still as fresh and useful as ever, followed by Forge and job opportunities truly fresh off the presses – Determining the Revit Camera FOV – Forge Partner Talks – Jobs at Autodesk... Read more →

DA4R I/O, Logging, Updater and Custom Properties

Forge Design Automation for Revit or DA4R is really starting to take off – Display custom properties – Upgrade Revit file version – Logging – Input and output files – CesiumJS open source 3D mapping – Banksy's wife hates home office – Virtual Forge accelerator... Read more →

Revit 2021 Cloud Model API

A nice big egg has been laid just in time for Easter, with the beautiful springtime in full bloom – Revit 2021 – BIM 360 Docs folder permission API – Revit 2021 multi-region cloud model API – Cloud model API changes – How to open a cloud model – How to save a local file to a non-workshared cloud model – SaveAsCloudModel information in web browser and via the Forge DM API... Read more →

Getting Title Block Data and ViewSheet from View

Today, let's highlight two view related data access topics – Get ViewSheet from View – Title block data access... Read more →

Torsion Tools, Command Event and Info in DA4R

As always, interesting topics keep pouring in from the Revit API discussion forum and elsewhere – Torsion Tools GitHub launch and solution overview – Detect command launch – SelectableInViewFilter – Access project location in Forge – Distinguish structural elements and access volume information in Forge... Read more →

Dashboard, CreateViaOffset and Room Outer Outline

An inconclusive struggle to use CurveLoop.CreateViaOffset leads us once again to thank the powers that be for the integer-based 2D Boolean Clipper library, and some thoughts on project dashboards – Extracting data for project dashboard – Specifying a list of offsets to CreateViaOffset – Alternatives to determine room outline including surrounding walls... Read more →

Retrieving the Electrical Load from a Fixture

Today is my birthday, so I am trying hard to work less. Very kindly, Alexander Ignatovich provided a gift for the day in the form of a new external command CmdElectricalLoad in The Building Coder samples. showing how to retrieve the value of the `Load` column in the electrical system browser for a specific fixture family instance... Read more →

Material, Physical and Thermal Assets

Today, we concentrate fully on material, physical and thermal assets – Issues accessing and creating material assets – Access to all material asset properties – No access to material keywords – Access to environment and render settings – Determine full path to texture bitmap... Read more →

Secret Series 2, CAD Link Status and DWG Blocks

Joshua Lumley shares video #2 in his secret series, access to the CAD link status string and block in DWG export – Secrets of Revit API coding part 2 – Video 2 in the secret series – Getting CAD link status – Making blocks in Revit DWG export... Read more →

Extensible Storage, External Event, DLL, Pipe Face

Preserving another couple of interesting recent threads from the Revit API discussion forum on various extensible and external topics – Extensible storage reading trouble – External event implementation – External DLL loading – External side face of a pipe... Read more →

DevCon, Sun with True North and RVT without Revit

Please note that the European Forge DevCon in Darmstadt is looming imminent. Furthermore, here are some notes on two recent Revit programming discussions and a pointer to some of the top-rated online classes – DevCon Darmstadt – Personal DevCon invitation from Jim Quanci – Sun direction adjusted for project true north – Reading an RVT file without Revit – The top 100 free online courses... Read more →

TLS Requirement, PDF Data and Collada DAE Exporter

An important Revit add-in requirement regarding Transport Layer Security (TLS) settings, a short note on accessing PDF image data from an import instance, and an update of the Collada DAE custom exporter for use in Revit 2020 – Required Transport Layer Security (TLS) settings – Accessing imported PDF image data in Revit – Custom Collada exporter updated and fixed... 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 →

New PC, KLH Snoop, Annotations and Vertex Handling

I have been very busy and motivated indeed setting up a new computer this week. Nonetheless, I was able to keep going full steam with Revit API related issues as well – Setting up a new MacBook – KLH Engineers RevitDeveloperTools snooping tool – Pulling text from annotation tags – Vertex handling – The true meaning of pizza... Read more →

