AEC DevBlog

London #AECHackathon, Revit 2016 API Leader Attachment

By Jaime Rosales (@afrojme)

This past weekend I had the opportunity  to go to the land of The Queen, the Beatles and 007. After the successful hackathon, I can now say a city of innovators and great hackers for the AEC industry in the UK as well. We started the week together with Adam Nagy (@adamthenagy), a VIP pre-hackathon workshop at our beautiful London office, a Meetup to get the Hackathon participants a head start with the use of our View and Data API.

The I love 3D meetup was a great success and the attendees had a wicked response to the technology. During the hackathon, 2 teams decided to use the View and Data API in order to create unique and wicked 3D and VR apps.

I had the chance to present to the entire audience the View and Data API as well, where a lot of interest and curiosity was sparked and I look forward to seeing the upcoming creations they make.

Here is the URL to the presentation if you will like to check it out.

http://jaimerosales.github.io/london-prehack/#/

The 5 Teams who competed to solve the many challenges had a successful wrap up at the end of the Hackathon, Here is a summary of who they were and what they worked on.

               

Team #Massive : Who created an app in order to Find London Hidden space to solve the problem of identification of development space via planning policy constraints. The app final result helped them identify the untapped potential for raising building heights.

Team #Optioneers: Who focused on the challenge to help customers to make better choices of the house they buy. Their motto was "Closing the loop between design options" Enabling the customer make better choices in a faster time and also enabling the engineers enhancing their models in a shorter time.

Team #Gapathon: Who created an API in order to improve energy trust to analyse performance gaps. Their contributions were an open API, open source data consumer, data usability recommendation and also data visualization.

Team #Concur: With the use of View and Data API of Autodesk he used it in order to create an app that will Improve the efficiency In context collaboration for the industry.

Team #GhostBIMSquad: A team with members from 16 years old to 50 years old, this team worked in such a synced collaboration, creating a VR app, a Holographic image of their model, a relational information database, asset tagging, and a Bluetooth building navigation all during the weekend. Their best line during the presentation was "I'm sorry we don't have a power point presentation, we were too busy coding".

 

Here is the list of the winners

Best Overall Project: Team Ghost BIM Squad

Best Open Source Project: Team Optioneers

Innovate UK Hack Challenge – Mind the Gap: Team Gapathon

Autodesk VR and 3D Challenge: Team Ghost BIM Squad

National BIM Service Challenge: Team Massive

Future Cities Catapult Challenge: Team Gapathon

Energy Savings Trust Challenge: Team Gapathon

It was a pleasure meeting everybody and congrats once again for a wicked weekend in London, here is a link for the two hashtags that became 2 out of the top 3 trending during the weekend in London #AECHackLDN  #AECHackathon

Now back to Revit API.

This week a question was raised on our Forum which has been having a good amount of traffic and since also key players on the Revit Engineering team have access to this as well as other Revit API 3rd party developers. Thanks to Arnošt Löbel for his help with the following question.

Question: I'm creating a new note, and needing to add a leader to it. This is updating code from a 2015 plugin to 2016. Previously I was using (where 'note' is my TextNote.Create() object):

// Set the left and right leader attachments to Top
note.get_Parameter("Left Attachment").Set(0);
note.get_Parameter("Right Attachment").Set(0); 

That has become obsolete and using the new method, I'm currently using:

// Set the left and right leader attachments to Top
note.LeaderLeftAttachment.Equals("TopLine");
note.LeaderRightAttachment.Equals("TopLine");

I pulled the "TopLine" from Revit Snoop. However, this is not making it into my text note when created in Revit. It is Top for the Left Attachment, but Bottom for Right Attachment. Is there a best time to pass these values (currently I do it after the leader's been created and before the command completes)?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer: My sincere advice to you so to do less snooping. I understand that the Snoop is a popular tool and is occasionally necessary too, but at many times it does not do any good to you and your application.

