The Building Coder

RBP, Materials, Their Assets and the Visual API

Two very different aspects of BIM materials, filtering for annotations and a powerful batch processor utility: – GetMaterialArea behaviour varies – Material assets and the Visual API – Filter for annotation families – Revit batch processor RBP... Read more →

Pyramid Builder, CommandLoader, et al

Pyramid Builder, CommandLoader, and more – Dynamic load, compile and run code – DirectShape pyramids – Modify level element X and Y extents – How to filter for subsets of elements – Switch document display units – Material tags displaying '?' – Sublime Text... Read more →

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 →

Point Clouds, Coloured Triangles and Faces

Let's look at accessing point cloud points and colouring individual triangles and faces – Assigning material to each face – DirectContext3D colorized triangles – Pick and access point cloud points... Read more →

Symbol, Instance, Material, Data, Journal, Break

We close this year with an eclectic mix of topics – Symbol vs instance geometry clarification – Create new material with texture – RVT dashboard data access – Marking and retrieving a custom element – Advanced remote batch command processing – Midwinter break... Read more →

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 →

Painting Stairs and Shooting for the Beams

Two Revit API discussion forum threads that I am currently involved in – Painting stairs – Ray tracing vs bounding box to find beams intersecting columns... Read more →

Forge, RevitApiDocs, Materials and Stacked Items

Here are some exciting Forge, Revit API and other topics for today – Forge online training in April 2021 – RevitApiDocs support for Revit 2021 – Welcome, AEC BIM Tools – Visual materials API in Dynamo – 24x24 stacked ribbon items – Innovative drone fly-through film... 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 →

Changing Element Colour and Material

The question of how to change the colour and material of individual elements has come up repeatedly over time – Change element colour in a view – Assign new material to an element – Replace a material in a wall or floor... Read more →

Search for Getting Started Tutorials and Videos!

Getting started material and questions galore. Please search before asking, and work through the available material before trying to shoot yourself in your feet, knees, and elsewhere – Marko's plugin development playlist – Overview – Table of contents – Getting started with an API script – Getting started with a macro – OBJ mesh import with materials – 2D Booleans in the Revit API... 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 →

Generating Graphics and Collecting Assets

Here are some relevant topics for today – Can you avoid generating graphics? – Read all thermal and physical assets – Collection of old add-in managers – Compiling an add-in without Revit installed – Xeokit 3D BIM and CAD viewer – Software development manager job opportunity... Read more →

BIM365 Getting Started, Materials API, CPU Voltage

I am on vacation right now, enjoying splendid weather camping on the coast of the Atlantic. Meanwhile, here are a few items that cropped up in the past few days – Getting started and programming buttons with Revit API – Links to API to modify visual appearance of materials – Improving performance by optimising CPU voltage... 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 →

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 →

RevitLookup 2019 and New SDK Samples

I migrated RevitLookup to Revit 2019, which was very easy. Next, I compared the directory contents to discover the new SDK samples – RevitLookup 2019 – New Revit 2019 SDK samples... Read more →

DirectShape Topics and Happy New Year!

I'll begin the new year by discussing a bunch of topics addressing various aspects of DirectShape elements – Updated DirectShapeFromFace – Improve loft form creation speed using DirectShape – Create DirectShape instead of conceptual mass – Create surface from face – Create DirectShape from solid – Control DirectShape colour and material – Improve family performance suppressing DirectShape generation – Create DirectShape from room... Read more →

Modifying Material Visual Appearance

Question: How can I set the Material Render Appearance through the API? I can see there is the Autodesk.Revit.DB.Visual.Asset class, but how do I add to the list of Autodesk.Revit.DB.Visual.AssetProperty objects for a new material? Answer: The good news is that this is possible in Revit 2018.1 using the Visual Materials API. Check out Boris Shafiro's class at AU to learn about it... 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 →

AU Recording, Books, Education and Units

I completed the presentation and recording of my presentation yesterday on Rational BIM programming using Revit and Forge at Autodesk University in Darmstadt, Germany – Rational BIM Programming recording – Pleasant walks in the Odenwald – Some of my favourite recent books – Where to continue after finishing school – New AlphaGo Zero is completely self-taught – TotalPressureLoss units... 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 →

