AEC DevBlog

Location Line of a New Wall using Revit API

By Saikat Bhattacharya

When a new wall is created using the NewWall() API, the location line parameter of the wall is set to the Core Centerline of the wall. Often API users have wondered if this parameter can be set/configured before the wall creation, so that they can have a wall location line set to, say, one of the other line or faces.

Unfortunately, there isn’t any way to set the location line *before* any wall creation but we can definitely set this property once a wall has been created and consequently alter the location line.

The location line property of a given wall is determined by the WALL_KEY_REF_PARAM built-in parameter and we can set it to one of the integer values which maps to the built-in enumeration of the various values provided. The following code shows how we can set this parameter after a wall has been created. In your project, you would write the code to create a wall using the API and then append the following section which sets the parameter value.

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Text;

 

using Autodesk.Revit.Attributes;

using Autodesk.Revit.DB;

using Autodesk.Revit.UI;

 

namespace Revit.SDK.Samples.HelloRevit.CS

{

 

  [Transaction(TransactionMode.Manual)]

  public class Command : IExternalCommand

  {       

    public Result Execute(ExternalCommandData commandData,

      ref string message,

      ElementSet elements)

    {

      UIApplication uiApp = commandData.Application;

      Document doc = uiApp.ActiveUIDocument.Document;

 

      foreach (Element ele in

        uiApp.ActiveUIDocument.Selection.Elements)

      {

        Wall wall = ele as Wall;

        if (null != wall)

        {

          using (Transaction trans =

            new Transaction(doc, "Wall Location Line"))

          {

            trans.Start();

            wall.get_Parameter(

              BuiltInParameter.WALL_KEY_REF_PARAM).Set(3);

            trans.Commit();

          }

        }

      }

      return Result.Succeeded;

    }

  }        

}

The integer value mapping for the Built-In enumeration is as follows:

0- Wall Centerline;

1- Core Centerline;

2- Finish Face: Exterior;

3- Finish Face: Interior;

4- Core Face: Exterior and

5- Core Face: Interior.

Based on the enumeration listed above, the code provided would be setting the Location Line of the selected wall to be Finish Face: Interior.

Find elements in Revit based on the elements exported in DWF

By Joe Ye

Issue

We are trying to find elements in  Revit based on the exported DWF via the GUID in the DWF export. I cannot find any elements using this, how can we find the elements using the GUID from the exported DWF ?

 

Solution

The element GUID in DWF is different from the same element’s GUID in Revit. So it is not possible to retrieve the element in Revit according to the GUID obtained from DWF file.
However, each element in the exported DWF file has the property Id. We can use this Id value to retrieve element in Revit.Here is the pseudo-code.

    // the argument idFromDWF is obtained from dwf file.

    ElementId id = new ElementId(idFromDWF);

    Element elem = doc.get_Element(id);

FootPrintRoof.SlopeAngle property value meanings and unit

By Joe Ye

Issue

I retrieved the slope angle of a footprint roof via API. However the return angle is not as I anticipate. Within the footprint roof editor, for instance,  I can see the slope angle for each side is 30 degree for one footprint roof. However the angle I get via API is 27.64.  Would you please explain what's the reason?

Here is the code fragment I used to read the slope angle.

    // roofRef variable represents a reference of a picked element

    FootPrintRoof footPrintRoof = roofRef.Element as FootPrintRoof;

    ModelCurveArrArray roofProfile = footPrintRoof.GetProfiles();

 

    string str = "";

 

    foreach (ModelCurveArray curveArr in roofProfile)

    {

      foreach (ModelCurve modelCurve in curveArr)

      {

        double angle = footPrintRoof.get_SlopeAngle(modelCurve);

        str += string.Format("Angle of Model Line id: {0} is {1}\n",

               modelCurve.Id, angle * 180 / Math.PI);

      }

    }

 

Solution

The slope angle obtained by SlopeAngle() property is not in radian, but it is a "slope". That's the ratio of two sides. eg the slope angle value 0.5 is the result of 0.5''/1''. This is the ratio of the vertical distance and the horizontal distance.

