The Building Coder

Export, gbXML and Python Tips

Discussions on Python, handling DLLs, and various aspects of exporting to gbXML, FBX and MongoDB – DLL paradise in Python – Multiple gbXML export – GbXML energy settings – Automate FBX export with SendKeys – RFA export to MongoDB... 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 →

Unique Id and IFC GUID Parameter

We take yet another look at element ids and maintaining connectivity with IFC GUIDs – Linking IFC export with modified BIM – You cannot control the unique id – You can control the IFC Export GUID... Read more →

Drilling Holes in Beams and Other Projects

I am working on a few side projects and proofs of concept for my own and other teams – RvtParamDrop exports visible element properties – RvtLock3r validates BIM element properties – Drilling holes in beams... 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 →

Detailed 2D Text and Other Element Geometry

The 2D custom exporter provides a basis for a new and much more powerful approach to access detailed 2D geometry – Retrieve dimension text height and width – Determine text font geometry – Retrieve 2D geometry of any element... Read more →

Triangle Count, New Floor and Slab Creation

Getting back into the flow after my summer break – Model polygon or triangle count – Floor creation API clarification – Dynamo Studio EOL – My solar power project... Read more →

Flip, Mirror, Transform and Transient Graphics

How are reflections like flip and mirror reflected in the BIM element transform? – Transient elements hack – Temporary incanvas graphics API video – Shared versus non-shared parameter creation – Direct PDF export and DA4R... Read more →

PDF Export, ForgeTypeId and Multi-Target Add-In

Revit 2022 has been released. Two important features are parameter API enhancements and built-in PDF export functionality – Replace deprecated ParameterType with ForgeTypeId – Multi-target 2021 and 2022 using MSBuild – PDF export default paper format can fail – PDF export output file naming – Five beginner mistakes... Read more →

Face Triangulation LOD, .NET 5 and Core

Today, we discuss cores, splinters and data – Using .NET 5 and Core – Controlling face triangulation LOD – SQL versus NoSQL... 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 →

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 →

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 →

Revit 2021.1 and Normalising Custom Export UV

The Revit update release is now available, and some insights on normalising UVs in the custom exporter – The Revit 2021.1 update – Normalising UVs in custom exporter – Set up your own free VPN server... Read more →

Selection in Link, Cancel in Export, Multithreading

Cool topics to wrap up this hot and exciting week – Are you using the derived analytical model? – Pick room in current project or linked model – Determine whether custom export was cancelled – Multi-threading with the single-threaded Revit API – Beginner’s guide to abstraction... Read more →

Creating Material Texture and Retaining Pixels

A bunch of interesting discussions on creating material with texture, modifying element level, cutting off image pixels and other things – Creating a material with texture in Revit and Forge – Export image cutting off pixels – Change level of existing element – Physics is cool – Forge job openings... Read more →

Automatically Open Correct RVT File Version

Today, let's address a couple of quick questions and share a useful utility – How to determine Revit export image coordinates – Problems compiling and installing the Revit SDK samples – RvtVerFileOpen utility opens correct RVT file version – Angular and react tutorials – Give and take... Read more →

Integrating the Helix 3D Viewer with a WPF Add-In

This is The Building Coder post number 1800, in its eleventh year of existence. We celebrate by highlighting the integration of a 3D geometry and model viewer in a Revit add-in with a solution making use of several interesting techniques, including the use of IPC for add-in disentanglement from third-party library dependencies and a new custom exporter implementation for OBJ. This issue was raised in two discussions, on a plug-in that displays Revit's 3D window content and using a geometry viewer in a Revit add-in to preview results... 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 →

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 →

Roadmap, Rebar Curves, Wizard Zip and More

Topics for this week – Revit public roadmap July 2019 – Rebar curves – Built-in zip utility for add-in wizard – Only detail section views can be used for top view direction – Displaying an RFA family instance in DA4R – Revit 2020 alters the TEMP file system variable – Lattice multiplication... 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 →

Room Volume glTF Generator

I travelled home from the Barcelona Forge accelerator and continued working on the room volume exporter. I now implemented support for glTF, the GL Transmission Format. A few more little items to wrap up the Barcelona topic – Kean Walmsley's report on this year's Forge Accelerator in Barcelona – My two favourite restaurants in Poblenou... Read more →

Room Closed Shell DirectShape for Forge Viewer

I explored three main topics here at the Forge accelerator – Room closed shell solid visibility in the Forge viewer – Rebar simplification: replace rebar elements with simplified solids or model curves – glTF export – Today, I'll dive deeper into the first – IFC exporter utility adds new built-in parameter – Barcelona Forge accelerator – Room closed shell in the Forge viewer – Triangulate the solid face by face – Triangulate entire solid – Tessellation accuracy control documentation error... Read more →

