The Building Coder

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 →

Revit Server and View Filter Alert

Non-API Revit Server access, exporting Outlook email text, and using a view filter to alert to missing data... Read more →

Doc Session Id, API Context and External Events

Some new topics, and, as always, some recurring – Document session id – Valid Revit API context and external events – Determining RVT file version for DA4R workitem – Revit API via HTTP – Parable of the polygons... Read more →

RevitLookup Continuous Integration and GraphQL

Let's start the week with a look at the new RevitLookup CI system and a GraphQL interface for Revit – RevitLookup CI on GitLab – GitLab CI YAML – GraphQL for Revit – The Tamm Tree... Read more →

Batch Processing and Aspects of AsStringValue

I avoid answering non-confidential questions in private, as I tell everyone who tries to do so. However, some non-confidential queries still come in via ADN. Here are two that came in today that might be of general interest and therefore seem worth sharing – Batch processing Revit families and documents – AsString and AsValueString results differ... Read more →

Parameters, Walls and Driving Revit via WCF Service

Exciting news from Russia and some mundane updates on other repetitive topics – Driving Revit from a modeless context via a WCF service – Room walls' directions – Retrieving all exterior walls – Getting and setting a shared parameter value... Read more →

Rational BIM Programming at AU Darmstadt

I am attending Autodesk University in Darmstadt, Germany, and putting the final touches to my presentation tomorrow on Rational BIM programming using Revit and Forge. Here are the slides and the handout document in their current state in PDF format – Slide deck – Handout document – For your convenience, here is the full text of the latter as well... Read more →

Revit Server Download and Hiding Point Cloud Scan

Today, I have two important results to share based on hard work by Tim Burnham and Pierre Navarra – Download from Revit Server requires RSN.INI entry – Hiding a point cloud scan RCS in an RCP instance... Read more →

BIM 360 Hackathon and Bounding Boxes

Topics for today – BIM 360 and Forge Hackathon and Webinar Series – IsCreatedLocal versus IsLocal – Getting the building height – FamilyBoundingBox enhanced taking instances into account... Read more →

Revit Server API Lib, Truss Members and Layers

Today, we proudly present – NuGet Revit Server REST API Library – RevitLookup Updates – Truss Members and FamilyInstance Sub-Components – GeometryObject Layer Name... Read more →

Automatically Reload Links After Migration

Today, my colleagues Michael Brian Lee and Miroslav Schonauer share a solution for links that are not automatically reloaded after migrating the model to Revit 2016... Read more →

FireRatingCloud Context and Architecture

A picture says more than a thousand words. I find a compelling and clear picture takes a lot of work, though. I created the image below to explain the context and architecture of the FireRatingCloud and other samples connecting BIM and the cloud like RoomEditorApp, followed by some musings on using Revit as a server – FireRatingCloud context and architecture – You cannot use Revit as a server... Read more →

Pi Day, Meeting, Ski Tour, Revit Server Bar Separator

You may be surprised to hear that today is Pi Day :-) – as well as the birthday of my S.O.S. or significant other's son. I had an exciting week with the ADN team meeting in London followed by a ski tour during the weekend. To round this off, I'll also tuck in one little Revit API item here for you – Happy Pi Day and Dan's birthday – EMEA ADN team meeting in London – Ski tours in the Alvier group – Revit Server model path requires bar separator... Read more →

What Can Revit on the Cloud Do For You?

Dear Revit API Add-in Developer Community, this is The Building Coder Post nr. 1400! 1400 is the number of different arrangements of four non-attacking queens on a 4×10 chessboard. I am using this happy special occasion to ask you an important and hopefully very popular question: What Can Revit on the Cloud Do For You? Would you like to run Revit on a Server? Are you looking for a Revit I/O, similar to AutoCAD I/O? What does Revit on the Cloud look like in your dreams? Could you make use of RealRVT, something similar to RealDWG, to programmatically access, create and modify a complete BIM without installing Revit? Read more →

