The Building Coder

Unit Test Your Revit Add-In

The Building Coder blog standalone on GitHub, APS accelerator in Dublin, AU announcements, learning Revit API, retrieving all fabrication item materials, Revit add-in unit testing, AI-generated code, podcasts, news and more... Read more →

BIM360 Links and Programming Add-Ins

An important solution to fix a problem loading BIM 360 links and lots of advice on programming Revit add-ins in general – New Revit material appearance asset – BIM 360 links not found solution – AppStore guidelines for Revit add-in – Coding Revit add-ins the e-verse way – VS wizard template location... Read more →

Parameters, Snippets, Batch Mode and Self-Signing

Test run the Revit 2023 parameters service cloud – Roll your own verified publisher – Revit API code snippet repository – Batch processing and monitoring progress... Read more →

Installer Asset, FormIt and Quaternions

Notes on FormIt and its JavaScript API, the new automatically generated RevitLookup MSI installer asset, transformations and quaternions – FormIt API and geographical context – RevitLookup MSI installer asset – Transform and quaternions... 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 →

My First Revit Plugin Enhancements

Today, let's return to the recurring topic of getting started with the Revit API, its SDK samples, and programming in general – My First Revit Plugin enhancements – Getting started with web programming – FreeCodeCamp – ModelessForm_ExternalEvent initialisation... Read more →

UIView Windows Coordinate Ray Casting Tooltip

I revisited the custom tooltip implementation that I prepared to demonstrate the Revit 2013 API features including the View API and its UIView class. It class still provides the only possibility to convert back and forth between Revit model coordinates and Windows device screen points. That functionality can be combined with the ReferenceIntersector to shoot a ray through the model to determine what Revit database element is located under the current cursor position and display a custom tooltip presenting information about it or anything else you please... Read more →

RevitLookup Supports Spot Dimension and Escape

RevitLookup sports two new useful enhancements since adding support for the NuGet Revit API package in mid-December – Close all forms using the Escape key – Support for spot dimension... Read more →

Viewport Bring to Front and C++ Revit Add-In

Two topics today, on reordering viewports to determine their respective occlusion, and setting up a C++ Revit add-in project – Bringing a viewport to the front – Change the draw order of a viewport (bring to front) for cases when you need to use simplified duplicate of the same view for background, e.g., ceiling grid for example – Code clean-up – Setting up a Visual Studio C++ Revit add-in project... Read more →

DirectObjLoader for Revit 2017

Here is a last quick Sunday morning post before I head off on vacation, on the DirectObjLoader migration to Revit 2017, handling the changes in DirectShape.CreateElement and TessellatedShapeBuilderResult... Read more →

Revit Macro Samples Migrated to Revit 2017

I recently received requests for a migration of the macro samples provided in the Revit_Macro_Samples.rvt project. The version included in the Revit 2017 SDK miraculously is still based on Revit 2013 pre-release version, according to the update message displayed when opening it, and the macros cannot be executed successfully due to a number small Revit API enhancements made in the intervening years – Problem – Solution – Sam comes to the rescue – See the diffs on GitHub... Read more →

Room Editor – First Revit 2017 Addin Migration

A wonderful Monday morning to you. We are enjoying perfect April weather, rapidly oscillating back and forth between warm sprintime sunshine, sleet and hail. Meanwhile, I am continuously striving hard yet failing miserably to reduce my pure Revit API focussed case answering and Revit API activity – Things To Do – Forge DevCon developer conference – RoomEditorApp for Revit 2017 – Roomedit CouchDB installation on Windows – FireRatingCloud enhancements completed and upcoming – First Revit 2017 deprecated API clean-up – Where BIM hasn't gone... 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 →

EstoreFile, Group Preview and RoomScheduleCloud

Lots of exciting topics for today – EstoreFile, extensible storage and embedding a raster image – Preview Image for a Group – Thoughts on migrating the Room Schedule sample to 64-bit: Request, Implementation suggestion, Problem, Response – Autodesk 2016 AEC showreel call for submissions... Read more →