Auto-Dimension Filled Region Boundary

I am back from my break and picked up the question about creating dimensions for a filled region boundary – Programmatically creating dimensions for a filled region – Coding suggestion – Final solution... Read more →

Element Identifiers in RVT, IFC, NW and Forge

A recent internal discussion clarifies Revit element identification in Forge, Navisworks and IFC, some new thoughts on consciousness versus AI, and a couple of topics of personal interest – Two Nice summer mountain hikes – Revit element ids in Forge via Navisworks and IFC – Some aspects of consciousness may be beyond reach of ai – Trees might help against global warming – Holidays ahead... Read more →

Accelerator, Dash Pattern Fix, Rotation and Phase

I am participating in the Forge Accelerator in Barcelona this week. Let me mention some pending Revit API issues before diving into any accelerator topics – AddMaterials enhancements – Retrieving element rotation – Changing the phase created parameter... Read more →

SketchIt, Lookup Family Types, Definition Names

Today, we present yet another RevitLookup enhancement, a note on an undocumented built-in parameter change and a neat Forge Design Automation for Revit sample app – RevitLookup family types and parameter definition names – Bitmap aspect ratio built-in parameter renamed – DA4R SketchIt demo generates walls... Read more →

Access BIM360 Cloud Links, Thumbnail and Dynamo

This post is somewhat overdue and hence rather full of various topics, mainly due to my struggles with my MacBook slowing to an unbearable crawl in the heat last week – Accessing BIM360 cloud links – Retrieve RVT preview thumbnail image with Python – Paolo's Dynamo primer and slide deck compendium – Slow MacBook with kernel_task using several 100% CPU – Failings of the political establishment... Read more →

Retrieving Section View Intersection Cut Geometry

I played around creating a new SectionCutGeo add-in to retrieve the geometry resulting from cutting a family instance in a section view. This was prompted the Revit API discussion forum thread on getting intersection lines from cut in section view – Intersection of section and family instance task – Solution options, geometry elements and view settings – Retrieving curves in the cut plane – Helper methods and external command mainline – Sample model and results – Caveat... Read more →

Tagging a Linked Element

The linked file enhancements introduced in the Revit 2014 API obviously need more awareness – Link enhancements – Conversion of geometric references – Tagging a linked element – Using the stable representation to tag a linked element – List all untagged doors... Read more →

Batch Processing and Aspects of AsStringValue

I avoid answering non-confidential questions in private, as I tell everyone who tries to do so. However, some non-confidential queries still come in via ADN. Here are two that came in today that might be of general interest and therefore seem worth sharing – Batch processing Revit families and documents – AsString and AsValueString results differ... Read more →

Setting Material Texture Path in EditScope

Lukáš Kohout brought up an interesting and important issue on changing material texture path with EditScope – How to set the material texture path? – Suggestions – Solution and sample material – ChangeRenderingTexturePath method – Step by step guide – Test run... Read more →

Determine Exact Opening by Demolishing

We have looked at numerous different approaches to determine wall openings in the past, so it seems pretty hard to nail down, and pretty important to solve. Now Håvard Leding of Symetri contributed yet another exciting idea which highlights a number of surprising aspects, demonstrates a further creative use case for GetDependentElements and expands on his recent RevitLookup enhancement to retrieve and snoop dependent elements – Get demolished solid – Why? – Questions... Read more →

Forge Picture, Debugging, Snooping Appearances

Today, let's look at the Forge architecture, Revit add-in debug, edit and continue, and yet another RevitLookup enhancement – High-level picture of Forge – Debug and continue in a Revit add-in – Snooping appearance assets... Read more →

Assigning a Level to an Element Missing It

I recently implemented the IfcSpaceZoneBoundaries add-in to link in and analyse IFC file zones and spaces, then prepared it for use in Forge Design Automation. Now I want to add level information to the CSV export. However, the DirectShape elements created to represent the rooms and zones have no valid level assigned, so their Level property is invalid. Happily, we can easily analyse the BIM and generate the equivalent information ourselves – Retrieve levels sorted by elevation – Determine level from element elevation – Carl Bass and Zoox autonomous vehicles – Physical reasons to be happy to be alive... Read more →

