The Building Coder

WTA Elec, FireP and 3D Aimer Tools

I am traveling to Gothenburg for the Forge accelerator. Meanwhile, Allan Seidel shared his WTA FireP 3D Aimer add-in that creates a custom ribbon tab with discipline related tools for placing specific Revit family types with some families requiring parameter settings made on the fly and the 3D Aimer example that "aims" a special Revit family to a target – WTA FireP 3D Aimer Tools – GitHub Repository and YouTube Video – Source Code Documentation – WTA Elec – Another Family Plunk and Concept Share... Read more →

Elasticsearch-Head, RevitLookup and Area Schemes

I ran the first query on the collection of tbc blog posts imported into Elasticsearch to experiment for the question answering system Q4R4 Question Answering for Revit API and installed the elasticsearch-head web front end to better explore and understand my local Elasticsearch cluster – Elasticsearch text field mapping – Elasticsearch-head web front end – More RevitLookup updates – Get area scheme from an area... Read more →

RVT Properties to XLS and Forge Accelerators

Are you interested in easy access to your Revit model properties? Well, you can have that even without a need to install Revit. The Forge Model Derivative API extracts a streamlined copy of all geometry, BIM element hierarchy and properties from over fifty file formats, and Revit RVT files are just one of them. Augusto Goncalves implemented a Forge sample to read all the properties on all BIM elements in an RVT file and export them to an XLSX spreadsheet – Test run it yourself – Source code on GitHub... Read more →

Schedule Parameters and Shared Parameter GUID

Lots of information on, from and about schedule parameters, and a new elegant solution to a long-standing challenge – Direct access to shared parameter GUID – Getting parameter information from a schedule... Read more →

Parameter Definition Overview

I am happy to present a pretty comprehensive overview and explanation of the process of defining a shared parameter by Scott Conover. Question: What do I need to do to programmatically create a shared parameter? I would like to set the SetAllowVaryBetweenGroups flag on it. Answer: You create the details needed to define a shared parameter from ExternalDefinition. Existing shared parameter file entries can be read to become an ExternalDefinition in your code, or you can create a new entry in the current shared parameter file using the DefinitionGroup.Create method... 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 →

Forge Formats, Webinars and Fusion 360 Client API

I updated the WebGL and Forge introduction for BIM programming and its GitHub source for the presentations in the coming days at the RTC Revit Technology Conference Europe and the ISEPBIM Forge and BIM workshops at ISEP, in Porto, implemented two little curl wrapper scripts to help me list the supported file formats, explored why they changed and updated the hackathon webinar overview. Before getting to that, I'll also highlight a helpful note by Christian on how to access the 'Symbolic Representation' setting – 'Symbolic Representation' setting parameter – Forge intro for BIM programming – cURL wrapper scripts to list Forge file formats – Updated Forge file formats – Forge hackathon webinar series and Fusion 360 Client API recording... 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 →

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 →

Reading an RVT File without Revit

A huge number of developers have requested a possibility to read or even write an RVT file without running Revit, similar to the possibility to read and write a DWG file without AutoCAD installed. For the latter, one option that has been around for ages is to make use of the RealDWG library for reading and writing DWG files. A more recent and future oriented option is provided by the cloud-based AutoCAD I/O web service. Here is yet another variation on this query – Question: Is there any way that I can read a Revit model without having Revit installed on the users machine? ... Read more →

Tracking Element Modification

How to determine and track element modification? I implemented a solution! – Two approaches – Task analysis – Modification tracker – Creating an element state snapshot – Determining which elements to track – Implementation – Geometrical comparison – String formatting – Retrieve solid vertices – GetTrackedElements – retrieve elements of interest – GetElementState – store element state – Creating a database state snapshot – Report differences – External command mainline Execute method – Sample runs – Demo recording – Download... Read more →

Loading an IES Photometric Web and Exciting Times

Today, let's look at an MEP related issue, loading the IES photometric web data for a light source, plus all the exciting things happening both for myself in the next weeks and for Autodesk as a company as a whole, reinventing itself for the modern cloud-based collaborative sharing technoculture – The first annual Autodesk X summit – Jeremy's January – DevDay in Munich – Accelerator Workshop – BIM Workshop in Madrid – Loading the IES photometric web data for a light source... Read more →