Revit Add-In Wizard GitHub Installer

I recently mentioned the unrestricted VendorId in Revit 2016, and pointed out that I would like to update the Visual Studio Revit add-in wizards accordingly. I now went ahead and did so, adding a couple of other enhancements as well along the way – oh, and I did some work on putting my personal calendar online, as well: Sharing a calendar via GCal, Google API, and GitHub Pages. Visual Studio Revit add-in wizards on GitHub. Updated VendorId tag value. Wizard... Read more →

Grevit, FireRating in the Cloud Deployment, Vacation

I have been extremely busy the past few days implementing my FireRating in the Cloud sample, a migration of the standard Revit SDK FireRating sample to a cloud-based multi-project implementation – reflected in this week's GitHub contributions: Also, I heard from Max Thumfart about his very interesting Grevit project: FireRating in the cloud demo and deployment Grevit Vacation time soon FireRating in the Cloud Demo and Deployment I'm just about done with my FireRating in the Cloud project. I published... Read more →

Dynamo, Centroid & Volume Calculation Migration Blitz

My French colleague Olivier Bayle, co-author of the French AEC-related Village BIM blog, just re-raised the topic of my old solid centroid and volume calculation add-in. Let's also point out one or two of the numerous topics we tackled in the past few days on the Revit API discussion forum: Graphically displaying the centre of gravity using Dynamo GetCentroid on GitHub and blitz migration across four Revit API releases Finding the orientation of welded pipe outlets How to set the... Read more →

CNC Direct – Export Wall Parts to DXF and SAT

I implemented the Revit ExportCncFab add-in back in 2013 to export Revit wall parts to DXF or SAT for CNC fabrication. The full source code, Visual Studio solution and add-in manifest lives in the ExportCncFab GitHub repository. The project was prompted by William Spier, who recently published a nice 12-minute YouTube video Revit to CNC Direct describing and demonstrating its practical use and application: In William's words: "Asked Jeremy to write a DLL that allows users to export multiple objects... Read more →

Geometry Creation and Line Intersection Exceptions

Today, let's look at some geometry related questions, a small enhancement of the line intersection we discussed two days ago, NURB spline and solid creation: Creating a NURB spline GeometryCreationUtilities, moving and copying solids Line intersection enhancements Built-in parameter checker for Revit 2016 1001 discussion forum posts Creating a NURB Spline This question was raised by anarchyfree in the Revit API discussion thread on a NurbSpline creation error: Question: I'm working on a Revit plugin that in part accepts curves... Read more →

Connecting Desktop, Cloud, Lines and Grid Segments

The call for Autodesk University proposals closes today, May 26th, and I quickly submitted my second one before the deadline falls. I also have another contribution from Magson Leone to share with you, a little helper function for calculating (unbounded) grid line intersections: Autodesk University proposal – connect desktop and cloud Intersection of Unbounded Lines Autodesk University Proposal – Connect Desktop and Cloud As said, the AU 2015 call for proposals ends today, so now is your last chance to... Read more →

Compatibilizar entre versões – API Compatibility Helper

Once again, the time has come to migrate add-ins to the new version of the Revit API. Magson Leone in Brazil has been through this process every year now since Revit 2012 and got tired of maintaining separate versions of his code for each release of Revit. He solved the problem by using Reflection to implement a whole host of Revit API compatibility helper methods that reroute the call to the proper underlying API method for any Revit API version.... Read more →

CopyElements, Revit 2016 Scalability, Python and Ruby

Here are a bunch of infos on and updates for Revit 2016, as well as some important hints on the use of the ElementTransformUtils.CopyElements method: CopyElements view argument is for 2D only Revit 2016 scalability enhancements Revit 2016 Python shell Revit 2016 Ruby shell RevitLookup for Revit 2016 CopyElements View Argument is for 2D only You should only use the ElementTransformUtils.CopyElements views argument when working with view dependent elements, i.e., 2D elements. This was pointed out by Arnošt Löbel in... 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 →