The slope angle in radian can be calculated by Math.Atan() method from the slope value. Accordingly the slope angle in degree can be calculated by multipling the angle in radian and 180/Math.PI.

Here is the revised code to obtain slope angle in degree.

    // roofRef variable represents a reference of a picked element

    FootPrintRoof footPrintRoof = roofRef.Element as FootPrintRoof;

    ModelCurveArrArray roofProfile = footPrintRoof.GetProfiles();

 

    string str = "";

 

    foreach (ModelCurveArray curveArr in roofProfile)

    {

      foreach (ModelCurve modelCurve in curveArr)

      {

        double angle = footPrintRoof.get_SlopeAngle(modelCurve);

        str += string.Format("Angle of Model Line id: {0} is {1}\n",

                   modelCurve.Id, Math.Atan(angle) * 180 / Math.PI);

 

      }

    }

Changing the color of annotation

By Joe Ye

Issue

How can I change the color of an annotation symbol  through Revit API?

Solution

View.ProjColorOverrideByElement can be used to change a set of individual elements' color in the caller view.Here is the code fragment to change selected annotation in active view.

    UIApplication uiApp = commandData.Application;

    Application app = uiApp.Application;

    Document doc = uiApp.ActiveUIDocument.Document;

 

    Color color = app.Create.NewColor();

    color.Blue = (byte)150;

    color.Red = (byte)200;

    color.Green = (byte)200;

 

    Selection sel = uiApp.ActiveUIDocument.Selection;

    Reference ref1 = sel.PickObject(ObjectType.Element,

      "Pick an Annotation");

    Element elem = ref1.Element;

 

    List<ElementId> ids = new List<ElementId>();

    ids.Add(elem.Id);

 

    Transaction trans = new Transaction(doc);

    trans.Start("ChangeColor");

    doc.ActiveView.set_ProjColorOverrideByElement(ids, color);

    trans.Commit();

Change a level name via API like the behavior of Revit UI command

By Joe Ye

If calling Level.Name property to change a level's name, all its corresponding views' name are changed automatically. Here is the code snippet.

    Transaction trans = new Transaction(doc);

    trans.Start("ChangeLevelName");

 

    FilteredElementCollector collector =

      new FilteredElementCollector(doc);

    collector.OfClass(typeof(Level));

 

    Level level1 = null;

    foreach (Element elem in collector)

    {

      level1 = elem as Level;

      if (level1 != null)

        break;

 

    }

 

    level1.Name = "NewName";

 

    trans.Commit();

 

There is no message box showing to allow users to decide if change the corresponding views’ name.
How can I change a level name like the way Revit UI command behaves?

 

Solution

There are two ways to change a level name via API.
    1. Via the Level.Name property as showed above.
    2. Changing the "Name" parameter of the level.

Method 1 changes all corresponding views' name after the level name is changed.
The behavior of method 2 is just like the UI command. It can display a message dialog to accept users' decision if changing corresponding views' name.
Here is the code fragment showing the usage.

    Transaction trans = new Transaction(doc);

    trans.Start("ChangeLevelName");

 

    FilteredElementCollector collector =

      new FilteredElementCollector(doc);

    collector.OfClass(typeof(Level));

 

    Level level1 = null;

    foreach (Element elem in collector)

    {

      level1 = elem as Level;

      if (level1 != null)

        break;

 

    }

 

    //level1.Name = "NewName";

 

    Parameter paramLevel = level1.get_Parameter("Name");

    paramLevel.Set("NewName");

 

    trans.Commit();

Get the sketch and sketch plane

By Joe Ye

A sketch and a sketch plane are created when creating a floor, roof, and filled region et.al. I want to retrieve the sketch and sketch plane. However there is no API to do that . Would you please tell me how to find the two objects?

