The IExternalApplication interface has two abstract methods, OnStartup() and OnShutdown(), Revit calls OnStartup event method when it starts/launches, we will register our DockableWindow in this event method, and calls OnShutdown event method when it closes.

This time we only have to create Show UI button and attach it to Show Command. In the OnStartup event method, to do the following steps;

• Create a Ribbon Panel name “TwentyTwo Sample” under Revit Add-Ins Tab.
• Get current assembly path which is the location of this current project’s DLL file.
• Create a button for Show Command and add to the created “TwentyTwo Sample” panel.
• Assign ToolTip and Images properties respectively.
• Register Dockable Window (figure 1.0)

GetResourceImage method, to collect our image files that we just embedded in this current assembly resource file for Show command button. This method includes two parameters : (Assembly) an assembly , (string) name of an image and returns an ImageSource object. (figure 1.1)

In RegisterDockablePane method, assign an instance of the DockablePaneViewer() to a field and create a new DockablePaneId with a GUID, Globally Unique Identifier, you can generate and get a number from here. RegisterDockablePane method needs three parameters: an Id, a caption and a dockable window. (figure 1.2)

In Show command class, get the registered Dockable Window with the same GUID value was given in the registration method and display it with Show() method (figure 1.3).

Add new item > Select User Control (WPF) and name it “DockablePaneViewer.xaml”. (figure 1.4)

Change the Window to Page tag as recommended in Revit API Developer Guide . And just have to add a WebBrowser tag with Name and Source (a webpage to navigate and display). (figure 1.5)

In DockablePaneViewer.xaml.cs , we’ll subscribe WebBrowser’s Loaded Event with a callback method to hide unwanted JavaScript pop-up dialogs while web page loading. Implementation of the IDockablePaneProvider interface and its abstract method named SetupDockablePane. SetupDockablePane() method has one parameter of type DockablePaneProviderData, which is a container for information about our dockable window. And we’ll set FrameworkElement and Initial State of its properties. (figure 1.6)

This callback, HideJsScriptErrors, method silent unwanted pop-up script errors (figure 1.7)

In Build Events tab, edit Pre-build event : xcopy /Y "$(ProjectDir)WPFDockablePaneAddIns2.addin" "$(AppData)\Autodesk\Revit\Addins\2023" – to copy the AddIn manifest file, “RevitAddInsWPFSample.addin”, to Revit’s system location. (figure 1.8, 1.9)

That’s all for this tutorial, you can get the complete source code from here, Cheers!

Let’s cook! since we won’t be executing any command in this tutorial, AddInPlugin location is set to None. Interface attribute uses for grouping a collection of plugins which makes the plugin easier to be searched and found by the framework. (figure 1.0)

MainClass inherited from TimelinerDataSourceProvider class, which requires to implement abstract members and called by the framework. Inherited class provides connection to external scheduling data source and bringing data into Navisworks. (figure 1.1)

Following are list of abstract members (called by framework):

• CreateDataSource – to create a TimelinerDataSource.
• ImportTasksCore – called when the user selects Rebuild or Synchronize on the data source and is responsible for creating Timeliner task from the selected external data.
• UpdateDataSource – called when the user clicks edit in the DataSource tab.
• ValidateSettings – to validate TimelinerDataSource settings.
• DisposeManagedResources – as part of IDisposable.
• DisposeUnmanageResources – as part of IDisposable.
• IsAvailable – to determine if this TimelinerDataSourceProvider is available to import tasks, default returns true.