DirectShape Element to Represent Room Volume

Yesterday, I implemented a new add-in, RoomVolumeDirectShape, that creates DirectShape elements representing the volumes of all the rooms – Request to display room volumes in Forge SVF file – RoomVolumeDirectShape functionality – Retrieving all element properties – Converting a .NET dictionary to JSON – Generating DirectShape from ClosedShell – Complete external command class Execute method – Sample model and results – Challenges encountered underway – Cherry BIM Services – On the value of the "Loss Method" property – AI-generated talking head models... Read more →

New Revit 2020 SDK Samples

Question: What can we do with the new Revit 2020 API features? Well, just like most of the existing functionality, the enhancements and some typical yet simple use cases for them are demonstrated by the updated SDK samples. Revit 2020 sports five brand new SDK samples – AttachedDetailGroup – CreateTrianglesTopography – Custom2DExporter – PathOfTravel – ViewTemplateCreation – This list also highlights some the most exciting areas of enhancement... Read more →

Forge DA4R IFC Support and Snoop Enhancements

Let's close this eventful week with two important enhancements added to the Forge Design Automation API for Revit and our beloved RevitLookup tool – IFC Support in the Design Automation for Revit API – RevitLookup Snoop Enhancements... 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 →

Scaling, Face and Mesh Triangle Normals

Let's look at a couple of scaling and triangle orientation issues that recently came up – Transform and scaling in Forge – ModPlus and scaling text in dockable panel – Exporting view image extents – Mesh triangle orientation – PlanarFace normal... Read more →

Room Boundaries to CSV and WPF Template

Happy New Year! I spent some time during the winter break working on CSV export of room boundaries for a Forge BIM surface classification tool. Ali Asad presented a new Visual Studio WPF MVVM Revit add-in template – Export room boundaries to CSV for Forge surface classification – Visual Studio WPF MVVM Revit add-in template... Read more →

Dynamo, Symbol vs Type and Exporter Exception

Today we discuss a couple of Dynamo considerations, Revit family and element fundamental concepts, and an exception handler required for a custom exporter – Revit API versus Dynamo for Revit – Dynamo 2.0.X versus 1.3.3 – Difference between FamilySymbol and ElementType – Custom exporter Execute may throw – Turned on Git LFS... Read more →

Exported File Path and Revit Structural Analysis SDK

I am busy in the Revit API discussion forum. However, you can check the discussions there yourself. Here and now, I'll mention some different topics – oops, one of them is from there after all – RST and the Structural Analysis SDK – Determining the path of a recently exported file – Driving NavisWorks programmatically via ExecuteCommand – The Autodesk assistant Ava and the uncanny valley... Read more →

Getting All Parameter Values

How to export all the Revit data to an external database? It is very simple to extract all the parameter data. Let's implement a solution to do so – Existing sample implementations – Black box input – Choices for the output and its structure – Retrieve parameter values from an element – FilterCategoryRule versus category filters – Category description extension method – Retrieve parameter data for all elements of given categories – External command Execute mainline – Sample run results – Download... Read more →

Export Geometry and Snoop Stable Representation

Александр Пекшев aka Modis @Pekshev submitted a very succinct and useful pull request for RevitLookup that I integrated right away, and provides many other valuable inputs as well – Snoop stable representation of References – Project point on plane correction – Revit export geometry to AutoCAD via XML – RevitExportGeometryToAutocad – Description – Versions – Using – Example... Read more →

MergedViews and Exporting to a Single DWG

Some insight on the use of the MergedViews property provided by the DGN, DWG and DWG export options classes and other ideas to export multiple views into a single DWG file – Question: I want to combine and export multiple views into one single DWG file. I set the option MergedViews, but the code still generates multiple DWG files for the views... Read more →

Revit Tools for MomenTUM Pedestrian Simulation

Christian Thieme of the Chair of Computational Modeling and Simulation at TUM, the Technical University Munich, shares his tools connecting Revit to the MomenTUM agent-based pedestrian simulation framework – Giving something back to the community – Project overview – Export workflow – Import and display results workflow – Transformation from XYZ to UV... Read more →

AreaLoad Force Direction, CMake and SDK Access

Here are some of the topics I dealt with in the last couple of days – CMake and YoAudio – AutoCAD and Revit SDK Access and Content – Determining AreaLoad direction and value from its force vectors – ExportCncFab 2018... Read more →

Material Texture Path

Here is an official answer from the Revit development team on the long-standing and recurrent issue on retrieving the path to a specific material texture bitmap file – Question: I am working on an exporter plugin for Revit that exports all geometry from selected objects using the CustomExporter framework. When extracting object materials, I can successfully get most of the information, but I can't seem to find the path to the material texture Read more →