External Services

It's been a while since I talked about External Services. The External Services framework was initially introduced and used sparingly in the Revit 2013 MEP API. In Revit 2014, the IFC export was moved to an external service and I presented the user-defined MEP calculation sample, later moved to GitHub. The framework for handling referenced file resources is also implemented as an external service. The motivation to continue this discussion now was given by Arnošt Löbel's class SD10752 on Revit External Services at Autodesk University 2015 in Las Vegas... Read more →

Live Revit Element Rendering in Remote WebGL Viewer

Today, I'll implement live real-time export of 3D geometry from a Revit add-in to a web-hosted WebGL viewer. This is an enhancement to the initial version exporting 3D element geometry to a WebGL viewer, which just generated data that I copied and pasted to hard-code it into the NodeWebGL viewer as a proof of concept. Meanwhile, I enhanced the WebGL viewer in various ways to prepare it for this real-time live connection, mainly by adding a REST API and support... 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 →

Berlin Hackathon Results, 3D Viewer and Web News

We completed the Berlin hackathon last weekend, and many other noteworthy and exciting things are going on, concerning the Revit API, the 3D web viewers, web services and more: Berlin hackathon projects and winners Avoid unnecessary unit conversion 3D viewer news AutoCAD as a web service Collada STL ADVA export settings RvtVa3c update Berlin Hackathon Projects and Winners The Berlin hackathon completed and the winners were announced last weekend. I took notes of four teams' project presentations: US4, us four... Read more →

Autodesk View and Data API Notes and Samples

Here is a summary of my notes from three presentations on the Autodesk View and Data API given by Cyrille Fauvel and Philippe Leefsma, in the two introductory workshops at HackZurich on Friday evening, October 10 and at HackaBxl in Brussels on October 17. Philippe also presented a very nice and absolutely minimal basic viewer sample in node.js demonstrating how to implement a private web service to obtain the authorisation token without exposing your key and secret in your JavaScript... Read more →

Revit Server Thumbnail Requires Redistributable

Here is a quick answer to a simple Revit Server question to close for this week: Question: My application retrieves thumbnails of models stored on Revit Server 2014 via REST calls using the following code: WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create( "http://" + "/RevitServerAdminRESTService2014" + "/AdminRESTService.svc/" + "|demorevitserver_ab.rvt/thumbnail" + "?width=200&height=200" ); request.Method = "GET"; request.Headers.Add( "User-Name", "d5783faa-3548-4e6e-be9a-aeca05c59352" ); request.Headers.Add( "User-Machine-Name", "MyComputerXyz" ); request.Headers.Add( "Operation-GUID", Guid.NewGuid().ToString() ); // Next line fails // The remote server returned an error: // (500) Internal Server Error.... Read more →

Accessing a Revit Server Central Model Path

I am still enjoying my summer break, and back to work temporarily for just a couple of days in between. For today, I present the following summary of a recent discussion on accessing a Revit server central model path including some useful new hints from the development team. Question: Given a path to a central model on a Revit server like rsn://xxxx, is it possible to know if the given path points to an existing project or not? Answer: Here... Read more →

Revit as a Service and Sheet-View-Element Transforms

Several people recently brought up the question of running Revit as a service, e.g. in this Revit API forum discussion thread, so let us take a closer look at that. I also finally got around to making some seriously overdue progress on the RoomEditorApp, which I should really rename to SimplifiedBimEditorApp. It now displays a Windows preview form showing the sheets, the views, and the elements they contain in preparation to uploading them to a cloud database. While I'm at... Read more →

REST POST Request to Revit Server 2014

I just arrived in Gothenburg, Sweden, for a mini-web-workshop. I'll let you know what I learn here soon. Meanwhile, here is a quick little important note on a change to the Revit Server 2014 REST API that affected some: Question: I am using a POST request to copy a RVT file from one Revit Server folder to another. This call worked fine in Revit Server 2013, but returns an error code 404 in Revit Server 2014. I looked at the... Read more →

