topic Re: Need help fixing - export OBJ script from Revit 2020. in Revit API Forum

Need help fixing - export OBJ script from Revit 2020.

azims — Fri, 10 Apr 2020 04:03:46 GMT

Dear All,

Attached is a script written by Clive Broadhurst (inglegreen.com) to export OBJ files from Revit. Unfortunately this script is not working with Revit 2020. Is it possible for any of you folks to fix this script so it will work with Revit 2020?

Thank you,

Azims

Re: Need help fixing - export OBJ script from Revit 2020.

jeremytammik — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 13:32:32 GMT

I would be surprised and impressed if anyone has the time and energy to perform this work for you for free, just for the asking.

Re: Need help fixing - export OBJ script from Revit 2020.

jeremytammik — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 13:35:07 GMT

Furthermore, you have provided just the DLL and the add-in manifest, no source code.

That makes it pretty hard to migrate, since the DLL needs to be decompiled first.

Do you possess the legal rights to reverse engineer and decompile this code?

Re: Need help fixing - export OBJ script from Revit 2020.

azims — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 15:10:38 GMT

Hi Jeremey,

Thanks for posting a response on this. First I don't know what level of effort is required to do this work as I don't have any C# programming skills. More skilled users like you could educate me on the process of how to go about it if I want to take on this task by myself. Alternately If any users are willing to do this work for a fee, let me know what the fee would be and I will see if I could afford your services.

Second, I only provided the files which Clive had on his webpage (inglegreen.com) sometime back. Unfortunately Clive's webpage has no activity for the past few years and he has left no contact information. If I could contact Clive with regard to this I would have done so. I pray that he is safe and doing well.

I don't possess the legal rights for his code. All I know is Clive never charged for these and allowed free access to this on his website. If I figure how to make this work or pay anyone to do this work, I will keep it open source and attribute all credit/ rights to Clive.

Now let me explain why the need for this little script. This is the only script I have found which can seamlessly export OBJ files from Revit and during that process allows the option to also collapses the meshes down by individual materials. It is very fast and can handle large revit files easily. I have tried alternate paid OBJ exporters, none of them are able to do this currently. Clive's script worked on Revit 2018 but does not work on 2020.

One alternate way of getting an OBJ out of Revit is to export an FBX to 3ds max and try getting an OBJ from 3ds max. I have tried that also. However the OBJ files coming from max collapse all the materials into a single material. So we lose all material information.

As you know Autodesk Revit is a software which dominates the AEC industy. Such a dominant platform has no way to export the geometry data to an open platform like OBJ, either by itself or via 3ds max. This may be either due to oversight or by design, I don't know. Either way its a flaw which needs to be remedied in my opinion.

Best,

Azims

Re: Need help fixing - export OBJ script from Revit 2020.

jeremytammik — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 17:39:18 GMT

Does my own outdated OBJ exporter help?

https://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2013/07/revit-2014-obj-exporter-and-new-sdk-samples.html

Re: Need help fixing - export OBJ script from Revit 2020.

azims — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 18:38:08 GMT

Hi Jeremy,

Is it possible to provide a dll file for this exporter? Or can you give me some instructions on how to convert these files into a dll. I mean how to process these through visual studio to get a dll?

I put all the source files in the 'C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Revit\AddIns\2020' folder and I am getting a error '''Failed to initialize the add-in "OBJ Export" because the assembly "ObjExport.dll" does not exist.'''

Thank you very much,
Azims

[cid:1b5554a5-5ff4-4612-b966-7af04a07e950]

Re: Need help fixing - export OBJ script from Revit 2020.

jeremytammik — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 20:18:11 GMT

https://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/about-the-author.html#2

Especially:

https://help.autodesk.com/view/RVT/2020/ENU/?guid=Revit_API_Revit_API_Developers_Guide_Introduction_Getting_Started_html

Re: Need help fixing - export OBJ script from Revit 2020.

azims — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 21:04:08 GMT

Looks my revit API journey is about to start.

Thank you,
Azims

Re: Need help fixing - export OBJ script from Revit 2020.

azims — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 21:09:36 GMT

Jeremy,

Is there any option for a python user to work with revit API?

Thanks,

Azims

Re: Need help fixing - export OBJ script from Revit 2020.

jeremytammik — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 21:42:46 GMT

You can implement Revit macros in Python.

You can also use the Revit Python Shell or Dynamo.

Re: Need help fixing - export OBJ script from Revit 2020.

azims — Sun, 12 Apr 2020 22:44:08 GMT

Thanks Jeremy.

Re: Need help fixing - export OBJ script from Revit 2020.

giobro — Thu, 19 Nov 2020 01:35:22 GMT

Just for reference, Doug Klassen has created an add-in wrapper for the Revit to .obj exporter written by Clive Broadhurst. The code is saved here: https://github.com/dougklassen/Revit-Obj-Export\

Cheers

Giovanni