The Building Coder

Topo from Lines, Asset Keyword and Regeneration

Two Revit API discussion forum threads reinforce the ever-present need to regenerate, the development team clarifies access to various asset keyword properties, and Harry Mattison shares a free tool to create and update a toposurface from a set of model lines – Asset keyword access – Modifying group requires regen – Modifying part material requires regen – Topo from lines... Read more →

Refreshment, Cloud Model Path, Angle and Direction

An example of real-time live graphical user input feedback, cloud model functionality, the ever important need to regenerate and other important topics for this holiday day – Line angle and direction jig – Determine cloud model local file path – How to refresh GroupType.Groups – Online access to RevitAPI.chm help files – C++/C# frontend engineer... Read more →

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 →

More on Transaction Groups and Assimilation

We return to the question on how to combine multiple transactions into one undo with a new answer by Arnošt Löbel, ex Senior Principal Engineer of the Revit development team – How do I know how many transactions, and which ones, are assimilated into group? – What if I start a transaction before starting a group (in the same API context) and then call Assimilate, will this ahead started one also be assimilated into the group? – I can leave the API context (external event or Execute method) with the transaction group still open... Read more →

Simplifying Nested Family Instances

José Alberto Torres Jaraute implemented an add-in tool to protect the intellectual property built into a complex hierarchy of nested family instances by replacing them with a flatter and simpler hierarchy, yet retaining all the relevant non-confidential custom data. Basically, his tool also enables location of overlapping elements and duplicates elimination. In the course of this work, Alberto raised a number of questions in the Revit API discussion forum – Explode nested families – Insert a curve-based family instance associated to a face – Explode family instance to get all the components of a family in project – Change the host and work plane of a family... Read more →

Forge, Installed Version, Move Group, Name Filter

A biggish post rather late in the week... still answering too many cases – Forge for AEC demos and sample code – Determining the starting view – Detecting installed Revit version – Detecting installed C3D version – Moving items inside a detail group – Filtering for family instances and types by family name... 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 →

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 →

Attached Detail Groups and Inverse Relationships

I am still at the Berlin hackathon, working with the MovieMemory team... In between other tasks, let me mention the interesting discussion and solution by Revitalizer on the Revit API discussion forum to check for attached detail groups: Question: Can someone tell me, please, how I can find out if a Group (Type) has an Attached Detail Group (Type) via the API? Answer: A group of category OST_IOSAttachedDetailGroups has a BuiltInParameter.GROUP_ATTACHED_PARENT_NAME. This way, you will find matching Model groups. Response:... Read more →

Transactions, Sub-Transactions and Transaction Groups

Here is a recent query from a developer that led to a nice succinct overview of transactions, sub-transactions and transaction groups by Arnošt Löbel. This makes a change from the recent rash of monster posts. The last ten posts were all rather overwhelming in size, and hopefully impressive in content as well. From Aril 16 until 29, I posted a total of 26228 words, 245504 bytes. So let's keep this one short, sweet and to the point. Question: When should... Read more →

Updater Queues Multi-Transaction Operation for Idling

I recently pointed out that certain operations require multiple transactions to complete. The dynamic model updater framework DMU, on the other hand, takes complete control over the transaction handling, making it impossible to incorporate such a multi-transaction operation. The updater framework is designed to enable an add-in to incorporate its own additional behaviour into a running transaction to react to changes in the model. The advantage is that the entire operation including the custom add-in behaviour is encapsulated in one... Read more →

View of NewGroup Duplicated Elements

I already mentioned that you can work around the lack of programmatic creation possibilities for some element types by grouping existing ones, creating new instances of that group, and then ungrouping it again. One question that came up in that context is what view the new group appears in: Question: I am using code like this to duplicate one or more elements: void CreateGroup( Document doc, ICollection ids, XYZ offset ) { Group group = doc.Create.NewGroup( ids ); LocationPoint location... Read more →

OBJ Model Exporter Take One

Before continuing on the OBJ model exporter, I would like to mention I was finally up in the alps again for the first time in ages last weekend, to climb the Vrenelisgärtli mountain in Glarus, "Verena's Little Garden". If you would like to skip straight to the meaty stuff, though, here is a table of contents: AEC DevCamp 2012 material finalised Disk full Model up to cloud and down to mobile Face emitter interface OBJ exporter implementation Retrieving a solid... Read more →

Editing a Group Take Two

I am publishing this now, on November 11, 2011, at 11:11 my time, to celebrate this unique and yet completely arbitrary time and date in our calendar history. I hope you appreciate it and celebrated that moment in your own way as well :-) I discussed various aspects of programmatically handling Revit element groups in the past, such as how to create, rename, edit and delete them. In a comment on the discussion on editing groups, YarUnderoaker asked for further... Read more →

Deleting a Group

I discussed various aspects of programmatically handling Revit element groups in the past, such as how to create, rename and edit the contents of an existing group. Here is another question on the topic of groups that helps clarify the relationship between the group and its type: Question: I am deleting a model group using the following code: Transaction trans = new Transaction( doc ); trans.Start( "test" ); ElementSet sel = uidoc.Selection.Elements; foreach( Element e in sel ) { Group... Read more →

Editing Elements inside Groups

Today is the last day here with my brother Marcus in Pattaya. We had a look at the Sanctuary of Truth yesterday and I posted some photos from the beach in front of it, which was surprisingly quiet and lonely: Early tomorrow morning I will be heading off towards Cambodia and Angkor Wat, then spend a day or two in Bangkok, and return back here again to pick up my parked things before heading back to the airport. I am... Read more →

Rename a Group

I have very busy this last week answering cases and preparing training material. Lots of interesting issues are cropping up that I would love to blog about, but I can hardly find the time to do so. Here is one little item of interest raised by Henrik Bengtsson of Lindab on renaming a group: Question: Is there a way to change the name of a group that is created via the API? If you use the Document.Create.CreateNewGroup method and provide... Read more →

Creating a Group and How to Fish

Here is a question from Henry Medina on creating groups that might be of interest to a wider audience: Question: I have listened to your TV recording several times and was also able to run the Labs project. Your Labs code shows how to draw beams, columns and braces, but not a group. How could I create a new instance of an existing group, set its insertion base point, location, rotation angle, and mirror it? Please show the commands in... Read more →