CreateDataSource returns TimelinerDataSource object which contains details of external project data and how to reconnect to that external data. ProjectIndentifier property link to data-source.csv file. DataSourceProviderId set plugin/base Id value, for Version just provide an optional number and provider name matching Plugin name. (figure 1.2)

AddAvailableFields method to populate the AvailableFields with the fields you wish users to be able to map. (In this tutorial, Task schedule are generated from ImportTasksCore method, this mapping method can be omitted too). (figure 1.3)

Mapped Available Fields to Timeliner Fields

ImportTasksCore method called when the user selects Rebuild or Synchronize on the data source and is responsible for creating Timeliner tasks from the selected external data, returns reports of calling ImportTasks. Report contains details of any issues encountered during a TimelinerTask Import operation. Create a parent/root TimelinerTask to hold the Timeliner Tasks generated from csv data source file. To do so, we will read csv stream data line by line and split line with ” , ” character till end of the stream data. (figure 1.4)

Array string “fields” to store separated value from each line and set Timeliner property value for; SynchronizationId, DisplayName, PlannedStartDate, PlannedEndDate & SimulationTaskTypeName respectively from string fields list by each index. Attach selection set for Timeliner simulation from the returns value of “getSelectionSetByName” custom method. (figure 1.5)

Custom StringToDateTime method for conversion of string/text to DateTime format for timeliner scheduling. (figure 1.6)

“getSelectionSetByName” method returns a SelectionSet which display name have same string value with provided parameter string value. (figure 1.7)

UpdateDataSource method called by the framework when the user clicks edit in the datasource tab, it check the datasource file that currently connected to project identifier. Respond was “Ok” if a new csv file was chosen and set to ProjectIdentifier, add available fields for mapping. (figure 1.7)

ValidateSetting, DisposeManagedResources, DisposeUnmanagedResources & IsAvailable abstract members we can just leave as default/empty.

We’ll add Post-build Command line for debugging purpose. (figure 1.9)

In Build Events tab, edit Post-build event : xcopy /Y "$(TargetDir)." "D:\Autodesk\Navisworks Manage 2023\Plugins\$(TargetName)\" – to copy the output dll file.

That’s all for this tutorial, you can get the complete source code from here, Cheers!

Setting up Navisworks® Add-Ins project in the visual studio, you can follow Creating Navisworks Add-Ins tutorial to set up the project. When you are ready, in the Execute method, we are going collect the Timeliner object and (saved)SelectionSets from the current document. GetTimeliner method can use to collect the Timeliner object and from SeletionSets property we are able to collect SavedItemCollection, represents a collection of SavedItems and appears in the various classes relation to SelectionSets. (figure 1.0)

The next step is to loop each of the collected SelectionSets to create the TimelinerTasks. Create each TimelinerTask via the TimelinerTask constructor with primary properties : DisplayName – set DisplayName value from SelectionSet DisplayName, Start/End Date – set DateTime object with year, month and date. (For the sake of simplicity, incrementation of 1(index) assign to month). And for SimulationTaskTypeName is “Construct” (you can assign default types such as “Demolish”, “Temporary”). (figure 1.1)

And we have to make a bunch of TypeConversion to attach SelectionSet to the TimelinerTask’s Attached property. SelectionSet to SelectionSource, from SelectionSource to SelectionSourceCollection then we uses Selection property to attach (SelectionSet) to the TimelinerTask and lastly, the TimelinerTask add to the Timeliner object. (figure 1.1)

We’ll add Post-build Command line for debugging purpose. (figure 1.2)

In Build Events tab, edit Post-build event : xcopy /Y "$(TargetDir)." "D:\Autodesk\Navisworks Manage 2023\Plugins\$(TargetName)\" – to copy the output dll file.

Finally, add external program to Navisworks’ Roamer.exe and click Start. (figure 1.3)

That’s all for this tutorial, you can get the complete source code from here, Cheers!

Setting up Navisworks® Add-Ins project in the visual studio, you can follow Creating Navisworks Add-Ins tutorial to set up the project. After setting up the the project add two attributes: Plugin & DockPanePlugin and interface change to DockPanePlugin, we’ll also need to override two methods: CreateControlPane – called to tell the plugin to create it’s pane and DestroyControlPane – called to tell the plugin to destroy it’s pane. (figure 1.0)

In the CreateControlPane method, ElementHost control is a Windows Forms control that can be used to host a WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) element. Assign our WPFControl (we’ll create later..) control’s properties, AutoSize & Child, and called CreateControl method is to force to handle immediately for manipulation of the our dockable pane (WPFControl). DestroyControlPane method is to dispose and release all the resources used by our dockable pane. (figure 1.1)

Next to add a WPF User Control(XAML file) “WPFControl” to host a web browser that will display our dockable pane. (figure 1.2).

