topic Re: Please explain accessing FamilySymbol Name Parameter in Revit API Forum

Please explain accessing FamilySymbol Name Parameter

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 15:04:41 GMT

Can someone please explain why accessing a family Symbol's name parameter is so unusual.

FamSym.Name

This looks like it should work when I look at the help file, and I've seen examples of this being used online. However, if I use it in my Python scripts I get an error saying that property doesn't exist. To get around this I have to use:

FamSym.get_Parameter(BuiltInParameter.SYMBOL_NAME_PARAM)

This obviously works, but it's been a hang up while I'm working, and I'm interested to know why I have to handle this differently than other object names.

Cheers

Eric

Re: Please explain accessing FamilySymbol Name Parameter

rosalesduquej — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 16:33:20 GMT

Hi Eric,

I'm no expert with the RevitPythonShell, but like you said I have seen other examples in the past before using similar behaivor to obtain the Family Symbol name. Have you tried FamSym.Family.Name ?

Here are 2 links where I saw this.

http://wiki.theprovingground.org/revit-api-py-family

http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2013/11/intimate-revit-database-exploration-with-the-python-shell.html

Re: Please explain accessing FamilySymbol Name Parameter

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 13:22:06 GMT

Hi Jaime,

Thanks for responding. Unfortunately FamSym.Family.Name will return the name of the family. I am looking for the name of Type within that family, which in Revit-API-land is called the Symbol.

If you open up the RPS you can see the difference between FamSym.Family.Name and FamSym.get_Parameter(BuiltInParameter.SYMBOL_NAME_PARAM)

Any other thoughts?

Re: Please explain accessing FamilySymbol Name Parameter

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Nov 2015 16:36:26 GMT

I must say to thanks you, i was crazy when i want to get Name of familytype, but can not i don't know why, and i see your topic. Thanks you moa moa moa

Re: Please explain accessing FamilySymbol Name Parameter

jgemperline — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 16:25:09 GMT

Its been some time now. But I ran across the same problem. Wondering if there have been any discoveries in the past couple years on this topic.

Re: Please explain accessing FamilySymbol Name Parameter

studio-a-int — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 22:41:04 GMT

In Python you can simply collect all elements of that Category (below example is for Pipe Fitting), then iterate through with a simple list comprehension, and you can get the Type Names:

PIPE_FITTINGS = FilteredElementCollector(doc).OfClass(FamilySymbol).OfCategory(BuiltInCategory.OST_PipeFitting).ToElements()

PIPE_FITTINGS_TYPES_NAMES = [i.get_Parameter(BuiltInParameter.SYMBOL_NAME_PARAM).AsString() for i in PIPE_FITTINGS]

Re: Please explain accessing FamilySymbol Name Parameter

jgemperline — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 21:15:46 GMT

To get the Name of the symbol I was expecting to use something like:

familysymbol.Name

The proposed solution feels more like a workaround. It works but when I walk through the API dock it seems like Name should work too as one of its properties. I'm new to this stuff so I could be way off.

What am I missing here?

Re: Please explain accessing FamilySymbol Name Parameter

RPTHOMAS108 — Sun, 29 Apr 2018 01:05:19 GMT

If you leave it as an Element without casting to FamilySymbol then can you still read the .Name property? I think this is true.

For some odd unknown reason .Name is changed at ElementType level to make it WriteOnly.

WriteOnly properties are a mystery to me as far as the RevitAPI is concerned. I'm allowed to name something but I can't know it's existing name???

Re: Please explain accessing FamilySymbol Name Parameter

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 08:33:24 GMT

This has been my go-to solution as well. Being unable to access FamilySymbol.Name seems like a pretty strange omission!

Re: Please explain accessing FamilySymbol Name Parameter

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 10:00:45 GMT

Agreed - there still seems to be something buggy about FamilySymbol.Name.

Access the value via the BuiltInParameter for more reliability!

Re: Please explain accessing FamilySymbol Name Parameter

MarryTookMyCoffe — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 08:39:17 GMT

symbol.Name

it is so weird that this doesn't work for you(in C# it work). Family Symbol have changed Set, but you should still be capable using a get from Element class. Shouldn't get be inheritance from Element class? why this work different in C#?

Re: Please explain accessing FamilySymbol Name Parameter

RPTHOMAS108 — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 10:24:30 GMT

It's overridden as WriteOnly at ElementType inheritance level. There is no real issue in some respects, you just get the name before casting to FamilySymbol or some other ElementType. Can also cast an ElementType to an Element to get the name value.

Re: Please explain accessing FamilySymbol Name Parameter

jkirk-OMM — Sat, 05 Aug 2023 18:31:27 GMT

Thank you!!! Finally. This solution worked for what I needed. I just wanted the available family type names in a list.