topic Re: Pick FamilySymbol from Project Browser? in Revit API Forum

Pick FamilySymbol from Project Browser?

grubdex — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 13:44:02 GMT

Hi,

I want my user to select a FamilySymbol that's already loaded from the UI (more specifically, the Project Browser) that I then further process in my own code. I'm aware that there are different methods for filtering the already existing custom families/loading families from file and so on, but is there a way to prompt the user to pick one from the project browser? Ideally, it would NOT require the user to make conscious decisions on where to click before starting the add-in.

Cheers

Re: Pick FamilySymbol from Project Browser?

Yien_Chao — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 16:50:39 GMT

you can ask users to select element(s) instance from their view then manage to get the FamilySymbol, but i don't think it's possible from the browser.

Re: Pick FamilySymbol from Project Browser?

RPTHOMAS108 — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 23:34:24 GMT

It's not the usual workflow but now in 2023 you have the selection changed event which also applies to project browser. The below prompts user to select from browser before adding a selection changed event.

The handler filters for the class of FamilySymbol* and shows a dialogue if the result yields more than 0 results.

Note that not every thing in the project browser is a FamilySymbol so ElementType class will cover more aspects such as system families.

You would have to continue execution in the handler and perhaps raise an external event to get an editable document status (I suspect the selection changed event doesn't give you that).

You can also use e.GetDocument below instead of casting sender 's' to UIApplication to get the Document.

Public Function Obj_220831a(commandData As ExternalCommandData, ByRef message As String, elements As ElementSet) As Result Dim IntUIApp As UIApplication = commandData.Application Dim IntUIDoc As UIDocument = commandData.Application.ActiveUIDocument Dim IntDoc As Document = IntUIDoc.Document TaskDialog.Show("Select", "Pick family symbol from project browser") AddHandler IntUIApp.SelectionChanged, AddressOf SelectionChanged Return Result.Succeeded End Function Public Sub SelectionChanged(s As Object, e As Autodesk.Revit.UI.Events.SelectionChangedEventArgs) Dim UIapp As UIApplication = s Dim J As ISet(Of ElementId) = e.GetSelectedElements Dim J0 As List(Of ElementId) = J.ToList Dim FEC As New FilteredElementCollector(UIapp.ActiveUIDocument.Document, J0) Dim F0 As New ElementClassFilter(GetType(FamilySymbol)) Dim Els As List(Of Element) = FEC.WherePasses(F0).ToElements If Els.Count > 0 Then TaskDialog.Show("Selection", Els(0).Name) RemoveHandler UIapp.SelectionChanged, AddressOf SelectionChanged End If End Sub

Re: Pick FamilySymbol from Project Browser?

grubdex — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 08:17:39 GMT

Thanks for your reply. In your opinion, what would be a workflow that is more common?

Re: Pick FamilySymbol from Project Browser?

RPTHOMAS108 — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 12:51:30 GMT

It really depends on what your add-in is being used for i.e is it modal or modeless interaction is it working with a few categories of elements or many?

It is often the case you have to create dialogues that replicate the ones Revit inherently has which is a bit annoying but doesn't take that long with WPF for something such as FamilySymbol selection. That would allow a modal interaction.

You aim to stay within the IExternalCommand context in a modal way to start with but if that isn't possible then you have to get back into a similar context via raising ExternalEvents from modeless forms etc. There are also other methods of obtaining a valid context to work with.

Re: Pick FamilySymbol from Project Browser?

grubdex — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 13:41:11 GMT

Thanks for the answer!

Do you happen to have any pointers or examples of how to develop modeless forms with the Revit API by chance? Would be much appreciated, thanks!

Re: Pick FamilySymbol from Project Browser?

RPTHOMAS108 — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 16:13:12 GMT

There are samples in the SDK:

...\Samples\ModelessDialog\ModelessForm_ExternalEvent

It is for Windows Forms but same approach would be used for WPF.