I played around creating a new SectionCutGeo add-in to retrieve the geometry resulting from cutting a family instance in a section view. This was prompted the Revit API discussion forum thread on getting intersection lines from cut in section view – Intersection of section and family instance task – Solution options, geometry elements and view settings – Retrieving curves in the cut plane – Helper methods and external command mainline – Sample model and results – Caveat... Continue reading

The open source space around the Revit API is continuously growing richer, solutions are shared and exciting discoveries are made, both in the Revit API discussion forum and elsewhere – Debugging, code signing and HOK Mission Control – Creating connectors on a reference line... Continue reading

As usual, I am over-active in the Revit API discussion forum, so you can see most of what I have been up to right there. Here and now, I'll highlight one of those threads and clarify how to access the Revit 2019 Precast API – Structural Precast API – IOpenFromCloudCallback and the DefaultOpenFromCloudCallback class... Continue reading

Today, let's present a benchmark monitoring filtered element collector performance. First, however, a quick note on a very useful Forge learning resource – Forge learning resource – Filtered element collector benchmark... Continue reading

The linked file enhancements introduced in the Revit 2014 API obviously need more awareness – Link enhancements – Conversion of geometric references – Tagging a linked element – Using the stable representation to tag a linked element – List all untagged doors... Continue reading

The pyRevit rapid application development environment can be used for the entire add-in lifecycle, supporting rapid debugging, testing and deployment as well. I successfully implemented invoking an external command defined in a stand-alone Revit plugin assembly from pyRevit! It's proving extremely useful... Continue reading

New Autodesk show reels, a solution to the lack of an add-in manager in the Revit 2020 SDK, an update for the SpatialElementGeometryCalculator and an interesting observation on English spelling – 2019 Autodesk show reels – The Add-In Manager for Revit 2019 still works – Spatial element geometry calculator update – English spelling... Continue reading

Yet another eagerly awaited update for the Revit 2020 API, a couple of interesting Revit API discussion forum threads, and some thoughts on how AI might affect and be used in an architectural context – RevitApiDocs updated with the Revit 2020 API – More room boundary segments than expected – How to get width and height of a CurveLoop – AI and architecture... Continue reading

I am probably doomed to spend the rest of my life telling people not to unnecessarily apply ToList to a filtered element collector. It happened several times again today answering questions in the Revit API discussion forum – Don't trust the family instance location point – Searching by name for element type and text note type – Searching using a negated category filter... Continue reading

Continuing the update of my development environment for Revit 2020, I now turn to the Visual Studio Revit add-in wizards. I'll also highlight a couple of recent interesting AEC related job offers, an AI 101 intro, and some really important suggestions on how to ask a question well – C# and VB Visual Studio add-in wizards for Revit 2020 – How to ask a question well – Open Autodesk AEC related positions – AI for all... Continue reading

Question: What can we do with the new Revit 2020 API features? Well, just like most of the existing functionality, the enhancements and some typical yet simple use cases for them are demonstrated by the updated SDK samples. Revit 2020 sports five brand new SDK samples – AttachedDetailGroup – CreateTrianglesTopography – Custom2DExporter – PathOfTravel – ViewTemplateCreation – This list also highlights some the most exciting areas of enhancement... Continue reading

Let's close this eventful week with two important enhancements added to the Forge Design Automation API for Revit and our beloved RevitLookup tool – IFC Support in the Design Automation for Revit API – RevitLookup Snoop Enhancements... Continue reading

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... Continue reading

Still getting up to speed with Revit 2020 and my new virtual machine that I set up for it... First, however, an interesting adaptation of RvtSamples to run in zero document state – RvtSamples adapted for zero document state – Migrating The Building Coder samples to Revit 2020 – Installing PowerTools Copy HTML Markup – Using PostCommand to close document... Continue reading

The Revit 2020 API includes exciting enhancements for add-in developers, including numerous developer wishes and requests that have now been explicitly addressed – Information sources – Installation and migration from previous versions – What's new in previous versions – Detailed TOC of major changes and renovations – API Changes – API Additions... Continue reading

Happy Easter! The post on What's New in the Revit 2020 API is overdue... for the time being, of course, you can refer to the documentation included with the Revit 2020 SDK, either Revit Platform API Changes and Additions.docx or the corresponding section in the help file RevitAPI.chm. I promise you there is some really juicy stuff in there! Here are some other quick notes as an Easter present for you – RevitLookup for Revit 2020 – Revit 2020 SDK posted – Generative Design with Philippe Starck... Continue reading

Revit 2020 has been released, and we go through the same procedure as every year, looking at the DevDays online presentations highlighting the API news, getting the system requirements set up, installing, compiling the Revit SDK samples and setting up RvtSamples to load them – Revit 2020 first customer shipment – Revit 2020 DevDays Online – Setting up Windows 10 – Installing Revit 2020 and the new SDK – Visual Studio and .NET 4.7 – Compiling the Revit 2020 SDK samples – Setting up RvtSamples... Continue reading

Today, yet another introduction to Forge, a simple issue of setting the level of a floor element, and the much more complex one of gaining freedom and total independence via IPC – What is Forge? – Changing the level of a floor – Entanglement can be hell – CefSharp entanglement – Disentanglement and independence via IPC – Beer-ware license... Continue reading

Today I discuss (once again) an important performance aspect of Revit element filtering, a Python script for tagging JPEG images with EXIF data, prompted by a recent ski tour, and three other interesting topics that caught my eye – Slow, slower still and faster filtering – Python JPEG EXIT filename tagging – TED talks and population growth – Objective reality does not exist – Artificial intelligence judge... Continue reading

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... Continue reading

Here is a recurring question on binding a shared parameter to a given category – How to add a shared parameter to revision? – Determine the category – Binding to the category – Implementation sample... Continue reading

We have looked at numerous different approaches to determine wall openings in the past, so it seems pretty hard to nail down, and pretty important to solve. Now Håvard Leding of Symetri contributed yet another exciting idea which highlights a number of surprising aspects, demonstrates a further creative use case for GetDependentElements and expands on his recent RevitLookup enhancement to retrieve and snoop dependent elements – Get demolished solid – Why? – Questions... Continue reading

Today, let's look at the Forge architecture, Revit add-in debug, edit and continue, and yet another RevitLookup enhancement – High-level picture of Forge – Debug and continue in a Revit add-in – Snooping appearance assets... Continue reading

Let's look at a couple of scaling and triangle orientation issues that recently came up – Transform and scaling in Forge – ModPlus and scaling text in dockable panel – Exporting view image extents – Mesh triangle orientation – PlanarFace normal... Continue reading

Håvard Leding of Symetri raises another exciting topic on using the the GetDependentElements method to retrieve and snoop dependent elements, e.g., the sketch of a floor and the model lines defining the floor boundary in that sketch – The GetDependentElements method – Snoop dependent elements – CmdSnoopModScopeDependents – RevitLookup update... Continue reading