As you can find in the RevitAPI.CHM file, text note has three methods related to Leaders. They somehow mirror the UI commands in Revit:
- AddLeader
- GetLeaders
- RemoveLeaders
In your case you will probably be using:

Leader leftLeader = myNote.AddLeader(TextNoetLeaderTypes.TNT_STRAIGHT_L); 

//and
Leader rightLeader = myNote.AddLeader(TextNoetLeaderTypes.TNT_STRAIGHT_R);

The Add method returns you the newly created Leader object. You will notice, that just like in the UI, the above method add leaders with some default shape and position. However, you can use the returned leader object and using its method a properties adjust the appearance and position of each leader.
For example:

leftLeader.End = xyzPointSomewhereOnTheModel; 

I hope that makes it clear.

Thank you Arnošt for the detailed answer to the Revit API community forum.

Thanks for reading and until next time.

ACA API: Accessing Project Properties

Q.  Using AutoCAD Architecture, we want to take information about the Project properties (Name, Number, Description). All the examples I can find online are to create a new project file using the API. I want to read the Project properties for the currently open Project in Architecture through the API. Is there a simple way to do this? 

A.  You can use Autodesk.Aec.ProjectConfiguration class.  It allows you to access information about the project, such as the name, description, and number. Below is a simple code snippet I added to the API sample AecProjectBaseSampleMgd:

        private void Config()
        {
              
            ProjectConfiguration projConfig = proj.Configuration; // new ProjectConfiguration();

            string s = projConfig.Name + ", ";
            s += projConfig.Number + ", ";
            s += projConfig.Description;
            Print(s);
        }

For your convenience, I have attached a modified version of the sample: Download AecProjectBaseSampleMgd

To use this class, you will need to reference AecProjectBaseMgd.dll
Attached was built with ACA 2016, using .NET 4.5 

Mikako

Reading Gross and Rentable area elements

By Augusto Goncalves

Here is a quick sample on how read gross and rentable area elements on Revit, starting from the Area element, where the FilteredElementCollector uses a SpatialElement, and the AreaScheme and, if needed, the Level linked to it. Finally show the total gross and rentable area.

Note it starts with the Area element, so you need to define it on the project, otherwise it will not even show on the schedule, right?

Update: Ed Silky pointed that if the AreaPlan is not added to the project, then the Level will return as Invalid (-1). This is expected behavior on parameters that store ElementId but still empty. Thanks Ed!

FilteredElementCollector coll = new
  FilteredElementCollector(doc);
coll.OfClass(typeof(SpatialElement));
 
double rentableArea = 0.0;
double grossArea = 0.0;
 
foreach (SpatialElement spartialElement in coll)
{
  Area areaElement = spartialElement as Area;
  if (areaElement == null) continue; // skip if not an area
 
  // area and type
  double areaValue = areaElement.Area;
  AreaScheme areaScheme = areaElement.AreaScheme;
  bool isGross = areaScheme.IsGrossBuildingArea;
 
  // get the level, just in case...
  Level level = doc.GetElement(
    areaElement.get_Parameter(
    BuiltInParameter.ROOM_LEVEL_ID).AsElementId())
    as Level;
 
  if (isGross)
    grossArea += areaValue;
  else
    rentableArea += areaValue;
}
 
// show only total result
TaskDialog.Show("Total:",
  string.Format("Gross: {0}\nRentable: {1}",
  FormatUtils.Format(doc, UnitType.UT_Area, grossArea),
  FormatUtils.Format(doc, UnitType.UT_Area, rentableArea)));

RevitAPI: Close active document

中文链接

By Aaron Lu

In the forum, customer said he wants to close the active document and reopen it, he took the suggestion from Jeremy's blog, and had some events related questions, though I did not totally understand yet :(

 

As we know, to close document, we can use UIDocument.SaveAndClose() or Document.Close(), however, if the document is active, we got an InvalidOperationException: The active document may not be closed from the API.

