The Building Coder

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 →

Element Diff Compare, Shapely and RDBE

Exciting new and enhanced tools and libraries to check out – Revit element difference comparison – The Revit database explorer RDBE – The Shapely Python 2D geometry library – Measuring developer productivity... Read more →

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 →

What's New in the Revit 2020.1 API

Revit 2020.1 was released and an updated Revit SDK has now been published for it – Additions to the Revit 2020.1 API – Systems analysis API additions – Mechanical analytical systems – Zone equipment – System zones – Systems analysis and analysis reports – Export to gbXML – View API additions – Temporary view mode API – Schedule API additions – Striped rows – Path of travel API additions – Reveal obstacles mode for path of travel – Options API additions – Color options – Rebar API additions – Rebar constraints – Installation and compilation – RvtSamples Setup... 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 →

Determining Wall Cut Area for a Specific Room

We looked at calculating gross and net wall areas last year, with a later enhancement to use IFCExportUtils to determine the door and window area, resulting in the two respective projects and GitHub repositories, SpatialElementGeometryCalculator and ExporterIfcUtilsWinArea. Several developers have been busy expanding on those to determine surface areas of subfaces, for instance for openings in walls spanning multiple rooms... Read more →

Gross and Net Wall Area Calculation Enhancement

We make further enhancements to the on-going project to determine gross and net areas and volumes, obviously a fundamental issue to BIM. And I have more news to share as well: Playing with my WebGL viewer WebGL Developers meetup in NYC April 21 AEC Hackathon in Dallas May 1-3 Angelhack in Dubai May 7-9 Angelhack in Athens June 5-7 Wall area calculation handling multiple openings in multiple walls in multiple rooms Playing with my WebGL Viewer My last post was... Read more →

Calculating Gross and Net Wall Areas

Determination of gross and net areas and volumes is fundamental to BIM. Here is an interesting solution to determine the gross and net area of a wall, i.e. with and without its openings, making use of the SpatialElementGeometryCalculator and the temporary transaction trick. The question was raised and solved by Phillip Miller of Kiwi Codes Solutions Ltd, starting with the Revit API discussion forum thread on door/window areas: Question: I need to determine the cut areas of windows and doors... Read more →

Launching a Stand-alone Executable

A colleague of mine asked for some help implementing a Revit add-in to launch an external stand-alone Windows executable from the Revit user interface. Since this might be useful to others as well, here is a summary of our discussion and solution: Question: I am working on a windows application using GBS API to perform building parametric analysis (energy consumption in terms of comparison of window glazing materials, building orientation). Currently, I am exporting the gbxml file, saving it on... Read more →

Revit 2014 SDK and Visual Debugging Tools

Two hot topics for today, especially the first: Updated Revit 2014 SDK Visual debugging tools Updated Revit 2014 SDK An updated Revit 2014 SDK is live on the ADN Open Revit developer page now: www.autodesk.com/developrevit This version includes RevitLookup and the AddInManager! Visual Debugging Tools Rudolf Honke of Mensch und Maschine acadGraph GmbH discovered a glitch in the definition of the room solids in one of the standard sample RVT project files. Rudi says: When testing VRML exporter with Revit... Read more →

URL and Other Buttons, XYZ Points and Vectors

Let me summarise a very few of the topics I have been chatting with people about in the past few days: Ribbon button identification Opening a URL from a ribbon button XYZ comparison and point and vector behaviour Autodesk API overview The Green Building Studio GBS REST API Actually, to tell the truth, it is just one day, so far, this week. Wow, my days are too full. I am getting nothing else done! Ribbon Button Identification Here is a... Read more →

Building Performance Analysis and Face Tessellation

I am busy with Autodesk University and developer conference preparations. The Mac is happily chugging along. Welcome to Building Performance Analysis In spite of these busy times, Emile Kfouri and John Kennedy just launched a new blog on the topic of Building Performance Analysis that will probably be of great interest to many of us Revit API aficionados. Meanwhile, here is an API issue that raises a couple of new points: Triangulation Level of Detail Question: I am triangulating Revit... Read more →

The Revit MEP 2012 API

The Revit 2012 API includes a number of important MEP specific enhancements, some completely new APIs have been added which are especially useful in the MEP domain, and last but not least, all of the many significant Revit platform enhancements are useful for MEP as well. The major Revit MEP enhancements include: Placeholder ducts and pipes Duct and pipe insulation and lining Read and write access to MEP pipe settings and sizes A number of minor enhancements have also been... Read more →