We just have to add a WebBrowser tag with Name and Source (a webpage to navigate and display). (figure 1.3)

In WPFControl.xaml.cs , we’ll subscribe WebBrowser’s Navigated Event with a callback method to hide unwanted JavaScript pop-up dialogs during web page loading. (figure 1.4)

What this callback, HideScriptErrors, method does is set the .Silent property on the underlying activeX object which is the same as the .ScriptErrorsSuppressed property which is the Windows forms equivalent. (Got it from a stackoverflow answer.) (figure 1.5)

We’ll add Post-build Command line for debugging purpose. (figure 1.6)

In Build Events tab, edit Post-build event : xcopy /Y "$(TargetDir)." "D:\Autodesk\Navisworks Manage 2020\Plugins\$(TargetName)\" – to copy the output dll file.

Finally, change the platform solution to x64, add external program to Navisworks’ Roamer.exe and click Start. (figure 1.7)

After Navisworks Application has launched, you can find our Dockable Pane in Navisworks GUI > View Tab > Windows Dropdown, check to display in the UI.

That’s all for this tutorial, you can get the complete source code from here, Cheers!

Let this start by firing up Visual Studio (me using VS17 & Navisworks 2020), when you are ready, create a new project > choose Class Library (.Net Framework) and name it “CustomTabSample” (figure 1.1).

In the Solution Explorer panel, right-click on References > Add Reference > Browse and add AdWindows, Navisworks GUI Roamer, Navisworks API library and WindowForms too (figure 1.2).

In the Solution Explorer you should be seeing the References as below figure 1.3a , make sure local copy values set to false. And create a Folder name it “Images” for icon/images as shown in figure 1.3b (get images from GitHub repo).

Add a new WPF User Control (XAML file) , the Ribbon Interface file to configure RibbonTab layout (figure 1.4).

Remove all the preset tags from our xaml file and delete CustomTabSample.xaml.cs file too. In RibbonControl tag, we’ll give x:Uid as the project name “CustomTabSample” and also need to add AdWindows, Naviswork GUI Roamer as assembly references. (figure 1.5a)

RibbonTab defines a tab on the ribbon, set Id and Title attributes values as shown in figure 1.5b. RibbonPanel provides a distinct panel in the ribbon tab for a group of buttons and set x:Uid attribute value as “RibbonPanel_1”. RibbonPanelSource defines the content and properties of the parent RibbonPanel and NWRibbonButton indicates a button in the ribbon. We have two buttons: “ButtonOne” and “ButtonTwo” in the “RibbonPanel_1”. (figure 1.5b)

In “RibbonPanel_2” we will add a Split Button, NWRibbonSplitButton, which holds “ButtonThree” and “ButtonFour” (figure 1.5c). Now, we are done with our xaml file.

In MainClass.cs , we need to add a list of class attributes : Plugin attribute is to defines PluginID, DeveloperID. RibbonLayout attribute is to identify our “CustomTabSample.xaml” XAML file. RibbonTab attribute must provide the same RibbonTab’s Id from our xaml file. We have a Command attribute for each Button and Command Id links to Button Id. (figure 1.6)

CommandHandlerPlugin the derivative class has ExecuteCommand method to override. Method execute when a button in the Ribbon is pressed. (figure 1.7)

In ExecuteCommand method, we have a simple switch case statement for Button’s Id to determine which Button is pressed and a quote message box will display. (figure 1.8)

Lastly, to make our Plugins’ folder structure, as shown in figure 1.9, we’ll add a few Post-build Event Command Lines to copy Folder & Files.

