Coordinate set of columns

[tevion]

Hi,

good idea to create this forum, the API seems to be quite powerful but also quite complex. Simple tasks might get tricky to solve and so the forum might be a good address to ask for help!

Well, I am looking for a way to get the start and end coordinates (XYZ) of columns out, type Structural Columns. Structural Framing coordinates I get but the columns are family related and that is causing me problems. Maybe someone has an idea how to get those coordinates?

Thanks,
Tevion

[Anonymous]

Tevion,

Hmm, great question. I don't see a way to grab the specific XYZ points,
but you could probably interpolate them from the column location (X and
Y from FamilyInstance.Location) and the Top Level (+offset) and Base
Level (+offset) for Z. The built-in parameters
"FAMILY_TOP_LEVEL_PARAM", "FAMILY_TOP_LEVEL_OFFSET_PARAM",
"FAMILY_BASE_LEVEL_PARAM", and "FAMILY_BASE_LEVEL_OFFSET_PARAM" should
give you the top and bottom locations, then get the Z value from the
Level.Elevation for the base and top levels.

You could probably write a quick function that you pass a family to and
it returns the XYZ values.

Hope that helps,
-Danny Polkinhorn
WATG
Honolulu

Tevion wrote:
> Hi,
>
> good idea to create this forum, the API seems to be quite powerful but also quite complex. Simple tasks might get tricky to solve and so the forum might be a good address to ask for help!
>
> Well, I am looking for a way to get the start and end coordinates (XYZ) of columns out, type Structural Columns. Structural Framing coordinates I get but the columns are family related and that is causing me problems. Maybe someone has an idea how to get those coordinates?
>
> Thanks,
> Tevion

[Anonymous]

From the FamilyInstance (the type of object you should have for a column), you can get the AnalyticalModel. For columns, this will be the derived type AnalyticalModelFrame, which has a Curver proprety (in this case it will be the derived type Line). From the Line, you can get the XYZ coordinates of the column. At least that is how I am doing it and it seems to work.

[tevion]

Danny,

thanks a lot for your precious comment / idea! Finally I get the XY coordinates I was looking for, just the Z coordinates are still driving me crazy.
The Z value according the Level.Elevation I got too, but the built-in parameters are not talking to me, means the routine to inquire them doesn't work as I thought. I made my routines with VB and maybe that wasn't that good idea, should have done it with C#: at the moment I am looking for the get_parameters function (C#) in VB but didn't find it. Any good idea for a built-in parameter inquire function?

Again, thanks a lot for your help!
Tevion

[tevion]

Ishulok,

sounds good, will try that for sure! Even to get the X Y Z coordinates directly, without to inquire the particular built-in parameters, would be great!

Thanks,
Tevion

[Anonymous]

Looks like I was wrong. What I describe works OK for beams or braces, but for columns, you should get the AnalyticalModelFrame.Profile.DrivingCurve. The AnalyticalModelFrame.Curve was giving me the same Z node at top and bottom of the column.

Liz