Exporting 3D Element Geometry to a WebGL Viewer

Yesterday, I discussed how to get started with WebGL and demonstrated a simple 3D viewer making use of the Tiny WebGL helper Library TWGL. Today, I present the TwglExport Revit add-in to select an individual element and populate the viewer with that. To drive the WebGL viewer, we just need a bunch of vertex locations, normal vectors in each vertex, and face definitions hooking them up with each other. TwglExport achieves exactly that though the following steps: Retrieve the pre-selected... Read more →

Curved Wall Elevation Profile and Creator Class Update

Alexander Ignatovich, Александр Игнатович, of Investicionnaya Venchurnaya Companiya, took another and deeper look at The Building Coder sample external command CmdWallProfile that I originally implemented in 2008 to retrieve the wall elevation profile and my colleague Katsuaki Takamizawa modified to use the ExporterIFCUtils.SortCurveLoops method to sort the outer and inner loops a few months ago. Alexander already made a number of other important contributions to The Building Coder in the past: Exporting Image and Setting a Default 3D View Orientation... Read more →

Sending a Room Boundary to an SVG Node Web Server

Yesterday, I implemented and published a simple Node.js web server to display an SVG polygon. In that post, you can define the polygon path manually in a text box and invoke the web server by clicking a button. Obviously, the same system can be driven automatically. Let's look at a way to extract the boundary polygon or a Revit room element, convert that to SVG, and invoke the web server to display it. Here is the room element in Revit,... Read more →

List All Import Instances

Have you ever wondered whether you have any duplicate imported CAD instances in your model? My colleague Nikolay Shulga from the Revit development team implemented a nice little end user utility to answer this question. By the way, Nikolay and I go back a long time, way back in the beginning of the IAI and IFC project, decades ago, in previous lives... In Nikolay's own words: A while ago I wrote a prototype app to list ImportInstance objects in a... Read more →

Re-Researching Lighting Family Instance Placement

The placement of family instances can sometimes be a tricky topic in the Revit API. Programmatically, this is always achieved using the NewFamilyInstance method. However, this method provides 13 different overloads to choose from, which can be a non-trivial task: NewFamilyInstance(Face, Line, FamilySymbol) – Inserts a new instance of a family onto a face of an existing element, using a line on that face for its position, and a type/symbol. NewFamilyInstance(Line, FamilySymbol, View) – Add a line based detail family... Read more →

Split Personality and Revit API Class Diagram

Developers have been requesting a Revit API class diagram for years. There used to be one back in the dawn of time, up until the Revit 2010 API. Now the question came up again with a happy resolution in the Revit API discussion forum thread on the 2014 Revit object model. Before I get to that, I have an important personal announcement to make: The 3D Web Coder Commenced, Embarked, Blasted Off and Away In an attempt to clarify the... Read more →

FindInserts Retrieves All Openings in All Wall Types

On Tuesday, I presented the new SpatialElementGeometryCalculator sample for calculating gross and net wall areas. It discusses a whole bunch of interesting aspects, e.g.: Use of the SpatialElementGeometryCalculator class. Porting a VB.NET Revit add-in to C#. Use of the temporary transaction trick. Use of filtered element collectors to determine all openings in a wall. Filtered element collector optimisation possibilities, e.g. integer instead of string comparison, use of a parameter filter instead of .NET post-processing. Vilo submitted a very relevant comment... Read more →

Framing Cross Section Analyser and REX in Revit 2015

Back in December 2013, I discussed structural cross section analysis, i.e. determination of the cross section profile of beam, columns, braces, etc., and several completely different approaches one can take to achieve that. I also demonstrated how to make use of the powerful functionality provided by the REX toolkit without building the entire add-in on top of the REX framework. By the way, here are some other earlier discussions of REX: The REX SDK Extensions for Revit 2012 REX Content... Read more →

List and Switch Design Options Using UI Automation

Yesterday, we discussed a Revit add-in using .NET UI Automation to retrieve the current state of the Revit thin lines setting. Today, let's look at another application demonstrating use of that functionality to determine, list and set the Revit design options from a stand-alone executable application. Once again, this sample is presented by Revitalizer, aka Rudolf Honke of Mensch und Maschine acadGraph, who already contributed numerous other examples making use of the .NET UI Automation library to hack the Revit... Read more →