Revit 2018.1 and the Visual Materials API

The Revit 2018.1 update was released last month. It implements one of the most important and long-standing API wishes, providing programmatic access to materials – Dynamo Player improvements – Visual Materials API – Fabrication parts centre line length API – MAJ file creation API... Read more →

ForgeFader, Lookup Builds, Purge & Room Instances

Blogging despite having already exceeded my work quota for the week, but there is so much to share – ForgeFader user interface – RevitLookup builds – Purging types, families and materials – Retrieving all family instances in a room... 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 →

Need for Regen and Duplicate Parameter Access

A Python Revit API question on renumbering viewports helps highlight two separate important programming aspects; I also add some other notes from the Munich Forge accelerator – Question – The need to regenerate – Use built-in parameters to access parameters – Forge accelerator and outage report – Added materials to 210 King model... Read more →

Material Shared Parameters and ADN Xtra Labs

How to attach a shared parameter to Material elements? – Updated ADN Xtra labs to remove all deprecated API usage – A new addin that creates and populates a shared parameter to provide material information for each element – Autodesk University 2016 class materials have now been posted, including the recording of my session on connecting desktop and cloud – Linking Material elements to external database entries – Binding a shared parameter to elements – Attaching a shared parameter to Material elements – Create and populate a shared parameter ForgeMaterial – Cornelius story – cured by natural remedies... Read more →

Revit API Connecting Desktop and Cloud @ TUDa

The RTC Revit Technology Conference Europe and my stay here in Porto is nearing its end – Wrapping up in Porto – Connecting BIM and Cloud @ TUDa – Creating a Revit add-in with one single click – Connecting Revit and Forge in 55 minutes... Read more →

Connecting Desktop and Cloud RTC Material

I am in the last stages of preparing my presentation this afternoon on connecting the desktop and the cloud for the RTC Revit Technology Conference Europe. For your and the audience's convenience, here are the materials I am presenting, and some of the main links to further information – Handout – Slide deck – Recording – Samples Connecting Desktop and Cloud... Read more →

Material Asset Textures, Forge Webinar Recordings

Today is the last day before my one-week vacation, directly followed non-stop by the ISEPBIM Forge and BIM workshops at Porto University, the RTC Revit Technology Conference Europe, and the Forge Accelerator in Munich. Before leaving, here is a note about another recording of the Forge webinar series and a happy resolution of a recent material asset texture related Revit API issue: – Forge webinar series and BIM360 recordings – Listing material asset textures and sub-textures... Read more →

Fill Pattern Viewer Fix and Add Materials for 2016

@kfpopeye discovered and fixed an issue with complex fill patterns in the venerable old WPF Fill Pattern Viewer Control, part of the AddMaterials Revit add-in to load new materials into a project based on a list defined in an Excel spreadsheet – Original implementation for Revit 2011 – Reimplementation for Revit 2014 – Improved error messages and reporting – WPF FillPattern viewer control – Check for already loaded materials – FillPattern viewer benchmarking... Read more →

ADN Labs Xtra, Multi-Version Add-Ins and CNC Direct

Let's discuss some more Revit add-in migration aspects and yet another completed migration task: ADN Revit API training labs Xtra migration Multi-version add-ins and CNC Direct ADN Revit API Training Labs Xtra Migration I recently mentioned that the official ADN Revit API Labs Training Material for Revit 2016 is available from the Revit Developer Centre and the Revit API Training GitHub repository. They are used for our standard two- or three-day hands-on Revit API introduction training courses. They are also... Read more →

DevDays in Milano, Links, Textures, UR4 vs R2

Today we are holding the last Western European DevDays conference in Milano before the winter break. The Milano meetups last night met with great interest and enthusiasm, so I will probably be returning here next year to present and conduct workshops on the Autodesk View and Data API in more depth. Right now, we are in the middle of Jim's morning session: Independently of that, here are a few other miscellaneous topics that cropped up in the past few days:... Read more →