Stable Reference Relationships

Håvard Leding explores relationships between stable reference of main elements and their sub-elements, related to the intriguing undocumented ElementId relationships and stable representation magic voodoo. We need to access the sketch association to the element being sketched. I printed out stable references for 3 floors, and also the references for each ModelLine in their 3 Sketch elements... Read more →

Link in and Analyse IFC File Zones and Spaces

I am working on extracting room and zone information from IFC files, both geometry and relationships, specifically room and zone boundaries and containment. My new IfcSpaceZoneBoundaries add-in project retrieves this information, exports it to CSV and demonstrates a host of other important aspects – What happens on linking in an IFC file? – Read user configuration input settings from a file – Log messages, warnings and errors to an output file – Read the IFC properties stored as shared parameters – Extract the horizontal boundary information from a DirectShape element – Export the relevant data to CSV – Programmatically link in an IFC file into a Revit RVT project – Retrieve all currently linked-in IFC files from the Revit application... Read more →

New RevitLookup Snoops Edges, Faces and Links

Håvard Leding of Symetri added three new commands to RevitLookup – Three new RevitLookup commands – About "Snoop Pick Face" – About "Pick Linked Element" – Running in a family document... Read more →

Retrieving Linked IfcZone Elements Using Python

Today, I present a little exploration of how to access zones defined in an IFC file in Revit. If you are following this blog closely, you might guess that this is related to the room boundary CSV exporter project that I recently discussed. For this exploration, I installed and used RevitPythonShell. Here are the detailed steps – Importing IFC zones into Revit – Installing and using RevitPythonShell – Programmatically accessing IFC zones in Revit... Read more →

Python Rotate Picked Around Bounding Box Centre

Let's highlight a nice interactive didactical Python-based Revit API learning challenge on how to get the bounding box from a Revit element and determine its centre – Cyril's Python HVAC blog – Rotating elements around their centre in Python – Retrieve element and bounding box from picked reference – Use location point instead of bounding box centre – Final working solution... Read more →

Accessing Dimension Line Weight

Today we share a quickie from the Revit API discussion forum thread on how to access the line weight for dimension lines – I want to programmatically access a dimension line's line weight... Read more →

Forge DevCon Keynote and BIM360 Model Access

The November Forge DevCon keynote address has been published. Fittingly, some new hints on accessing Revit models from BIM360 – Forge DevCon 2018 keynote – Accessing BIM360 models... Read more →

Efficient and Elegant Code

I remain busy, mainly in the Revit API discussion forum. Here are three recent samples dealing with pretty generic questions – Efficiency and elegance in simple code – Pushing wall type to doors... Read more →

Dashboard, Regen and Revit API Panel at AU

Topics to start the week – Revit API panel at AU in Las Vegas – Automatic BIM dashboard data extraction – When to regenerate the document? – RevitLookup centre parent for forms... Read more →

View Template Include Setting

A solution to a longstanding question on the view template 'include' setting – Does the Revit API provide any access to the view template 'include' settings defined by the check boxes in this form? – I can get the 'includes' via viewTemplate.GetNonControlledTemplateParameterIds. The method returns a list of parameter ids, and you can then use viewTemplate.Parameters to map them... Read more →

Tailor Your BIM with F#, Forge, IFC and Takeoffs

I have a whole bunch of exciting overdue topics lined up. Let's start with these – Tailor Your BIM sums room areas with F# – Control view for design option elements with F# – Copy legend view and component from background file – Forge RVT to IFC translation defaults to 2x3 – Latitude and longitude in Revit IFC export – Takeoff creation requires branch duct... Read more →

Auto-Run an Add-In for Design Automation

Still at the Forge Accelerator in Rome and looking further into the Forge Design Automation API for Revit. Althpough it is not yet available or documented, you can still start preparing your add-in for the day when it comes – Aspects to consider – Accessing the Revit Application object – DB application add-in manifest – Next steps... Read more →