Thin Lines Add-in Using UI Automation

Revit add-in developers have repeatedly requested access to the Thin Lines setting provided in the Revit user interface, leading to Revit API discussion forum threads on view thin lines, exported image line weight (thin line) and rendering setting and a Revit API wish list item CF-192 – As an add-in developer, I need the API ability to detect and modify the "Thin lines" setting, so that the user can automatically get the environment configured in the way they like. Happily,... Read more →

Automatically Open a Project on Startup

Yesterday, I talked about the interesting activity, numerous answers and my participation in the Revit API discussion forum and edited the thread and GitHub solution for opening and activating a Revit document in an event handler. Today, we look at the related issue of loading a Revit RVT project file automatically on start-up. Before getting into that, here is a quick note on the deprecated SolidArray class: SolidArray Removal In the long distant past, the Revit API defined a considerable... Read more →

Opening and Activating Document in an Event Handler

I have been a busy beaver with the Revit API on the discussion forum in the past few days, and on GitHub as well. I want to take a closer look at two related issues that date back a little bit further: Switching active documents is not allowed during API event handling Loading a RVT project file automatically on start-up Let's discuss the first today and save the second for later. Before getting to that, I also want to mention... Read more →

PostRequestForElementTypePlacement Sample

I am back from my vacation in the snow, full of new energy, and up to both ears in hot Revit API cases again instead of that frozen stuff :-) The creation document NewFamilyInstance method provides the traditional way to programmatically create a new family instance within a project, or a nested instance within a family document. It does not support any user interaction whatsoever. A little bit of user interaction is provided by the PromptForFamilyInstancePlacement method introduced in the... Read more →

Automation, Ribbon Panel, ItemExecuted and Vacation

Here is an interesting exploration of using UI Automation to traverse the Revit ribbon items and subscribe to an event enabling you to determine when certain commands are executed. I'll leave you to ponder this while I take a vacation in the snow next week. Happy Revit add-in programming! Question: I would like to keep track of all add-ins that are started on a given Revit installation. We currently keep track of all our own using specific routines in the... Read more →

View and Data API Sample in Swift and Mac OS Upgrade

As you know, we have a pretty impressive number of samples demonstrating the use of the View and Data API web services. We are currently reviewing them all to ensure their documentation is reliable and consistent. I picked Adam Nagy's workflow sample written in Swift to review. That required a look at the Swift programming language itself and a system upgrade before I could start with the review itself. Before getting to that, let me also mention the upcoming 3D... Read more →

From Hack to App – OBJ Mesh Import to DirectShape

I already took a couple of looks at the DirectShape element in the past: DirectShape Performance and Minimum Size DirectShape versus Families, Category and Texture A much deeper investigation was prompted by Eric Boehlke of truevis.com, knowledgeable in architecture and above all in photogrammetry. Eric visited the DevHack at Autodesk University in December 2014. Together, right there and then, we put together a prototype Revit add-in that reads an OBJ file and creates a DirectShape element from it. Eric continued... Read more →

Displaying Progress Bar and Generating Animated GIF

A frequent request for Revit add-ins performing time-consuming tasks is to display a progress bar. My own progress bar implementation is provided by the ADN MEP sample application AdnRme, originally dating way back to 2009 and earlier still. Now Limin He of FM:Systems encountered and resolved an issue with his progress bar in VB.NET, raising the following comment on the topic of the new exceptions raised by multithreading in Revit 2015: Question: We came across the same issue described above... Read more →

Using Transaction Groups

We repeatedly discussed the optimal usage and error handling of transactions, mainly based on the expert advice of Arnošt Löbel, Sr. Principal Engineer of the Autodesk Revit R&D team: Scope and Dispose of Transactions Using Using Automagically Disposes and Rolls Back Handling Transaction Status and Errors Let's complete this with his most recent advice on handling transaction groups to combine multiple transactions into one undo: Question: I am creating an application that must do the following steps: Load a FamilySymbol... Read more →