So we need to use something else, Jeremy mentioned one way by sending "Ctrl+F4" message to Revit, i.e.:

 SendKeys.SendWait( "^{F4}" );

Another way is, open and activate a placeholder document, and then close the original one, that's what the customer tried to do, and it works. To summary what the article is about, I used a shorter code snippet:

var placeholderFile = @"C:\placeholder.rvt";
var doc = commandData.Application.ActiveUIDocument.Document;
var file = doc.PathName;
var docPlaceholder = commandData.Application.OpenAndActivateDocument(placeholderFile);
doc.Close(false);
var uidoc = commandData.Application.OpenAndActivateDocument(file);
docPlaceholder.Document.Close(false);

Steps:

• Open and active the placeholder document
• Close the doc
• Open and activate the doc
• Close the placeholder document

So, we don't need any events for now :)

 

RevitAPI: FamilyManager.Set - InvalidOperationException and get members from AssemblyInstance

中文链接

By Aaron Lu

Q: Would you please confirm it is not allowed to set value family parameter if there is no type?

In Family Editor, when calling FamillyManager.Set(FamilyParameter), it will throw InvalidOperationException: There is no current type

the code looks like this:

var para = RevitDoc.FamilyManager.AddParameter("Length", BuiltInParameterGroup.INVALID, ParameterType.Length, false);
RevitDoc.FamilyManager.Set(para, 123.1);

It allows us to create "parameter" without any types, but not able to set value of parameters, because it should be meanless to set a parameter which is not belong to any type.

So, we should check if FamilyManager.CurrentType is null or not before calling ".Set" method.

if (familyMgr.CurrentType == null)
    familyMgr.NewType("A new type");
var para = familyMgr.AddParameter("Length", BuiltInParameterGroup.INVALID, ParameterType.Length, false);
RevitDoc.FamilyManager.Set(para, 123.1);

Q: How to get elements which are part of a selected assembly?

As you may have already tried that RevitLookup did not show useful information of parts in an assembly you selected, but when you look at the methods of AssemblyInstance, you will see a set of methods related with its parts:

• ICollection GetMemberIds();
• void AddMemberIds(ICollection memberIds);
• void RemoveMemberIds(ICollection memberIds);
• void SetMemberIds(ICollection memberIds);

those methods allows to:

• Get members of the assembly
• Add more members into the assembly
• Remove a set of members
• Set a list of elements as its members

so easy now, use GetMemberIds()

Double click to open the hyperlink

By Xiaodong Liang

We have introduced how to add hyperlink in this blog. A further requirement is to open the hyperlink when the user double clicks the object. This will need a couple of APIs:

- InputPlugin to interact with UI for mouse clicking

- A common plugin (say AddInPlugin) to provide a button to invoke InputPlugin

- Call state.GetOverrideURL of COM to get the hyperlinks of the object

The following are a demo code. The plugin EnableToolPluginExample will create a button under Tool Add-ins tab. When the button is clicked, the custom interactive mode is activated. When the user double clicks an object, the first URL will be opened in the default browser.

The complete project is available Download DoubleClick_Hyperlink.

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.Threading.Tasks;

using Autodesk.Navisworks.Api;

using Autodesk.Navisworks.Api.Plugins;

using ComApi = Autodesk.Navisworks.Api.Interop.ComApi;

usingComBridge = Autodesk.Navisworks.Api.ComApi.ComApiBridge;

using Nw = Autodesk.Navisworks.Api;

 

namespace ToolPluginDemo

{

    // The ToolPlugin example.

    [Plugin("ToolPluginTest", "ADSK")]

    publicclassToolPluginTest : ToolPlugin

    {

 

        ModelItem clickedModel = null;

        publicoverridebool MouseDown(View view,

                            KeyModifiers modifiers,

                            ushort button,

                            int x,

                            int y,

                            double timeOffset)

        {

 

            if(modifiers == KeyModifiers.DoubleClick)

            {

                // get current selection

                PickItemResult itemResult =

                    view.PickItemFromPoint(x, y);

 

                if (itemResult != null)

                {

                    clickedModel =

                        itemResult.ModelItem;

 

                    ComApi.InwOpState10 state = ComBridge.State;

                    ComApi.InwOaPath3 oPathInCOMAPI = ComBridge.ToInwOaPath(clickedModel) as ComApi.InwOaPath3;

                    ComApi.InwURLOverride oURLOver = state.GetOverrideURL(oPathInCOMAPI);

                    if (oURLOver.URLs().Count > 0)

