topic Re: Filtering exterior walls in Revit API Forum

Filtering exterior walls

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 15:19:47 GMT

Hi,

I'm trying to get exterior walls only, but I'm having trouble doing so. At the moment I loop through all the walls in a project, and see if it's exterior or interior.

I can't use the WallType.Function, because this is not always correctly entered.

I thought the following code would provide an answer, but in my example project I also get faces from interior walls.

IList<Reference> sideFaces = HostObjectUtils.GetSideFaces(wall, ShellLayerType.Exterior);

Could anyone help me achieve this? I hope to avoid using a 3D view (ray projection) because of performance concerns and the requirement of having a 3d view in your project.

I've also found the topic Wall Interior or Exterior, but it's not exactly the same question (and there is no answer yet).

Thanks in advance.

Re: Filtering exterior walls

Revitalizer — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 07:12:44 GMT

Hi TorX85,

you wrote:

"[...] because this is not always correctly entered."

That's the point.

Garbage in, garbage out.

But there is another approach for you: the BuildingEnvelopeAnalyzer.

It says in the RevitAPI.chm:

"This class uses a combination of ray-casting and flood-fill algorithms in order to find the building elements that are exposed to the outside of the building. This method can also look for the bounding building elements for enclosed space volumes inside the building."

This may fit your needings.

Best regards,

Revitalizer

Re: Filtering exterior walls

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 08:45:25 GMT

Hi Revitalizer,

Thank you for your reply! Now that you mentioned, I remember finding the thread Finding Exterior walls by BuildingEnvelopeAnalyzer, but it states there are possible problems using this method.

However, I've used the sample code in that thread, and it seems to work in my project even with the default BuildingEnvelopeAnalyzerOptions. I hope this method will proof to be successful in different projects as well.

FYI, I forgot to mention that I need floors and roofs as well, but that was an easy modification in the code.

Re: Filtering exterior walls

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 09:45:55 GMT

Oh no, I stand corrected. Interior walls are also marked as exterior walls using this method. Maybe the same problem as the thread I referenced.

Re: Filtering exterior walls

jeremytammik — Mon, 14 May 2018 14:43:49 GMT

I raised this issue with the development team, and they say:

BuildingEnvelopeAnalyzer is supposed to be a reliable method to achieve this.

If there are problems with the results, this should be filed as a problem report.

For us to do so, please submit a minimal reproducible case:

http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/about-the-author.html#1b

To perform your own geometric analysis, you could also look for walls which don't have bounding rooms on both sides. That is easy, assuming rooms have been set in the model.

Cheers,

Jeremy

Re: Filtering exterior walls

jeremytammik — Wed, 16 May 2018 13:48:54 GMT

After further discussion with the development team, they asked: Is the building model enclosed? It needs to be in order for the analyzer to work. In other words, do you have Roof and Floor elements to form enclosed spaces in the model?

Re: Filtering exterior walls

Anonymous — Wed, 16 May 2018 14:04:48 GMT

I wish I could give you an answer, but I raised this issue almost 3 years ago and it's not relevant to me anymore.