In Build Events tab, edit Post-build event. (figure 1.10)

The first line : xcopy /Y "$(TargetDir)." "D:\Autodesk\Navisworks Manage 2020\Plugins\$(Target Name)\" – to copy the output dll file.

Second line : xcopy /Y "$(ProjectDir)CustomTabSample.xaml" "D:\Autodesk\Navisworks Manage 2020\Plugins\$(TargetName)\" – to copy xaml file.

Third line : mkdir "D:\Autodesk\Navisworks Manage 2020\Plugins\$(TargetName)\en-US" – to create a new folder “en-Us”.

Fourth line : xcopy /Y "$(ProjectDir)CustomTabSample.xaml" "D:\Autodesk\Navisworks Manage 2020\Plugins\$(TargetName)\en-US" – copy xaml file to “en-US” folder.

Fifth line : mkdir "D:\Autodesk\Navisworks Manage 2020\Plugins\$(TargetName)\Images" – create a new folder “Images”.

Sixth line : xcopy /Y "$(ProjectDir)Images" "D:\Autodesk\Navisworks Manage 2020\Plugins\$(TargetName)\Images" – copy imported images to “Images” folder.

Finally, change the platform solution to x64, add external program to Navisworks’ Roamer.exe and click Start.

That’s all for this tutorial, you can get the complete source code from here, Cheers!

Project File : Autodesk Navisworks Sample File.

Additional References :

https://apidocs.co/apps/navisworks/2018/87317537-2911-4c08-b492-6496c82b3ed5.htm

https://adndevblog.typepad.com/aec/2012/07/custom-ribbon-of-navisworks-part-1.html

Setting up Navisworks® Add-Ins project in the visual studio, you can follow Creating Navisworks Add-Ins tutorial to set up the project. When you are ready, in the Execute method creates two variables, doc and vpoint to store Document and Viewpoint respectively. To collect Viewpoint, doc.CurrentViewpoint property returns DocumentCurrentViewpoint object and it includes a method to get a copy of the current Viewpoint object, CreateCopy() method. (figure 1.1)

Viewpoint includes a method to collect its properties in terms of an JSON AutodeskCommonCamera object (it is actually a json file), we can get/write and export this return json data of viewpoint to a text file and save it on desktop or anywhere you like.

Copy these json data and open it in one of the JSON Formatter/Validator website, here is one. And you will see data structure something like below image, and save it as a JSON format file.

You can modify and play with these numbers from the exported json file. After modified these values, we will uses this JSON AutodeskCommonCamera object to set Viewpoint value. First have to read these json data as a string and provide the string value to SetCamera method as a parameter (figure 1.2).

The last part is to zoom selected Modelitems to the center of the Viewpoint. Viewpoint contains a method called “ZoomBox” which requires a BoundingBox parameter. To collect the BoundingBox of the selected Modelitems, just simply call BoundingBox method with boolean parameter value (true value is not to include hidden items).

That’s all for this tutorial, you can get the complete source code from here, Cheers!

Welcome to the third tutorial of Revit API series, this post is to cover how to creates a Revit Schedule including filter and sorting/grouping. For this, we gonna need to write an ExternalCommand Revit Add-Ins to create a Wall Schedule.

You can follow the first part of this tutorial to setup the project. After setting up your project, as shown in figure 1.0, we have to make a BuiltInParameter list for BuiltInParameters; Family and Type, Base Constraint, Area and Length, to add in our Wall schedule as schedule’s fields. (see here how to get BuiltInParameter object)

In the Execute method, create two variable for UIDocument and Document and start Transaction. ViewSchedule has CreateSchedule method to create a schedule with Document and CategoryId as parameters. As shown in figure 1.1, we provided WallCategoryId to create a Wall Schedule and name it “Wall Schedule Sample”. Define two variables to hold Schedule’s sorting/grouping field and Schedule’s filter field. (figure 1.1)

From ScheduleDefinition’s GetSchedulableFields method, we can get a list of fields that are eligible to be included in our Wall schedule (figure 1.2). And iterate each ScheduleField to check whether it is in our selected parameter list (BiParams) or not. We will write a Boolean method called “CheckField” for this logic (as shown in figure 1.3). If the result is true, we will add it in our Wall schedule by using AddField() method.