All Model Text, StringSearch 2016 and New Jobs

I migrated another one of my samples to Revit 2016: StringSearch. That was prompted by a question on extracting all visible text from the Revit model that I will take a closer look at below – ADN Internship and Other Jobs – Extracting all Visible Text from the Revit Model – StringSearch for Revit 2016... Read more →

Shared Project Parameter GUID Reporter

I am still busy on the Revit API discussion forum, when not involved in other important seasonal preparations. Now let's look at the overdue solution to determine the GUID of a shared project parameter – Issue – Implementation – Download – Discussion – Solution. A long discussion between CoderBoy, Scott Wilson and Ning Zhou on reporting on project parameter definitions – need GUIDs was resolved back in 2013 and never published... Read more →

Quick, Slow and LINQ Element Filtering

I arrived back safe and sound in Switzerland after the exciting week at Autodesk University. Another happy arrival is my first grandson: He was preceded by his big sister almost two years ago. Life goes on. I have been wanting to highlight the difference between quick and slow element filters for quite a while, and now a query came in that provides an ideal opportunity – Use of LINQ with filtered element collectors – Revit element filter classification – Filter types – Efficiency guidelines – Logical filters – Quick filters – Slow filters... Read more →

Drop-down Enumerated Parameter Values

I repeatedly hear from developers who wish to define a specific enumerated set of parameter values for their add-ins and limit the selection to these values in the element property palette user interface. Internally, Revit does implement a system to handle this, for instance by using negative element ids for element property drop-down list enumerations. This has also been a long-standing wish list item, and unfortunately still remains in that state, currently incorporated in the issue CF-3498 API wish: drop-down enumeration parameters for combo box... Read more →

Clicks, DMU, Surfaces, FireRating Feedback, Vacation

Let me list some of the topics we discussed today in the Revit API discussion forum before I head off for vacation: Reacting to Windows mouse clicks in Revit. Reacting to changes and setting parameters using DMU or DocumentChanged. Creating a surface in Revit. FireRating in the Cloud feedback. Vacation Time Now. Summer has seriously arrived in Europe, and the weather is really good as well, for a change. I took advantage of it this weekend and climbed the Alphubel... Read more →

Type Catalogues

Let's veer away from the Revit API for a moment and take a look at family type catalogues, since questions on those pop up regularly in connection with programming as well: Programmatic type catalogue creation Tweaking type catalogue behaviour Type catalogue parameters Type catalogue units Programmatic Type Catalogue Creation Question: Is there any API support (function) to create type catalogues? Answer: As far as I know, there are two ways to create type catalogues, and both are programmatically accessible: Create... Read more →

IFC GUID Access, Life Span and Cloning of Geometry

Today, let's talk about the life span of Revit geometry and accessing the IFC GUID of an imported element: Life span and cloning of solids and faces Accessing the IFC GUID of an imported wall First, I'll just mention that I returned safe and sound from the successful fourth and last day of the Milano WebGL workshop, which we concluded with a group session guiding through the View and Data API tutorial. I wrote is a short report on that... 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 →

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 →

IFCExportUtils Determine Door and Window Area

Last week we discussed the SpatialElementGeometryCalculator sample for calculating gross and net wall areas that in turn led to the discovery of the FindInserts method to retrieve all openings in a wall. Both of these were prompted by the Revit API discussion forum thread on door/window areas raised by Phillip Miller of Kiwi Codes Solutions Ltd. Another question that arose in that thread regards the meaning of the built-in parameter HOST_AREA_COMPUTED and how to best calculate the area of a... 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 →

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 →

The Revit API is Never Ever Thread Safe

Let us summarise and preserve this interesting Revit API forum discussion between Erik Eriksson, Ollikat and Arnošt Löbel on why the Revit API cannot safely be used from multiple threads under any circumstances whatsoever, even for read-only operations: Question: I've been using the Revit API for some years now, but I have never tried multithreaded requests. Basically because Autodesk told me that it will never work. I've now grown a little more confident and started testing a bit. So I... 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 →

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 →

Autodesk View and Data API Webinar

I listed a whole bunch of upcoming events last week. Now I have yet another one to announce, a webinar introducing the Autodesk View and Data API, immediately preceding the exchange apps hackathon. Autodesk Exchange Apps Hackathon – September 20-21, 2014 There are less than two weeks left before the Autodesk Exchange Apps Hackathon, a two-day virtual web based coding 'festival' that will run from September 20 through to September 21, 2014. This year's event is bigger and better than... Read more →

