Get FamilySymbol from Elements in ActiveView

[luisdavid.mena]

Hello
I'm trying to get FamilySymbol from an active 3D View using FilteredElementCollector. But I'm getting null values.

FilteredElementCollector elements = new FilteredElementCollector(doc, doc.ActiveView.Id).OfClass(typeof(FamilySymbol)).OfCategory(BuiltInCategory.OST_StructuralFoundation);

Attached is the screenshot of the elements(StructuralFoundation) that I'm trying to get.
Any help would be very appreciated.

[RPTHOMAS108]

FamilySymbols are an ElementType and as such don't appear in the view themselves.

Filter instead for FamilyInstances then from there use Element.GetTypeId on the resulting elements.

Could also use FamilyInstance.Symbol if you've cast the elements returned from the filter to FamilyInstance.

[ridaabderrahmane]

FilteredElementCollector familySymbols = new FilteredElementCollector(doc, doc.ActiveView.Id).OfClass(typeof(FamilySymbol)).OfCategory(BuiltInCategory.OST_StructuralFoundation).Cast<FamilyInstance>().Select(e=>e.Symbol).ToList():;

[guillain.jolivet]

I'm actually working on something like that and didn't find out how to do it with just a FilteredElementCollector...

So far, I find every single type name of structural foundation in the view, then i collect every StructuralFoundation element type in the document and iterate it and compare the ElementType name with type names i found in the view. And add it to a new list.

List<string> object_types_in_view = new FilteredElementCollector(doc, doc.ActiveView.Id).OfCategory(BuiltInCategory.OST_StructuralFoundation).WhereElementIsNotElementType().ToElements().Select(el => el.Name).Distinct().ToList();

object_types_in_view.Sort();

ICollection<Element> object_types = new FilteredElementCollector(doc).OfCategory(BuiltInCategory.OST_StructuralFoundation).WhereElementIsElementType().ToElements();

List<ElementType> Types_in_view = new List<ElementType>();

foreach (ElementType el_ty in object_types)
{
    if (object_types_in_view.Contains(el_ty.Name))
    {
        Types_in_view.Add(el_ty);
    }
}

 It's maybe not the best way to achieve it but it works!

[RPTHOMAS108 · Accepted solution]

If you incorporate GetTypeId you can avoid dealing with strings:

IList<ElementId> object_typeIds_in_view = new FilteredElementCollector(IntDoc, IntDoc.ActiveView.Id)
				.OfCategory(BuiltInCategory.OST_StructuralFoundation)
				.WhereElementIsNotElementType()
				.ToElements().Select(el => el.GetTypeId()).Distinct().ToList();

IList<Element> object_types_in_view 
     = new FilteredElementCollector(IntDoc, object_typeIds_in_view)						 
                .WhereElementIsElementType().ToElements();

[luisdavid.mena]

Thank you !
But I don't want a list by every instance. What I need is a list of the existing types in the model. 😞

[guillain.jolivet]

@luisdavid.menaI don't understand. Both solutions give you family types existing in the active view. It's not what you are looking for?

[luisdavid.mena]

@ridaabderrahmane , @guillain.jolivet, @RPTHOMAS108  . Thank you for your help but I'm still getting null values.

This is what I'm trying inside a Macro:

//Get Document
Document doc = this.ActiveUIDocument.Document;
UIApplication uiapp = new UIApplication(Application);
UIDocument uidoc = this.ActiveUIDocument;
//FOUNDATION TYPES
IList<ElementId> object_typeIds_in_view = new FilteredElementCollector(doc, doc.ActiveView.Id).OfCategory(BuiltInCategory.OST_StructuralFoundation).WhereElementIsNotElementType().ToElements().Select(el=>el.GetTypeId()).Distinct().ToList();
IList<Element> object_types_in_view = new FilteredElementCollector(doc, object_typeIds_in_view).WhereElementIsNotElementType().ToElements();
//Show result
string message;
message = "Name of Types : ";
foreach(Element elem in object_types_in_view)
	message += "\n" + elem.Name;
TaskDialog.Show("Result","Number of elements : " + object_types_in_view.Count() + "\n" + message);

Also the taskDialog within my model, which is a Central Model, not linked models.

[luisdavid.mena]

Hello. I'm sorry. It was just that in the second collector I used WhereElementIsNotElementType() instead of WhereElementIsElementType() 😮 
The topic is solved ! 

Thank you