DirectShape versus Families, Category and Texture

Let's begin this week with a discussion of several aspects of direct shapes: Direct shapes, part families and application porting DirectShape categories DirectShape texture assignment Direct Shapes, Part Families and Application Porting Question: I am looking for some guidance related to porting my application to Revit. I have a parametric part engine that lives outside of Revit with a large set of existing library content. It would be very costly to rebuild from scratch using the Revit Part Family editor... Read more →

Getting Serious Adding New Materials from List

Here is a post on some serious usability enhancements for the AddMaterials add-in, which reads a list of material properties from an Excel spreadsheet and generates Revit material elements accordingly. It was originally presented for Revit 2011, reimplemented for Revit 2014, and enhanced with improved error messages and reporting soon after. Until now, it was more of a programming example than an actual usable tool, but that is starting to change, thanks to a number of enhancements by Alexander Ignatovich,... Read more →

Adding New Materials from List Enhancements

A weekend post, for a change. There is just too much going on! I recently reimplemented the AddMaterials add-in for Revit 2014, updating the simple little Revit 2011 system to generate new materials in a Revit project based on a list of required material properties stored in an Excel spreadsheet. Luke submitted a comment on that, asking: Question: I have built the solution and created an XLSX file. The add-in runs and says that it has added materials, but I... Read more →

Selecting Visible Categories from a Set of Views

Today I look at interactively picking specific categories to export to the simplified 2D BIM editor cloud database from a list of all categories retrieved from a collection of elements displayed in a given set of plan views. This is the second instalment of implementing the new RoomEditorApp features required for my generic 2D simplified BIM editor Tech Summit presentation. Specifically, I now address steps 4 and 5 in the tentative workflow: Launch the RoomEditorApp export plan views command. Display... Read more →

Adding New Materials from List Updated

Back in the year 2010, I discussed a simple little system based on a Revit add-in named AddMaterials to generate new materials in a Revit project based on a list of required material properties stored in an Excel spreadsheet. The input data includes: Material Name Code Title Strength Graphics RGB colour values Transparency Surface pattern Cut pattern Identity Filter criteria Descriptive information Custom parameters All the further workflow details are described in the original post, of course. The add-in was... Read more →

AppHack 2, Training Material and the Developer Guide

Let me talk today about the second edition of the AppHack contest, ADN Revit API training material and developer guide. Revit 2013 API Developer Guide PDF As you know, the Revit API Developer Guide is online only and has been so since the Revit 2013 timeframe. I am a great fan of quick ubiquitous immediate access to information, including offline, so I would love a PDF version of it as well. Nor am I alone in this, as you can... Read more →

Texture Bitmap and UV Coordinates

Yesterday, I mentioned the new custom exporter framework providing direct access to the Revit viewing and rendering graphics pipeline. That brings new possibilities to a related area that we discussed way back in 2010: how to obtain texture data UV coordinates. At the time, the Revit API did not provide this information, and a work-around based on the Revit FBX export helped a little. Happily, the custom exporter framework opens that up a bit more. Let us look at that... Read more →

Accessing and Filtering by Ramp Material

I had a chat with Ning Zhou, who was away from the Revit API for a while and is now happily back in the fold. He explored how to access the material of a ramp element. Access to Ramp Material Question: Is there a way to get the ramp material information using API? I tried lots of paths and could not find anything. Answer (by Ning himself): I searched again using RevitLookup snoop. It turns out that basic material info... Read more →

Parameters versus Properties

In his comment on reading material asset data, Alexander Buschmann points out that this same information can be accessed without retrieving, reading and converting the data directly from the undocumented built-in parameters. Instead and more comfortably, you can use the following official properties on the appropriate classes: Material material = null; foreach( Material mat in e.Materials ) { material = mat; break; } PropertySetElement pse = doc.GetElement( material.StructuralAssetId ) as PropertySetElement; StructuralAsset asset = pse.GetStructuralAsset(); double a = asset.WoodBendingStrength; double... Read more →

Read Material Asset Parameter

Even though it is still January, the days are already getting a little bit lighter, the sun has broken through now and then, sets half an hour later, some birds are starting to tweet around, and one can imagine spring coming... Meanwhile, in the Revit API, accessing materials tends to be tricky, so here is one little sample that hopefully helps clarify by demonstrating how to read a parameter value from a PropertySetElement attached to a physical material asset. Question:... Read more →