AEC DevBlog

Adding TrimPlanes to Structural Members using ACA .NET API

By Saikat Bhattacharya

How can we add TrimPlanes to Structural members using ACA .NET API?

The workflow for creating TrimPlanes and adding them to a Structural member is quite straightforward. The first step is to create an instance of TrimPlane object and assigning the End and Plane property. The code snippet included below creates a TrimPlane for the Start and End point of a column and eventually, sets the newly created TrimPlanes using the member.TrimPlanes property by passing in the collection of the TrimPlanes.

Imports System 

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.ApplicationServices

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.EditorInput

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.Runtime

Imports Autodesk.AutoCAD.Geometry 

Imports Autodesk.Aec.DatabaseServices

Imports Autodesk.Aec.PropertyData.DatabaseServices

Imports Autodesk.Aec.Structural.DatabaseServices

 

Public Class Class1 

    <CommandMethod("testmemberTrim")> _

    Public Function testmemberTrim()

 

        Dim db As Database = HostApplicationServices.WorkingDatabase

        Dim tm As Autodesk.AutoCAD.DatabaseServices.TransactionManager = db.TransactionManager

        Dim trans As Transaction = tm.StartTransaction()

        Dim ed As Editor = Application.DocumentManager.MdiActiveDocument.Editor

 

        Try

 

            Dim member As Member = New Member()

            member.MemberType = MemberType.Column

            member.SetDatabaseDefaults(db)

            member.SetToStandard(db)

 

            ' Set the start and end point of Member in WCS

            member.Set(New Point3d(0.0, 0.0, 0.0), New Point3d(5000.0, 0.0, 0.0))

 

            'either get the existing trim planes,

            'Autodesk.Aec.DatabaseServices.ImpObjectCollection trimPlanes = member.TrimPlanes;

            'or create a new collection

            Dim trimPlanes As Autodesk.Aec.DatabaseServices.ImpObjectCollection = New Autodesk.Aec.DatabaseServices.ImpObjectCollection()

 

            ' create a trim plane at the start

            Dim ptOrigin As Point3d = New Point3d(1.0, 1.0, 1.0)

            Dim vec As Vector3d = New Vector3d(1, 0, 0)

            Dim tp1 As TrimPlane = New TrimPlane()

            tp1.End = TrimPlaneFrom.Start

            tp1.Plane = New Plane(ptOrigin, vec.GetNormal())

            trimPlanes.Add(tp1)

 

            ' create another trim plane at the end

            Dim tp2 As TrimPlane = New TrimPlane()

            tp2.End = TrimPlaneFrom.End

            tp2.Plane = New Plane(ptOrigin, vec.GetNormal())

            trimPlanes.Add(tp2)

 

            ' replaces the collection of trim planes on the member

            member.TrimPlanes = trimPlanes

 

            Dim blkTbl As BlockTable = trans.GetObject(db.BlockTableId, OpenMode.ForRead)

 

            Dim ms As BlockTableRecord = trans.GetObject(blkTbl(ms.ModelSpace), OpenMode.ForWrite)

            ms.AppendEntity(member)

            trans.AddNewlyCreatedDBObject(member, True)

 

            trans.Commit()

 

        Catch

            MsgBox("\nMember creation failed")

            trans.Abort()

        Finally

            MsgBox("\nMember created!") 

            trans.Dispose()

        End Try

 

    End Function 

End Class

Creating Wall using Profile provided–not aligning to existing Levels

By Saikat Bhattacharya

Using some of the overloads of the Wall.Create method, the wall seems to be always placed between two existing levels. It seems the lowermost and the topmost line(s) of the created walls profile always have the same Z-value as the corresponding existing levels, even though the Wall profile contained different values of Z – coordinates. How can we create a wall, that uses the profile given for wall creating and not use the Z-values of existing levels.

It does seem that using the specific Wall.Create(Document, IList<Curve>, Boolean), overload of the Wall.Create() creates a wall (with sloping upper faces, as in this case) to be aligned to existing levels. After some initial investigation, for the given requirement to create a wall which is not automatically aligned to the Z-coordinate of existing Levels, we need to use the following approach:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Text;

using System.Linq;

 

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 app = commandData.Application;

      Document doc = app.ActiveUIDocument.Document;

 

      using (Transaction trans = new Transaction(doc, "wall"))

      {

        trans.Start();

 

        XYZ[] pts = new XYZ[] {

          XYZ.Zero,

          new XYZ( 5, 0, 12 ),

          new XYZ( 10, 0, 0 ),

          };

 

        XYZ normal = XYZ.BasisY;

 

        WallType wallType

          = new FilteredElementCollector(doc)

            .OfClass(typeof(WallType))

            .First<Element>()

              as WallType;

 

        Level level

          = new FilteredElementCollector(doc)

            .OfClass(typeof(Level))

            .First<Element>(e

              => e.Name.Equals("Level 1"))

            as Level;

 

        // Create wall profile

        IList<Curve> profile = new List<Curve>();

 

        XYZ q = pts[pts.Length - 1];

 

        foreach (XYZ p in pts)

        {

          profile.Add(app.Application.Create.NewLineBound(

            q, p));

          q = p;

        }

 

        Wall wall = Wall.Create(doc, profile, wallType.Id, level.Id, true);

 

        trans.Commit();

      }

 

      return Result.Succeeded;

    }

  }

 

Executing the above code creates the wall which has coordinates determined by its profile.

 

Ribbon Control Class Hierarchy

By Saikat Bhattacharya

While preparing for my lecture at AU 2012 on Revit UI API, I was looking at the documentation we have on the Revit ribbon control classes and how best I could explain the various types of ribbon control classes the API exposes. I also wanted to highlight some of the properties and method that each of them expose uniquely, primarily because of their unique behavior. For example, a textbox would behave quite differently from a drop-down list and so the properties and methods would be quite drastically different. Also, some of the ribbon control classes derived from another class and so they inherited some behavior (in terms of properties and methods) from the parent (base) class. So to map this entire relationship out more visually, I created a class hierarchy diagram for the Revit ribbon control classes. The diagram is included below and you can click on it to get a detailed view. 

For each of the classes, I have listed some of the unique properties and methods that further enhance the understanding of the class and its implementation. If you need to know more about any of these classes, their listed properties or methods, you can search for the details in the RevitAPI.chm file which is included in the Revit SDK.