Terminating a Family Instance Placement Loop with Esc

I presented the PromptForFamilyInstancePlacement method in June 2010 when it was newly introduced in the Revit API, together with a nice little solution temporarily subscribing to the OnDocumentChanged to access the newly added elements after terminating the placement interaction. Since then, the Revit 2015 API provided some Document API additions such as the method UIDocument.PostRequestForElementTypePlacement enabling an add-in to launch and to some extents control the full standard placement interaction between user and the Revit product. To retain control over... Read more →

Family Instance Area and Auto-Loading a Project File

I have been pretty busy answering queries on the Revit API discussion forum in the last few days. Here are two that I quite like that came up today, on calculating areas occupied by furniture and equipment family instances and loading a project file automatically on Revit start-up. Calculating Areas Occupied by Furniture and Equipment Family Instances This query was raised by Vyom Dixit on how to calculate model group elements area: Question: I am new to the Revit API.... Read more →

List Pipe Sizes and More Obsolete API Usage Removal

I was ill for a few days last week, with a fever and a virus. I also made a quick trip to Moscow, where we held the final event in this year's sequence of DevDays conferences. For the first time in my life, I gave my presentations in a woolly hat :-) I also rented my first airbnb flat ever, on Arbat street in the centre of town, and was pretty happy with that. I returned back to Switzerland on... Read more →

Wall Elevation Profiles in The Building Coder Samples

Last week, I presented a stand-alone command by my colleague Katsuaki Takamizawa to retrieve wall elevation profiles. His implementation provides a nice little example of using the ExporterIFCUtils.SortCurveLoops method and differentiates between outer and inner loops. It can be used in almost exactly the same way as the first wall elevation profile implementation presented in 2008. After publication, Katsu-san and I discussed what to do next and unearthed a couple of interesting aspects: Response: Thank you very much for publishing... Read more →

3D Viewing, vA3C and RevitLookup Updates

Here are some GitHub updates on the vA3C and RevitLookup projects, and 3D viewing in general: vA3C project going full steam ahead vA3C hacker R1 is up Rendering an element in 3D Small RevitLookup update vA3C Project Going Full Steam Ahead The WebGL and three.js based AEC 3D viewer project vA3C is going ahead at full steam, driven mainly by Theo Armour. vA3C is a free, open source viewer and navigator for a variety of file types. The most recent... Read more →

DevDays, GitHub, STL and OBJ Model Import

Long time no post. Sorry, I am rather caught up in the DevDays conferences, accompanying meetups and travel back and forth across the continent. After the first Western European DevDays conference and meetup in Paris on Monday, we continued and repeated in London, UK, and Gothenburg, Sweden. We had a day's break there, and I took a quick bus and ferry ride out to Styrsö before leaving. Now we have arrived in Munich, Germany, and the last goal for Tuesday... Read more →

DevDays Conference at Autodesk University

Today we held the DevDay Conference at AU. Exciting stuff. Before getting to that, let me add one little Revit API exploration that I performed much later in the day, getting closer to midnight, after the ADN party; prompted by my colleague Katsuaki Takamizawa in Japan, I migrated the old Revit 2012 GeometryPartsAnalyzer add-in analysing detailed part layer geometry by splitting selected walls into parts in a temporary transaction using PartUtils.CreateParts to Revit 2015. GeometryPartsAnalyzer retrieving detailed wall layer geometry... Read more →

WebGL Goes Mobile and Sorted Level Retrieval

Today, let's look at a generic WebGL and a specialised Revit API issue: WebGL on all Apple platforms and sorted level retrieval. WebGL Goes Mobile Apple announced full support of WebGL for its desktop and mobile browsers, so WebGL goes truly cross platform, as pointed out by Paul Flanagan: Previous claims of cross-platform support for this HTML5 standard were largely worthless because they did not include the iPhone, iPad, or desktop Safari. That has changed, and this standard for 3D... Read more →

Futureproofing and Determining Intersecting Elements

I continued cleaning up the obsolete API usage in The Building Coder samples, an... Read more →