Saving a New Central File to Revit Server

One topic brought up at Scott Conover's worksharing roundtable was the question of how to save a new Revit central file to a Revit Server. Participants even questioned whether this is possible at all with the current API. Well, it is, and we look at the exact steps to achieve that below as well as: DevDay in Farnborough, cabs and flights Saving a new central file to Revit Server Consistent naming of transactions and transaction groups Changing the category of... Read more →

User MEP Calculation Sample on GitHub

I published the user MEP calculation sample a couple of months ago as an example of making use of the external services framework to redefine the algorithms used for internal calculations in Revit. Nmulder is happily making use of this to redefine pipe pressure loss calculations, but running into a generic add-in error on HTML generation that I hoped to be able to sort out: Question: I have been playing around with the Revit API recently in order to provide... Read more →

Revit Server API Access and VBScript

I recently summarised the material describing the Revit Server API. Apparently, that still does not cover everything. You want more? Well, here is more! It led to the following two new queries and further clarification of this topic: SOAP API and no access to Admin service Accessing Revit Server using VBScript Here are the gory details in all their glory: SOAP API and No Access to Admin Service Question: Can you please let me know the cause for the 'Endpoint... Read more →

The Revit Server REST API

Let's take a look at the material available for programmatic access to the Revit Server. This came up in a developer query on automatically extracting data from a Revit model housed there. The automatic extraction of data requires batch mode opening of a Revit model and launching of a command, for which there is no direct Revit API support. However, this can be easily worked around using normal batch files to start Revit with a given project file, an add-in... Read more →

My Cloud-Based 2D Editor Implementation and Status

Continuing the research and development for my cloud-based round-trip 2D Revit model editing project, here are some issues I tackled since my last report: Updated project description and status CouchDB SVG editor implementation Home page: list all models and select one Updated Project Description I originally thought I would be implementing three cooperating components: the Revit add-in, a cloud-based data repository, and a browser-based JavaScript SVG viewer and editor client for the mobile devices. After struggles with and resolution of... Read more →

AU Classes on Python, UI, Server and Framework APIs

Thursday was another very full and fruitful day at AU. I gave my third and last class, the most exciting one in my eyes, on some UI and integration aspects. I was unable to attend Iffat May's class introducing Python and using it in Revit and Vasari via RevitPythonShell, but I love her material so much I am including it anyway. Adam Nagy presented a class addressing cloud and mobile development and the Revit Server API. Finally, Arnošt Löbel provided... Read more →

Detach Workset and TaskDialog Command Link Order

Here is a neat and simple solution using the DialogBoxShowing event to detach and discard worksets by Erik Eriksson of White Arkitketer AB, who already provided a useful workaround to synchronize with central using SendKeys in combination with the Idling and DocumentSynchronizedWithCentral events. Here is the issue: Question: We have a need to detach project files without worksets. For instance, it would be great to just have an option to detach and discard worksets. Why do we need this? This... Read more →

Mobile Device Room Location

I had a so-called education day last Friday, and one of our current goals for these days is to learn about mobile and cloud computing. Here is my account of activities and research that day. Please excuse me for exposing my fallibility in this rambling account of a spontaneous unstructured single-person work-in-progress project. The task I set myself was to query the location of a mobile device and determine the room it is located in in the Revit model. That... Read more →

Worksharing Central Filename

Here is a simple question that several people stumbled over and apparently can use some clarification: Question: In Revit 2012, I used the Document WorksharingCentralFilename property to get the location of the central file. This is marked as deprecated in Revit 2013, and the API suggests using GetWorksharingCentralModelPath instead. In my experiments with a central file, I can use this function to obtain a ModelPath object which provides a property named CentralServerPath, but it is blank. How can I recreate... Read more →

Access Central File TransmissionData on Revit Server

We already discussed using the TransmissionData class to list linked files and make changes using the WriteTransmissionData method. Here is another question on this topic answered by my colleague Joe Ye: Question: I want to access the TransmissionData object in a central file stored in the Revit Server. How can I achieve that via the Revit API, please? I tried the suggestions listed in the developer guide and none of them worked for me. I also tried using IsValidUserVisibleFullServerPath on... Read more →