NuGet Package Update, Rooms and Views in Forge

Two little items to point out before we end the week – Select Rooms and Views to Publish to the Cloud – Revit 2018.1 API NuGet Packages... Read more →

Hotfix Resolves Export and Print Issue

Here is just a quick note to begin the week with the good news that the Revit 2018 issue reported in the Revit API discussion forum thread on Revit 2018, DWF, shaded views, and Windows explorer bug is resolved by the hotfix to handle the product crash when communicating with licensing server. It can apparently also occur when exporting or printing views... Read more →

Wall and Opening Tessellation

Let's turn to a geometric question on tessellation, expanding on the discussion on TessellateSolidOrShell. I am exporting Revit wall geometry to an external application for comparison of net and gross wall areas. I have a problem with the fact that Face.Triangulate(double levelOfDetail) creates a different tessellation segmentation of neighbouring faces for the wall and its opening, although the underlying intersection curve between them is obviously the same. Why does the tessellation segmentation differ in this manner? The levelOfDetail in unchanged... Read more →

Forgify

I am officially taking time off right now, but still jumping in here and there anyway, e.g. in an urgent case to reduce the RVT model file size before passing it into the Forge translator – RvtForgify – Forge read-write – Forge in an Enterprise Service Bus... Read more →

Events, UV Coordinates and Rooms on Level

A lot of interesting solutions were shared in the Revit API discussion forum and private email messages during my absence last week, and several exciting events are looming – Forge Accelerator in Gothenburg – AEC Hackathon in Munich – Autodesk University in London – Retrieve and map texture UV coordinates exporting geometry and material – Collect all rooms on a given level... Read more →

Family Category and Two Energy Model Types

Let's pick up two more topics from the Revit API discussion forum today – Family Category property is not always set – Two different energy analysis model types – gbXML export options – BuildingEnvelopeAnalyzer class – EnergyAnalysisDetailModel creation from building elements and volumes – EnergyAnalysisDetailModelOptions... Read more →

HoloLens Escape Path Waypoint JSON Exporter

Last week, I worked with Kean Walmsley on his entry for the first global Autodesk Hackathon: a HoloLens-based tool for navigating low visibility environments, resulting in the new HoloGuide Autodesk Hackathon project. My modest contribution is the ExportWaypointsJson Revit add-in, an external application implementing the main command, exporting the waypoints, and a subsidiary option settings command, displaying a form, validating input and storing the user preferences. The main command simply prompts the user to pick a model line in the Revit project, traverses it, determines waypoints at predefined intervals and exports them to JSON for consumption by the HoloGuide visualisation... Read more →

Consistency of IFC GUID and UniqueId

Angel Velez provided further clarification on the relationship between the Revit element UniqueId and the IFC GUID generated from it, prompted by the Revit API discussion forum thread on abnormal modification of Element.UniqueId... Read more →

UnitUtils Converting Units for Unit Weight

Here comes a quick clarification of the units used for the UnitWeight built-in parameter PHY_MATERIAL_PARAM_UNIT_WEIGHT. One example usage is to calculate the total weight of rebars in a project... Read more →

Selecting RVT 3D Views for Forge Translation

By default, the SVF translation process for the Forge Viewer extracts and transmits all 2D views from a Revit RVT BIM project file, but only the standard "{3D}" view. This behaviour can be modified manually by installing A360 Collaboration for Revit (C4R), launching 'Views for A360' and selecting the desired additional views. How can I programmatically select which views are being extracted from a Revit document so they show up in the Forge Viewer? Read more →

Exporting RVT BIM to JSON, WebGL and Forge

I am happy to say that I returned safe and sound to Switzerland from my travels for the Forge DevCon and Cloud Accelerator. Since then, I rounded off the hierarchical MEP system exporter to a JSON graph for interaction with it in the Forge viewer, worked on an update of the ADN JSON mesh exporter and helped my son Christopher getting started with C# scripting to drive audio effects for professional spatialized sound design for computer games – More TraverseAllSystems updates – CustomExporterAdnMeshJson updates – ADN JSON Exporter Alternatives to View RVT in WebGL – vA3C – The Forge Viewer – Getting started with Unity C# scripting – Opendesk at Autodesk Forge Accelerator Barcelona... Read more →

MEP System Structure in Hierarchical JSON Graph

Yesterday, I presented the new TraverseAllSystems add-in to traverse all MEP system graphs and export their connected hierarchical structure to JSON and XML that I am helping the USC team with here at the San Francisco cloud accelerator. I continued with that today, and also integrated a minor enhancement to RevitLookup – TraverseAllSystems updates – Shared parameter creation – Options – Bottom-up JSON structure – Top-down JSON structure – TraversalTree JSON output generator – TreeNode JSON output generator – Download and to do – RevitLookup updates... Read more →