Exploring How to Remove a Shared Parameter Definition

Here is yet another example of the importance of the RevitLookup database exploration tool. In this case, Trevor Taylor of ZGF, Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects LLP, shows his use of it to discover how to remove a shared parameter definition. Task at Hand When I remove a shared parameter definition, it disappears from the UI. However, the parameter definition isn't truly removed from the model. Its definition persists. Steps to repeat: In a shared parameter definition file, create a parameter... Read more →

Setting the Phase of a View

Here is a quick summary of one of the many issues being discussed on the Revit API forum, on changing the phase of a view, with a quick and happy conclusive result: Question: Is it possible to change the phase of a view? Something like view.phase? I've tried with the created phase but it doesn't work. Thank for your help! Answer: Does this old discussion on creating a room on a level in a phase help? Please look specifically at... Read more →

IFC GUID Algorithm Update and Family Modification

Two short topics for today, an important little IFC GUID algorithm bug fix and some thoughts on detecting family modification. IFC GUID Algorithm in C# Update Håkon Clausen implemented a bug fix update and created a GitHub repository for the IFC GUID algorithm in C# that he originally published back in June 2010. Here are the details on the update and a direct link to his IfcGuid GitHub repository. Detecting Family Modification For ages, content creators and developers have been... Read more →

AdnRme Migrated to Revit MEP 2015 on GitHub

John asked a very relevant question in a comment on the Revit 2015 Update Release 3 that prompted me to complete the rather overdue migration of the ADN Revit MEP sample add-in AdnRme to Revit MEP 2015. I also took this opportunity to create a GitHub repository for it: AdnRme GitHub repository Revit MEP 2014 version 2014.0.0.1 Revit MEP 2015 version 2015.0.0.1 Much easier to share and collaborate on. The enhanced documentation now explains all the basics and points to... Read more →

Properties in DWF, IFC, Tables and Extensible Storage

Let's discuss a couple of questions that accumulated recently on various aspects of properties in general: Properties in DWF export Mapping Revit and IFC properties Storing a table in a project Updating versus adding new extensible storage schemas Before getting to that, I'll briefly mention the happy fact that I yesterday went on my first outdoor climb for a while, up the Balmflue south ridge, a nice long route of 16 rope lengths in the Swiss Jura hills close to... Read more →

Project Solon and BipChecker for Revit 2015 on GitHub

One of the handful of Revit database exploration tools that I use on a regular basis is BipChecker, the Revit built-in parameter checker, so that is a pretty obvious candidate for migration to Revit 2015... see below. Before I get to that, let me mention some new Revit energy analysis functionality that you might want to check out: Simple Interactive Energy Analysis in Revit with Project Solon Project Solon beta arrives in Revit, providing more interactive energy analysis results, the... Read more →

Category Support for Shared Type and Instance Parameters

Welcome to my last post on the Revit 2014 API, and one final new external command and update of The Building Coder sample collection before we migrate to Revit 2015. Revit 2015 was released last week, the Revit SDK was posted and updated, RevitLookup for Revit 2015 is available on GitHub and the DevDays Online presentation on the new API functionality is available. Before migrating The Building Coder samples from Revit 2014 to Revit 2015, let's add one last external... Read more →

Cannot Get BindingMap of a Family Document

Here is an issue trying to access the binding map of a family document that just re-arose as a new ADN support case. It took me a while (thank you, Google) to discover that I had actually already answered the very same issue in the past in the Revit API forum discussion thread cannot get binding map of a family document error 2014. Therefore, I think it is best for both you and me if I promote it to a... Read more →

Detach Beam from Plane

Here is a long-standing question raised once again now by Miroslav Schonauer of Autodesk Consulting and solved with help from Sasha Crotty of the Revit development team: Question: Is there a way to programmatically replicate the 'Detach from Plane' functionality accessible in the user interface through the beam context menu? I can right click on a structural beam and select 'Detach from Plane'. Revit removes the parameter 'Work plane', i.e. BuiltInParameter.SKETCH_PLANE_PARAM, and enables the 'Reference Level' parameter, which is read-only... Read more →

Creating an Offset Wall Solution

Happy St. Valentine's Day! As we all know and have known for a long time from the exploration of the wall compound layers, the Revit API wall location line is at the centre of the wall. There is no way to change that, and it is important to note that the API location line is completely separate from the one whose location can be controlled through the user interface, and also through the built-in parameter WALL_KEY_REF_PARAM, but only after the... Read more →

