Get Geometry from Family Symbol

[Anonymous]

Hi Guys,

How can I get the geometry from a Family Symbol that is loaded in the document?. 

When I check the familiy via the Revit Look Up add-in it seems not to return anything. In addition, whenever I try something like:

 if (!furniture.IsActive) furniture.Activate();
GeometryElement geoEl = furniture.get_Geometry(m_options); 

geoEl is always null

Any tips would be great.

Nicholas

[jeremytammik]

Maybe your furniture is invisible? What do you have in your options? The call you show will normally not return null.

[Anonymous]

Hi Jeremy,

thanks for your reply. Yes, I don't see the furniture in the model, I can only select it in the project browser tab under the generic model category. As for the m_options I set is as:

 m_options.IncludeNonVisibleObjects = true;

I have run the debugger and and geoEl is always null

[Moustafa_K]

hi,

to get geometry of a family instance, you need to look for geometry instance and not geometry element, try the below code i didn't test it, but i think it will do the job

List<GeometryInstance> ginsList = furniture.get_Geometry(m_options).Where(o => o is GeometryInstance).Cast<GeometryInstance>().ToList();

foreach (GeometryInstance gins in ginsList)
{
    foreach (GeometryObject ge in gins.GetInstanceGeometry())
    {
     // your magic here
    }
}

hope that helps

[jeremytammik]

Well, if you do not see the furniture in the model it may not have any geometry. Families can be user defined, and you can define a family that has no geometry. So everything is working as expected, afaict.

[Anonymous]

Hi @Moustafa_K ,

Your code will thorough a null reference exception, remember that 

furniture.get_Geometry(m_options)

is always returning null

[Anonymous]

Hi @jeremytammik 

The family symbol does have geometry

Only when I place a family instance via the NewFamilyInstance() method I am able to see other properties in the properties tab when I select the family, as well having access to the geometry.

I guess this is only available once the instance is placed in the document?

Is there a way to get access to this information beforehand?

Thanks

Nicholas

[FAIR59]

You have to check, if the familysymbol is active. If the symbol is active the geometry is accessible  

FamilySymbol symbol;
if (!symbol.IsActive) symbol.Activate();

Maybe you need a document.regenerate() after . 

In the options you can specify the DetailLevel. Try setting the detaillevel to ViewDetailLevel.Fine.