Solution

When creating a floor, slab and filled region et.al, users need to draw a profile to define the element's shape.  Revit automatically creates a sketch and sketch plane for the profile. If the floor, slab or filled region is deleted, the corresponding sketch and sketch plane will be deleted accordingly.

Document.Delete() method returns all deleted elements' Id. Using this mechanism, we can figure out this solution.

Start a transaction, and delete the target element. The sketch and sketch plane Id should be in the returned element id list. Filter out the target elements by class name. Then rollback the transaction to keep the target element unchanged.

Here is the code showing the usage.

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Windows.Forms;

 

using  Autodesk.Revit .DB;

using Autodesk.Revit.UI;

using Autodesk.Revit .ApplicationServices;

using Autodesk.Revit.Attributes ;

using Autodesk.Revit.UI.Selection;

 

 

  [TransactionAttribute(TransactionMode.Manual)]

  [RegenerationAttribute(RegenerationOption.Manual)]

public class RevitCommand : IExternalCommand

{

    public Result Execute(ExternalCommandData commandData,

      ref string messages,

      ElementSet elements)

    {

      UIApplication app = commandData.Application;

      UIDocument uiDoc = app.ActiveUIDocument;

      Document doc = uiDoc.Document;

 

      Selection sel = uiDoc.Selection;

      Reference ref1 = sel.PickObject(

        ObjectType.Element, "Please pick an element");

      Element elem = ref1.Element;

      Transaction trans = new Transaction(doc);

      trans.Start("test");

      ICollection<ElementId> ids = doc.Delete(elem);

 

      trans.RollBack();

      string strName = "Host Id = " +

        elem.Id.IntegerValue.ToString() + "\r\n";

      foreach (ElementId id in ids)

      {

        Element elemIter = doc.get_Element(id);

        if (elemIter is Sketch || elemIter is SketchPlane)

        {

          strName += "Id = " + id.IntegerValue.ToString()

            + ";" + elemIter.Name

            + " ;" + elemIter.GetType().ToString() + "\r\n";

        }

      }

 

      TaskDialog.Show("test", strName);

 

        return Result.Succeeded ;

    }

}

Using this approach, elements that are closing related with a specified element can be retrieved too. For example, the detailed lines that forms the profile can also be found.

Revit 2013 API Japanese webcast

By Katsuaki Takamizawa

I delivered Revit 2013 API webcast in Japanese in July 26^th last week mainly for Japanese speaking audience. We had 20 attendees. Thank you very much for those who attended the webcast.

The webcast covered the introduction of new 2013 API and new SDK samples. I demonstrated some interesting new SDK samples including idling/external event for asynchronous access to Revit API and UI integration API features.

The recording and the slides (.PDF) are available at Japanese Developer Center webpage and ADN extranet (for ADN members) for download.

sample for texture of NwCreate

By Xiaodong Liang

Creating textures using NWcreate is complicated. The code below is extracted from the attached project.

Download ADN_mynwcreate_texture

It is a very small sample that should create a basic texture map. This is built with Navisworks 2012. To work with the sample,

1)  copy the project to  <Navisworks Manage 2012>\api\nwcreate\examples, thus the project setting does not need to modify

2)  switch the configuration to Win32 or X64 per your machine OS

3)   The EXE will be exported to

      Win32:    <Navisworks Manage 2012>\api\nwcreate\release

      X64:     <Navisworks Manage 2012>\api\nwcreate\release\X64

4)  on X64, make a copy   of <Navisworks Manage 2012>\api\nwcreate\release\nwcreate_data to <Navisworks Manage 2012>\api\nwcreate\release\X64. These are required files, but installation missed to make a copy in release\X64.

5) build and run, you should get a file called "test.nwc" in the same directory as the source code,

6) load the nwc ro Navisworks you should see a material in Presenter.

7)  switch into full render by ViewPoint tab >> Render Style to see the geometry with the texture.