Project Vasari API

I mentioned the Autodesk Project Vasari last week, and the first question from Fernando Malard was whether it also provides an API. The question makes a lot of sense on this blog, since everything we discuss here is related to the Revit API. I thought Vasari would be an exception. Surprisingly, this is not the case. Ritchie Jackson asked the same thing, and received the following very satisfying reply from Matt Jezyk: Question: Vasari has the potential to be a... Read more →

Autodesk Project Vasari

Autodesk Project Vasari is an easy-to-use, standalone design tool with analysis capabilities available via the cloud, built on the same technology as Revit, aimed at architectural designers and building energy analysts. It is focused on conceptual building design using both geometric and parametric modelling and supports performance-based design via integrated energy modelling and analysis features. It is compatible with Revit in that files created with it can be opened using Revit 2011, and vice versa. There are some limitations in... Read more →

Subscription Release and Updated SDK

Lots of really important news coming in right now, both because the mid-year updates of the Revit family products are now available and because we just released the Revit 2011 DevTV recordings that we are so excited about. Similar to last year, Autodesk provides two types of mid-year updates to Revit: The Web Update 2 (WU2) that I recently discussed. The Subscription Release. Unlike the public web updates, the Revit 2011 subscription releases are available only for subscription customers. Updated... Read more →

gbXML Webcast

Autodesk and the Green Building XML (gbXML) Advisory Board invites you to attend a free webcast titled "Using Green Building XML (gbXML) for Sustainable Building Design - Part II" on January 21, 2010 at 10:00 to 11:00 am PST. Presented by gbXML stakeholders, this webcast will demonstrate how tools for Building Information Modeling (BIM) can integrate with various analyses software, using the interoperability of gbXML to help create more sustainable building designs. Presentations and product demos will include the following:... Read more →

Revit API Flavours

Maher raised an interesting question regarding the different flavours of the Revit API: Question: I have a few questions on Revit MEP, Arch, and Structure in general. What are the major highlights of each API? I downloaded the SDK and tried to read through. But could not get my head around it as it is very overwhelming. It would be great if you could post something in the difference between these three flavours both in terms of API and in... Read more →

Room Occupancy

Shifali asked a question on reading and writing the room occupancy: Question: We get the document from ExternalCommandData object's Application and the project information in document. We need to store the construction type of the current document or project file. Moreover, we get the Room elements of the document but we need to store the occupancy type of each room for applying the International Building Code for compliance reports of the project. We also need access to the BuildingConstruction and... Read more →

The Revit MEP API

By the time you read this, I will be away happily on a one-week vacation in Italy. I hope you and the blog manage yourselves and behave well until I return. I scheduled some items to be published in my absence, though. In previous posts, we already had a look at the new MEP-specific API features in Revit 2010 and the classes involved in defining and representing MEP connectors in particular. On August 27th 2009, we held the first webcast... Read more →

DWG Export Filename

Here is a question handled by Joe Ye that I thought might be of general interest. It makes use of the Revit SDK sample ImportExport converted to VB.NET. We mentioned the issue of converting Revit SDK samples from C# to VB in one post, and Adam Nagy later presented a more complete port. Question: I am making an application to export Revit views to DWG files. I used the ImportExport sample converted to VB.NET as a basis. I am having... Read more →

Free gbXML Webcast

We already mentioned the Green Building XML Schema or gbXML and how to export certain family instances to it. The gbXML Advisory Board is hosting a free webcast titled 'Using Green Building XML (gbXML) for Sustainable Building Design' on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 10:00 to 11:00 am PST. Presented by members of the gbXML Advisory Board, this webcast will demonstrate how tools for Building Information Modelling (BIM) can integrate with analysis software, using the interoperability of gbXML to help... Read more →

Export Family Instance to gbXML

The Green Building XML Schema or gbXML was developed to facilitate the transfer of building information stored in CAD building information models, enabling interoperability between building design models and a wide variety of engineering analysis tools. It has been widely adopted by leading CAD vendors and is on the road to becoming a de-facto industry standard schema, so we obviously see more and more application developers interested in using and supporting it, leading to questions such as the following one.... Read more →