CheckField method is a custom helper method to check whether ScheduleField’s parmeterId is equal BuiltInParameter’s Id or not (figure 1.3).

In figure 1.1, we have defined two variables to hold Schedule’s sorting/grouping field and Schedule’s filter field. After adding Field to our Wall Schedule, we’ll collect Base Constraint’s ScheduleField , by comparing whether ScheduleField represents Base Constraint parameter or not, to create a filter for our Wall schedule. We chose ScheduleFilter Constructor that requires three arguments : ScheduleField’s FieldId, ScheuleFilterType which is a filter rule (Equal, Contains, Begins With …) and an ElementId for filter value. As you can see in figure 1.4, we have provided Base Constraint’s FieldId, FilterType/Rule is Equal, and FilterValue is Level 1’s Id. “GetLevelByName” is another custom method to collect Level element by Name. (figure 1.5)

For schedule’s group sorting, we’ll collect “Family and Type” ScheudleField to create schedule’s sorting field for our Wall schedule. And also we chose ScheduleSortGroupField Constructor that requires only ScheduleField’s FieldId, provided accordingly as shown in figure 1.4.

Lastly, after we have added Filter field and Sorting field to our WallSchedule’s, just have to set both values through ScheduleDefinition’s SetFilter method and SetSortGroupField accordingly with indexes of the fields. (figure 1.6)

That’s all for this post, you can find complete source code from here, Cheers!

You can follow the first part of this tutorial to setup the project. After setting up your project, as shown in figure 1.0, we’ll create two class for our two ExternalCommand add-ins, the first one is for creating a Schema and attach its instance to an Element, the latter is for retrieving Schema from the assigned Element.

Let’s start with CreateSchemaClass, in Execute method the first thing we do, is to collect an Element for later to attach our Schema data. UIDocument has Selection property to collect the current selected Elements’ Ids and from this return list of Ids value, take the first (index) Element. (figure 1.1)

As stated in Revit documentation, the following steps are necessary to store data with Elements in Revit:

• Create and name a new schema
• Set the read/write access for the schema
• Define one or more fields of data for the schema
• Create an entity based on the schema
• Assign values to the fields for the entity
• Associate the entity with a Revit element

SchemaBuilder is used to create Schema by providing a GUID as a parameter value which is used to identify the Schema and named it “MySchemaName” by using SetSchemaName method. For the read and write access levels of Schema, there are three options : Public, Vendor, or Application. If either the read or write access level is set to Vendor, the VendorId of the third-party vendor must be specified and if either access level is set to Application, the GUID of the application or add-in must be supplied too.

A simple field can be created using the SchemaBuilder.AddSimpleField() method to specify a name and type for the field (multiple fields are supported) and you can set field’s documentation with SetDocumentation method. After all fields have been defined for the schema, SchemaBuilder.Finish() will return the finished Schema.

An Entity is a instance of Schema, a new Entity can be created using that schema. For each Field in the Schema, the value can be stored using Entity.Set(), which takes a Field and a value (type must follow the defined field type), we set field value to “Hola Amigo!”. After Field value has been set for the entity, it can be assigned to an element using the Element.SetEntity() method. Finally, just to display a TaskDialog for assigned Element info (can omit too). That’s the end of first part, creating Schema. (figure 1.2)

In GetSchemaClass’s Execute method, the first a few lines are the same for collecting the first Element from the current selection. And we write a custom method for collecting Schema by Name, GetSchemaByName (figure 2.1).