 

The sample code creates a basic Presenter material with a texture map that is repeated ("wrapped image"), and it just specifies a basic "phong" reflectance shader. You should be able to attach the Presenter material to a node using LiNwcNodeAddAttribute

Additional information:

- A Presenter material has 5 classes of shader. You normally have to specify at least the "color" shader, the other shaders are optional.

- Best way to understand is probably to switch your Presenter into "Advanced" mode (Global Options -> Tools -> Presenter -> Profile -> Advanced). Then load a file that contains some Presenter materials (I think the Ice Stadium example file does). Then double-click on a material, and you should see a tab for each type of shader (e.g. color, reflectance...).

- Each shader type (or class) can have one of several shaders, and each shader has different arguments. The complete list is described in the "shaders.chm" file that ships with the product (you should be able to find it, think it's in the COM/documentation) directory. Should be pretty straightforward to understand.

 

#include "stdafx.h"

#include <nwcreate/LiNwcAll.h>

#include <stdio.h>

#include <stdlib.h>

 

#define LI_NWC_NO_PROGRESS_CALLBACKS NULL

#define LI_NWC_NO_USER_DATA NULL

 

 

LcNwcPresenterMaterial* create_texture(

                      LtWideString filename)

{

   LcNwcPresenterMaterial *material =

              new LcNwcPresenterMaterial;

   material->SetName(L"Texture");

 

   //

   // Setup the colour shader.

   //

   material->SetShader(LI_NWC_SHADER_CLASS_COLOR,

                       L"wrapped image");

 

   LcNwcPresenterData data;

   data.SetString(filename);

   material->SetShaderArg(LI_NWC_SHADER_CLASS_COLOR,

                          L"file name",

                          data);

 

   //

   // Let's just got for a basic phong reflectance shader.

   //

   material->SetShader(LI_NWC_SHADER_CLASS_REFLECTANCE,

                       L"phong");

 

   return material;

}

 

 

 

void doExport()

{

   LtWideString wfilename  = L"test.nwc";

   LtNwcScene scene;  

   LtNwcGeometry geom;

   LtNwcGeometryStream stream;

 

 

   //create scene and geometry

   scene = LiNwcSceneCreate();

   geom = LiNwcGeometryCreate();

 

   //open geometry stream, draw a triangle, close stream

   stream = LiNwcGeometryOpenStream(geom);

   LiNwcGeometryStreamBegin (stream, 0);  

   LiNwcGeometryStreamTriangleVertex(stream, 1, 0, 0);

   LiNwcGeometryStreamTriangleVertex(stream, 2, 0, 10);

   LiNwcGeometryStreamTriangleVertex(stream, 3, 10, 10);

 

   //********texture********

   LcNwcPresenterMaterial *mat =

               create_texture(L"TestLayout.bmp");

   LiNwcNodeAddAttribute(geom, *mat);

   delete mat;

 

   LiNwcGeometryStreamEnd(stream); 

   LiNwcGeometryCloseStream( geom, stream);

 

   //add the geometry to the scene and cleanup geom

   LiNwcSceneAddNode (scene, geom);

   LiNwcGeometryDestroy(geom);

 

   //write out the NWC file

   LiNwcSceneWriteCacheEx(scene, wfilename,

                         wfilename, 0, 0);

 

   LiNwcSceneDestroy(scene);

}

 

 

int main(int argc, char* argv[])

{

       // Initialise low-level API first.

   LiNwcApiErrorInitialise();

 

   // Then initialise the rest of the API.

    switch (LiNwcApiInitialise())

   {

   case LI_NWC_API_OK:

        doExport();

      break;

   case LI_NWC_API_NOT_LICENSED:      

      return 1;

 

   case LI_NWC_API_INTERNAL_ERROR:

   default:   

      return 1;

   }

   LiNwcApiTerminate();

 

 

 

    return 0;

}

 

 

COM API: open file using http whose server uses authentication NLTM

By Xiaodong Liang

Issue

When using the API the functions for OpenFile and AppendFile (COM Automation, Document.OpenFile), we get an exception when loading files from a http server. This server uses authentication NLTM.  In UI and use the File Open and Append,  there is no problem.

