Keep Windows Form Open after running plugin!

zrodgersTSSSU — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 23:15:35 GMT

Hey Everyone! I looked around on the forum and I couldnt find a solution for this.... So how do I keep my windows form up after running the plugin? My work around before was to copy the body of my code into the form itself, but i figured there has to be a better way... I want the form to stay open so I can run it multiple times on different selections. I think it has something to do with it being a dialog result but not sure. Can anyone give me some guidance on this?

Here is my FormCode:

using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.ComponentModel; using System.Data; using System.Drawing; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Threading.Tasks; using System.Windows.Forms; using Autodesk.Revit.DB; using Autodesk.Revit.UI; using Autodesk.Revit.DB.Plumbing; namespace DynamoToRevitPlugin { public partial class PipeCreationForm : System.Windows.Forms.Form { public PipeCreationForm(Autodesk.Revit.UI.ExternalCommandData commandData) { InitializeComponent(); UIDocument uidoc = commandData.Application.ActiveUIDocument; Document doc = uidoc.Document; //levels FilteredElementCollector levels = new FilteredElementCollector(uidoc.Document); List<Level> levelCol = levels.OfClass(typeof(Level)).OfType<Level>().OrderBy(lev => lev.Elevation).ToList(); sLevel.DataSource = new List<Level>(levelCol); sLevel.DisplayMember = "Name"; if (levelCol.Any()) { sLevel.SelectedIndex = 0; } //System Type FilteredElementCollector mepSystem = new FilteredElementCollector(uidoc.Document); List<PipingSystemType> systemTypeCol = mepSystem.OfClass(typeof(PipingSystemType)).OfType<PipingSystemType>().OrderBy(x => x.Name).ToList(); pSysType.DataSource = new List<PipingSystemType>(systemTypeCol); pSysType.DisplayMember = "Name"; if (systemTypeCol.Any()) { pSysType.SelectedIndex = 0; } //pipe types FilteredElementCollector pipeType = new FilteredElementCollector(uidoc.Document); List<PipeType> pipeTypeCol = pipeType.OfClass(typeof(PipeType)).OfType<PipeType>().ToList(); pType.DataSource = new List<PipeType>(pipeTypeCol); pType.DisplayMember = "Name"; if (pipeTypeCol.Any()) { pType.SelectedIndex = 0; } } private void btnOK_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { } private void PipeCreationForm_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) { } private void pType_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e) { //find pipe segment sizes } } }

here is code for the plugin:

using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; using System.Text; using System.Threading.Tasks; using System.Windows.Forms; using Autodesk.Revit.Attributes; using Autodesk.Revit.DB; using Autodesk.Revit.UI; using Autodesk.Revit.UI.Selection; using Autodesk.Revit.ApplicationServices; using Autodesk.Revit.DB.Plumbing; namespace DynamoToRevitPlugin { [Transaction(TransactionMode.Manual)] class PipeCreation : IExternalCommand { public Result Execute(ExternalCommandData commandData, ref string message, ElementSet elements) { //need to select elements before // Get the handle of current document UIDocument uidoc = commandData.Application.ActiveUIDocument; Document doc = uidoc.Document; Autodesk.Revit.ApplicationServices.Application app = doc.Application; // reference the form PipeCreationForm form = new PipeCreationForm(commandData); // Get the element selection of current document. Selection selection = uidoc.Selection; ICollection<ElementId> selectedIds = uidoc.Selection.GetElementIds(); //check if selction is empty if (0 == selectedIds.Count) { // If no elements selected. TaskDialog.Show("Revit", "Select Columns Before Running Plugin."); } else { if (form.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK) { //gets the level from form ElementId slvlId = null; if (form.sLevel.SelectedIndex > -1) { slvlId = (form.sLevel.SelectedItem as Level).Id; } //gets the system type from form ElementId sysTypeId = null; if (form.pSysType.SelectedIndex > -1) { sysTypeId = (form.pSysType.SelectedItem as PipingSystemType).Id; } //gets the pipe type from form ElementId pTypeId = null; if (form.pType.SelectedIndex > -1) { pTypeId = (form.pType.SelectedItem as PipeType).Id; } using (Transaction tx = new Transaction(doc)) { tx.Start("Create Pipes"); List<XYZ> points = new List<XYZ>(); List<ElementId> elemLi = new List<ElementId>(); foreach (ElementId elemId in selectedIds) { Element elem = uidoc.Document.GetElement(elemId); //bounding box around solid BoundingBoxXYZ elemBB = elem.get_BoundingBox(doc.ActiveView); //gets center of bounding box XYZ bbCentroid = (elemBB.Max + elemBB.Min) / 2; //add centroid points to list points.Add(bbCentroid); elemLi.Add(elemId); } foreach (XYZ pt in points) { XYZ closestPoint = null; foreach (XYZ point2 in points) //loop to find closest point { if(pt != point2) { if (closestPoint == null) { closestPoint = point2; } if (pt.DistanceTo(point2) < pt.DistanceTo(closestPoint)) { closestPoint = point2; } } } Pipe pipe = Pipe.Create(doc, sysTypeId, pTypeId, slvlId, pt, closestPoint); } tx.Commit(); } } } return Result.Succeeded; } } }

Re: Keep Windows Form Open after running plugin!

jeremy_tammik — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 06:26:58 GMT

The answer is easy and has been discussed many times, both here and by The Building Coder:

A modal form displayed by ShowDialog must be closed before the thread can continue and the external command complete.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.windows.forms.form.showdialog?view=net-5.0

A modeless form displayed by the Show method runs in a separate thread and can continue running even after

the external command completes:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.windows.forms.form.show?view=net-5.0

The modeless form, being in a separate thread, has no access to the single-threaded Revit API.

So, it is easy to keep your form open, but you will have to change the way you interact with the Revit API.

The most common (and maybe the only clean) way to achieve that is to use an external event.

Lots more on that topic:

https://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/about-the-author.html#5.28

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Keep Windows Form Open after running plugin!

Re: Keep Windows Form Open after running plugin!