Deleting Unnamed Non-Hosting Reference Planes

Once upon a time, while teaching a Revit API class, the training participants identified a problem that was simple enough to be used as a filtered element collector learning example and did something useful at the same time: deleting reference planes not hosting any elements, implemented as the stand-alone external command DeleteUnnamedNonHostingReferencePlanes. It deletes all reference planes that have not been named and are not hosting any elements. Here is another thread discussing filtering reference planes and explaining the use... Read more →

The GEOM_VISIBILITY_PARAM Visibility Settings

Here is an nice, useful and interesting example of a Revit API forum discussion thread and cooperative research between Remy van den Bor of ICN Solutions, Rudolf Honke of Mensch und Maschine acadGraph, the Revit development team, Joe Ye and your humble scribe on retrieving an element's detail view visibility settings, before wishing you and us all the best for the year of the horse: Remy: Hello Reviteers, Does anybody know how to get to the visibility settings in the... Read more →

Final Rolling Offset Using Pipe.Create

I am writing this on the way back to Switzerland from my hiking trip on La Palma. Actually, lacking good bandwidth during my travels, I actually arrived back before being able to post this... Even before my return, I already have some good news to share: Victor Chekalin provided a working sample of using the static Pipe.Create method, so I can update my rolling offset series to make use of that more modern and flexible method rather than the older... Read more →

Determining Whether Parameter is Type or Instance Bound

Here is a question that came up now and then in the past, on how to determine whether a given parameter retrieved from the document shared parameter bindings is bound to a type or instances. Question: I have not been able to find a way in which to determine if a parameter is a type or instance in the Revit API. The only reference I could find was to the FamilyParameter.IsInstance property. However, this only works if you are in... Read more →

Translated Shared Parameter GUID Consolidation

Obviously, a language independent application is much easier to implement and maintain than a language dependent one, once you have the internationalisation framework for it in place. By the way, I took this opportunity to add the new category I18n to this blog to collect these kind of topics. The Revit API offers support for creating language independent add-ins, e.g. by using the built-in parameter and category enumeration values instead of localised strings. For the inverse operation, the LabelUtils and... Read more →

Max' Revision Wrapper Class

Max posted a comment on what's new in the Revit 2014 API presenting a neat little revision parameter wrapper class that I have taken the liberty of adding to The Building Coder sample collection. In Max' own words: For everyone also looking for the Revision parameters: Here a little wrapper class in C#: using System; using Autodesk.Revit.DB; namespace BuildingCoder { ///

/// A Revision parameter wrapper class by Max. ///

class JtRevision { ///

/// The BIM... Read more →

10.000.000.000th Post and Element Type Parameters

This is the 1024th post on The Building Coder, just to top off our recent 5-year and 1000th post celebration. The decimal number 1024 equals 2^10, i.e. 10.000.000.000 in binary format, hence the large number of zeroes in the title :-) I am also still away on vacation and this is the second post in my absence – or 10th, in binary format :-) – dealing with retrieving ElementType parameters, the ADN Xtra labs built-in parameter checker and a BipChecker... Read more →

Creating an Offset Wall

Here is an issue we have not looked at in a long time, brought up again by the following query: Question: I am creating a tool to generate a BIM from CAD data. One of the steps involves generating a floor slab, and then placing exterior walls along its edge. The tool begins by using model lines and arcs as a profile to generate the floor. Unfortunately, that generates walls that resting half on and half off the slab: How... Read more →

Determining Maximal Flow in HVAC Duct Connectors

A colleague came up with a request for a simple Revit MEP HVAC utility add-in that I would like to present. Question: We need to extract some specific ductwork values in Revit MEP and report them to the user. To begin with, all we need is the largest flow value on each duct, exported to a shared parameter on the duct. The purpose of the routine is for the users to confirm their duct sizing with this data reflecting the... Read more →

View Filter API

One long-standing developer wish list item that was fulfilled by the Revit 2014 API is the ability to access, add and control the view filters listed in the visibility dialogue. The Revit API now provides the following methods supporting this: View.AddFilter() View.SetFilterVisibility() View.SetFilterOverrides() Here are several variations of the request for this functionality that help understand the need and new possibilities by highlighting the numerous ways in which it can be used: Question 1: We want to programmatically achieve what... Read more →