                    {

                        //open the first URL

                        ComApi.InwURL oURL = oURLOver.URLs()[1];

                        //use default browser to open

                        if(oURL.URL.Length>0)

                            System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(oURL.URL);

                        System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write(oURL.name);                        

                    }

                }

            }

            returnfalse;

        }

        

    }

 

 

    [Plugin("EnableToolPluginExample", "ADSK",

         DisplayName = "EnableToolPlugin")]

 

    publicclassEnableToolPluginExample : AddInPlugin

    {

 

        staticbool enable = false;

        publicoverrideint Execute(paramsstring[] parameters)

        {

            if (enable)

            {

                //switch to the native tool

                Application.MainDocument.Tool.Value = Tool.Select;

            }

            else

            {

 

                //switch to custom tool

                ToolPluginRecord toolPluginRecord =

                    (ToolPluginRecord)Application.Plugins.FindPlugin(

                                                     "ToolPluginTest.ADSK");

                Application.MainDocument.Tool.

                        SetCustomToolPlugin(toolPluginRecord.LoadPlugin());

 

            }

 

            enable = !enable;

            return 0;

 

        }

 

    }

}

 

 

Update SelectionSet

By Xiaodong Liang

We have some articles on how to add  new SelectionSet. I got a question how to update a SelectionSet. The customer said this object (from the collection of DocumentSelectionSets) is read-only.

In general, to modify a .NET object of Navisworks, you would need to make a copy of the original object (CreateCopy method), modify the copy, and copy to the original object (CopyFrom). Normally, a collection object provide the relevant copy methods. In DocumentSelectionSets, they are:

1. ReplaceWithCopy(Int32, SavedItem)  Replaces item at given index within Value with a copy of item 
2. ReplaceWithCopy(GroupItem, Int32, SavedItem): Replaces item from the specified parent group with a copy of item

I’d recommend the second method as it clearly indicates the relationship of an item and its parent.

So,
1.    get the parent item of the SelectionSet you want to modify. In default, the SelectionSet in first level is actually included in a root item which is invisible in UI.
2.    get the index the item resides in the group (parent)
3.    make a copy of the original item, modify the relevant properties.
4.    call ReplaceWithCopy to update the original item.

The following code demos how to update an item named ‘mytestset’. Assume some other objects are selected in advanced. The code will update the SelectionSet with a new name and the current selection.

 

public override int Execute(params string[] parameters)

{    

    try

    {

        string output =

            ModifySelectionSetContent(

            Autodesk.Navisworks.Api.Application.

            ActiveDocument.SelectionSets.RootItem,

            Autodesk.Navisworks.Api.Application.

            ActiveDocument.Title,

            "");

                 

    }

    catch (Exception ex)

    {

        // any exception

        System.Diagnostics.Debug.Write(ex.ToString());

    }

    return 0;

 }

 

 public string ModifySelectionSetContent(
     SavedItem item,

     string label,

     string lineText)

{

    //set the output

    string output = lineText + "+ " + label + "\n";

 

    //See if this SavedItem is a GroupItem

    if (item.IsGroup)

    {

        //Indent the lines below this item

        lineText += "   ";

 

        int index = 0;

        //iterate the children and output

        foreach (SavedItem childItem in
               ((GroupItem)item).Children)

        {

            output += 
                ModifySelectionSetContent(childItem,

                childItem.DisplayName,

                lineText);

            if (childItem.DisplayName == "mytestset")

            {

                SelectionSet oSet =
                  childItem as SelectionSet;

                SelectionSet copyItem =      

                 oSet.CreateCopy() as SelectionSet;

                //change name

                copyItem.DisplayName += "_updated";

                //change selection

                copyItem.ExplicitModelItems.CopyFrom(

                          

                Autodesk.Navisworks.Api.Application.

                     ActiveDocument.CurrentSelection.SelectedItems);

                DocumentSelectionSets oSets =

                    Autodesk.Navisworks.Api.Application.

                    ActiveDocument.SelectionSets;

                oSets.ReplaceWithCopy((GroupItem)item,

                                     index, copyItem);

            }

            index ++;

 

        }

    }

 

    //return the node information

    return output;

}