To retrieve Schema data (Entity) from the assigned Element, call Element.GetEntity() with providing Schema as a parameter and its return Entity. If no entity based on that schema was saved with the Element, an invalid Entity will be returned. To retrieve our stored Field value from the entity can be obtained using the Entity.Get() method with a FieldName. Finally, just display the collected Field Value from the Element’s entity.

Well that’s all for this tutorial, you can find the complete source code here, Cheers!!

You can follow the first part of this tutorial to setup the project. After setting up your project, fetch the current Document from ActiveUIDocument. Creating FillPattern in the current document is actually a two-steps, the first step is create the FillPattern object. And then, create as FillPatternElement object in the current document (with an open transaction).

We chose the last FillPattern constructor which requires six parameters : Name, TargetType, HostOrientation, Angle (radian), Spacing1 and Spacing2. As you can see in figure 1.0, we have provided parameters’ values accordingly. (0.785398 radian is 45 Degree)

Next step, as I mentioned before we have to open a transaction to create FillPatternElement from the created FillPattern (“My Fill Pattern”). FillPatternElement’s Create method requires two parameters : Document and FillPattern (figure 1.2). Before we discuss about FilledRegionType, let’s jump our discussion to the require steps of creating a FilledRegion. (Create FilledRegion Method)

As you can see from the below screenshot, FilledRegion’s Create method requires four parameters : Document, FilledRegionType’s ID, ViewID and a List of CurveLoop.

In figure 1.2, to create a FilledRegionType, we have collected a FilledRegionType object from the current document and Duplicated with a new Name “New FillRegionType”. Set the Pattern parameters with the created (“My Fill Pattern”) FillPatternElement’s ID and PatternColor to Black (RGB value (0,0,0) is Black).

For ViewId parameter, we will just use the ActiveView’s Id of the current document. For CurveLoop parameter, we will just create a Square shape for simpler purpose. To do so, we construct the four corner points : start, right, up, left the XYZ points and create the perimeter lines by connecting these points accordingly. Now we have line1, line2, line3, line4 as the perimeter lines/curves of the square shape and just create a CurveLoop with these lines/curves.

We can now create our FillRegion object by providing the require parameters : Document, newly created our FilledRegionType (“New FillRegionType”), ActiveView’s Id and created square shape CurveLoop.

Lastly, don’t forget to create an Add-Ins manifest file for this ExternalCommand Add-Ins.

Well, that’s all for this tutorial, you can download the complete source code from here. Cheers!

(RevitAPI Docs’ screenshots are taken from apidocs.co)

As usual, let’s start our project by setting up Navisworks® Add-Ins project in the visual studio, you can follow Creating Navisworks Add-Ins tutorial to set up the project. Whenever you are ready, in the Execute method, create two variables : doc to store the current document and items for the selected ModelItems. And an if statement for checking is there any selected ModelItem or not, and call our soon to be created WPF form/window. (figure 1.0)

Next, we are going to build a simple WPF window for user interaction. To add UserControl, Right-click on the Lab12_Exercise namespace > Add > New Item… and choose User Control (WPF) as shown in figure 1.1.

Change UserControl tag to Window, add an Axis image, RadioButtons for each Axis and a Textbox to input a transform value. And we also add two buttons : Close (to close the form/window) and OK (to override the provided transform value). (figure 1.2)

In our UserControl partial class, create three fields: doc for the current Document, transform for user input transform value and axisValue for user selected radio button axis value. And we have two click-event callback methods for Close and OK buttons. (figure 1.3)

In Ok_Click, click-event callback method, we have to find the selected button from the RadioButton group. And fetch the user input value from Textbox, convert to double value, and axis value from the selected RadioButton content. (figure 1.4)

For the transformation of ModelItems, first to create Transform3D with two arguments : Matrix3 and Vector3D. We set Vector3D value from user input axis and transform values with switch case statement. Finally, override transform value to the selected ModelItems by using OverridePermanentTransform method from DocumentModels.(figure 1.5).

For Close_Click callback method, just simply call Close() method to close the window.

Well, that’s all for this tutorial, you can find the complete source code from here, Cheers!