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 →

Simple IUpdater and other TBC Updates

A nice new minimal DMU example and updates and enhancements to several other important sample applications – Simple dynamic model updater example – ExportCncFab SortMark update – RevitLookup exception on view GetTemplateParameterIds... Read more →

AreaLoad Force Direction, CMake and SDK Access

Here are some of the topics I dealt with in the last couple of days – CMake and YoAudio – AutoCAD and Revit SDK Access and Content – Determining AreaLoad direction and value from its force vectors – ExportCncFab 2018... 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 →

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 →

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 →

Driving CNC Fabrication and Shared Parameters

The topic of CNC fabrication of Revit BIM elements is continuing to grow in popularity. As you already know, I published the ExportWallboard add-in to automatically isolate and export wall parts individually to DXF for CNC fabrication, then enhanced, renamed and published it on GitHub as ExportCncFab for William Spier's Autodesk University class on Design to Fabrication. Those discussions were explicitly related to CNC fabrication up front. Numerous other topics here are also useful in that context. I was unable... Read more →

Wall Compound Layer, Other Geometry and Licenses

Below, we take another quick look at the issue of licenses. First, here is a pretty basic question that keeps reappearing, so I summarise some existing results for everybody's convenience: Question: How can I programmatically retrieve the coordinates of a wall boundary, especially the geometry of the finished interior and exterior layers? I wish to export the building blueprint to GML. I would also like to know how to achieve the same for the geometry of doors and windows. Some... Read more →

ExportCncFab on GitHub and RevitLookup Update

I am in a hurry, still not finding time to prepare my AU classes, and lots going on. I published an add-in named ExportWallboard to automatically isolate and export wall parts individually to DXF for CNC fabrication back in March, still for Revit 2013, at the time. That utility is in use, was renamed to ExportCncFab and has enjoyed some further enhancement since, such as: Support for export to SAT as well as DXF A beautiful little external application to... Read more →

Export Wall Parts Individually to DXF

I am back from my vacation. It was a wonderful break, and I feel ready and happy to get back to grips with everyday life and work again. A query from a colleague caught up with me already on the way back, on exporting a whole bunch of selected wall panel parts to individual DXF files. That gave me something nice and interesting to fiddle with during the nightly train ride up from Napoli to Milano and led to the... Read more →

DivideParts in F# and Line Styles

My internet connection died last night. After worrying and testing quite a bit last night and this morning, I laid a temporary cable from my neighbour's router. Shortly after I finished, my own connection came back up again, after about 14 hours downtime. Murphy's law remains valid, as always. Very reassuring :-) There is lots of building work going on nearby, so probably they broke it and fixed it with no explanations given. Anyway, I am back to normal now... Read more →

Parts, Assemblies, PartUtils and DivideParts

Let's end this eventful week with another big and imporant topic that we've neglected for much too long. So far, I presented just one single example of using the PartUtils class, and other information provided on it by a Google search is also awfully scarce. Piotr Zurek of CADPRO Systems Ltd improved the situation by raising and promptly answering the following question: Question: I wonder whether you have any sample code showing how to use the PartUtils.DivideParts method. I'm trying... Read more →

Graphically Display Area Boundary Loops

I recently worked on a case from a developer struggling with area boundary loops and attempting to determine whether they were closed or not by looking at the coordinate values in RevitLookup. I hold that the average human brain is overtaxed by trying to analyse graphics manually, or rather, cerebrally. I therefore implemented a sample command DisplayBoundary to display them graphically instead. It iterates over the boundary segments of selected areas, or all areas in the model, and creates a... Read more →

Identifying Wall Compound Layers and Parts

We recently looked at how to determine the exact geometry and wall join points of compound layer geometry subcomponents by temporarily creating separate parts from the wall. Here is another interesting question the correlation between the wall compound layers and its ensuing parts: Question: I have split my wall into parts, and now I would like to determine which of the resulting parts correspond to the component structure layers with certain functions such as Structure or Membrane. Once the parts... Read more →

Retrieving Detailed Wall Layer Geometry

We start off this week with a bang. I find the following topic especially exciting, for several reasons: It deals with geometry. I like that. It implements something that cannot be achieved out of the box. I like that. It makes use of the Revit 2012 parts functionality and the PartUtils class, which we never looked at in detail before. I like that. It uses a temporary transaction to make changes to the model to create and extract information that... Read more →