Compile RVTSamples on a different PC

[lee6800]

Hi,

I am a long time Revit user and like to start learning API.

So I have decided to install Revit SDK and use / explore RVTSamples.

My issue is that I use work laptop (belong to a company) for revit and IT refusing to install Visual Studio for me, as they don't have licence / legal issues.

On my personal laptop I can install the community version. SO i was wondering if it is possible to compile the RVTSamples on my own laptop without out having revit installed?

Is there any other way to use these without having Visual Studio?

Sorry for my stupid questions, I don't know anything about programming, and only starting to learn

[jeremy_tammik]

Welcome to the Revit API!

No questions are stupid.

One of many possible places to look that explains all the steps required to learn all the basic you need to understand is The Building Coder collection of links to getting started with the Revit API:

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

That more or less answers your questions as well.

Still, to cut to the chase directly:

• Yes, you can use the community version to work with the Revit API
• Yes, you can compile a Revit add-in without Revit installed
• To compile, you just require the Revit API assembly DLLs, first and foremost RevitAPI.dll and RevitAPIUI.dll
• You can manually copy these DLLs from your Revit installation to your other PC
• However, you cannot test or debug a Revit add-in without Revit installed
• Therefore, trying to develop on such a machine might prove ineffective and painful

I would suggest learning the first steps of programming independently of Revit and its API.

My personal favourite for getting started with pure programming would be Python. That would be suitable for desktop.

Another more web oriented option is freecodecamp:

https://www.freecodecamp.org