Solution

In product, with interactive user
    'Open File' and 'Append' both pop the Windows 'File Open' dialog. This effectively will use IE (and NLTM) to download the whole file in one go and then Roamer will try and open/append it from the local cache.

    'Open URL' will try and open NWD files in a custom manner by downloading chunks of it from the server using  a "GET" "Range: bytes=%s-%s". Server must support such operation. No authentication is supported.    

The Automation and ActiveX control of COM API uses same code as 'Open URL'.  So, Open/Append files by COM API from the server using NLTM is not supported.

Move saved viewpoint to folder

By Xiaodong Liang

In the other post we introduce how to add new saved viewpoints and folder. Sometimes we need to add new saved viewpoint to the existing folder, or move existing saved viewpoints to the folder. How to do? It could use

DocumentSavedViewpoints.Move

This method moves item at oldIndex in OldParent to newIndex in newParent. The parent could be the root of saved viewpoints collection or the folder. The following are two demos.

 

//add new saved viewpoints to the existing folder

private void addNewSavedVPtoOldFolder()

{

    // assume the document has a saved viewpoint folder

    // named  "myFolder"

 

    // get document

    Document oDoc =

        Autodesk.Navisworks.Api.Application.ActiveDocument;

 

     // get the saved viewpoints

    DocumentSavedViewpoints oSavePts =

        oDoc.SavedViewpoints;

 

    GroupItem oFolder =null;

    foreach(SavedItem oEachItem in oSavePts.Value )

    {

        if (oEachItem.DisplayName == "MyNewFolder")

        {

            oFolder = oEachItem as GroupItem ;

            break;

        }

    }

 

    if(oFolder != null)

    {

        try

        {

     // Create a saved viewpoint with current viewpoint

    SavedViewpoint oNewViewPt1 =

        new SavedViewpoint(

            oDoc.CurrentViewpoint.ToViewpoint());

    oNewViewPt1.DisplayName = "MySavedView1";

 

    // add the new saved viewpoint to the collection

    oSavePts.AddCopy(oNewViewPt1);

 

    // move the last saved viewpoint to the folder

    oSavePts.Move(

        oSavePts.RootItem, oSavePts.Value.Count-1,

        oFolder, oFolder.Children.Count);

 

        }

        catch (Exception ex)

        {

                MessageBox.Show(ex.ToString());

        }

    }

}

 

//move two saved viewpoints to new folder

private void moveSavedVPtoNewFolder()

{

    // assume the document has at least saved viewpoints

    // get document

    Document oDoc =

        Autodesk.Navisworks.Api.Application.ActiveDocument;

 

    // get the saved viewpoints

    DocumentSavedViewpoints oSavePts =

        oDoc.SavedViewpoints;

 

    if (oSavePts.RootItem.Children.Count > 2)

    {           

            // new a folder

            FolderItem oFolder = new FolderItem();

            oFolder.DisplayName = "MyNewFolder";

 

        // add the folder to saved viewpoint collection

            oDoc.SavedViewpoints.AddCopy(oFolder);

            try

            {

                // move the first saved viewpoint to the folder

                oSavePts.Move(

                    oSavePts.RootItem, 0,

                    (GroupItem)oDoc.SavedViewpoints.Value.

                                Last<SavedItem>(), 0);

 

                // move the second saved viewpoint to the folder

                oSavePts.Move(oSavePts.RootItem, 1,

                    (GroupItem)oDoc.SavedViewpoints.Value.

                               Last<SavedItem>(), 1);

            }

            catch (Exception ex)

            {

                 MessageBox.Show(ex.ToString());

            } 

     }

    else

    {

        MessageBox.Show("make sure the sets has at least two items");

    }

 

}