topic Re: Create "solid" and find all elements within in Revit API Forum

Create "solid" and find all elements within

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 20:07:36 GMT

Hey everyone,

I've been searching for a while, but struggle to find an approach to the solution. I try to create a 3-dimensional "solid" (sorry for the bad english) and find all elements that are inside. That solid should best be assembled from faces. How would I do that with the API?

Until now I searched in the SDK Samples and here, but I don't even know if I'm searching in the right direction. I'd really appreciate any hints where to start. Might it be necessary to create a family for such a "control solid"? If yes, I'd also appreciate every hint here!

Regards

Re: Create "solid" and find all elements within

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 15:37:22 GMT

Hey again,

I'm still on the topic and just wanted to post my progress:
I managed to create a new family via GUI that is based on the template "Metric Generic Model face based.rft" that looks close to what I want to create with the API. I then inserted it (also via GUI) into the Revit Architecture Sample Project and now try to find out which elements are intersecting. While that is obvious in the 3D-view, it's again not so easy to get with the API. I tried this and the results were as expected, but since I don't need the intersection with the bounding box but with the geometry that was not useful for me. I then found this and copy-pasted from the Revit API help file to use the "ElementIntersectsElementFilter" and the "ElementIntersectsSolidFilter" classes. Unfortunately the results aren't as expected and now I think about "creating a solid from scratch using the routines in GeometryCreationUtilities" like the help file suggests.

I would still appreciate any help since I'm really not very experienced with the Revit API and expect that there has to be an easier way to achieve all this!?

Regards

Re: Create "solid" and find all elements within

Mustafa.Salaheldin — Sun, 14 Aug 2016 09:58:45 GMT

Don't panic this is pretty simple to get Faces from a Solid of a geometry, try the following code:

#region Namespaces

using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Xml;
using System.Reflection;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Collections;

using Autodesk.Revit.ApplicationServices;
using Autodesk.Revit.Attributes;

using Autodesk.Revit.DB;
using Autodesk.Revit.DB.Events;

using Autodesk.Revit.UI;
using Autodesk.Revit.UI.Selection;

using Autodesk.Revit.Exceptions;
using Autodesk.Revit.Utility;

using RvtApplication = Autodesk.Revit.ApplicationServices.Application;
using RvtDocument = Autodesk.Revit.DB.Document;

#endregion

namespace RevitAddinCS1
{
    [Transaction(TransactionMode.Manual)]
    [Regeneration(RegenerationOption.Manual)]
    public class GeometryManager : IExternalCommand
    {
        #region Cached Variables

        private static ExternalCommandData _cachedCmdData;

        public static UIApplication CachedUiApp
        {
            get
            {
                return _cachedCmdData.Application;
            }
        }

        public static RvtApplication CachedApp
        {
            get
            {
                return CachedUiApp.Application;
            }
        }

        public static RvtDocument CachedDoc
        {
            get
            {
                return CachedUiApp.ActiveUIDocument.Document;
            }
        }

        #endregion

        #region IExternalCommand Members

        public Result Execute(ExternalCommandData cmdData, ref string msg, ElementSet elemSet)
        {
            _cachedCmdData = cmdData;

            try
            {
                Reference reference = CachedUiApp.ActiveUIDocument.Selection.PickObject(ObjectType.Element);

                Element element = CachedDoc.GetElement(reference);

                Options geoOptions = new Options();

                // Get geometry element of the selected element
                GeometryElement geoElement = element.get_Geometry(geoOptions);

                // Get geometry object
                foreach (GeometryObject geoObject in geoElement)
                {
                    // Get the geometry instance which contains the geometry information
                    Autodesk.Revit.DB.GeometryInstance instance = geoObject as Autodesk.Revit.DB.GeometryInstance;

                    if (null != instance)
                    {
                        foreach (GeometryObject instObj in instance.SymbolGeometry)
                        {
                            Solid solid = instObj as Solid;

                            if (null == solid || 0 == solid.Faces.Size || 0 == solid.Edges.Size)
                            {
                                continue;
                            }

                            if (solid.Faces.Size > 0)
                            {
                                // Get the faces and edges from solid, and transform the formed points
                                foreach (Face face in solid.Faces)
                                {
                                    TaskDialog.Show("Revit", face.Area.ToString());
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }


                return Result.Succeeded;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                msg = ex.ToString();
                return Result.Failed;
            }
        }

        #endregion
    }
}

Just select the element and the code will show you how to retrieve the solid and its faces showing up a dialog with each face's area. You can of course replace the PickObject function with a filter or you can create a function where you can pass the element from which the faces will be extracted as a parameter.

Don't forget to mark this reply as an answer if it satisfies your need.