Get Instances of Given Types

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

As the title implies, I have a list of family types which satisfies some conditions as shown in below code
Now, from these types, I would ike to get the instances which have been placed in the model

Please assist me on this issue
Thanks

ElementCategoryFilter category = new ElementCategoryFilter(BuiltInCategory.OST_StructuralFraming);
IList<Element> typeList = new FilteredElementCollector(doc).WherePasses(category).WhereElementIsElementType().ToElements();

IList<ElementId> noMaterialTypes = new List<ElementId>();  <-- How to get instances of these types?
foreach (Element type in typeList)
{
    IList<bool> noMaterial = new List<bool>();
    ParameterSet paramSet = type.Parameters;
    foreach (Parameter param in paramSet)
    {
        ParameterType parameterType = param.Definition.ParameterType;
        if (parameterType == ParameterType.Material && param.AsValueString().Equals("<By Category>"))
        {
             noMaterial.Add(true);
        }
    }
    if (noMaterial.Contains(true))
    {
       noMaterialTypes.Add(type.Id);
    }
}

[rosalesduquej]

Hi Mr. Hoa,

Have you tried using a FilteredElementCollector to retrieve family instances?

    var collector = new FilteredElementCollector(doc, doc.ActiveView.Id);
    var familyInstances = collector.OfClass(typeof(FamilyInstance))

Another suggestion, have you checked the FamilyInstancesFilter Class? This can be used to find elements that are family instances of the given family symbol.

http://revitapisearch.com/html/ec0bdad7-e213-f22a-94ef-bc0fd96ac641.htm 

Check it out, maybe it will help you get through your problem. 

[Anonymous]

Hi Jaime,

Thank you for your prompt advices

I used to try retrieveing instances as your code before but this code can only retrieve instances without conditions, but what i need is to retrieve instances from conditioned family types (including system families).

I also came across your link and revised my code accordingly as below. I is a useful link since I could learn how to retrieve instances in active document with given type ID. However, it somehow only worked with loadable categories (not with system categories). Bug occured when I replace loadable categories with system categories (such as wall, floor, roof, etc.)

From the bug, I understood that it could not retrieve instances from TypeID if types are of system families

Any other suggestions?

Revised Code:

// Retrieve all types in category 
ElementCategoryFilter category = new ElementCategoryFilter(BuiltInCategory.OST_Walls);
IList<Element> typeList = new FilteredElementCollector(doc).WherePasses(category).WhereElementIsElementType().ToElements();

// Retrieve conditioned types 
IList<ElementId> noMaterialTypes = new List<ElementId>(); 
             foreach (Element type in typeList)
             {
                 IList<bool> noMaterial = new List<bool>();
                 ParameterSet paramSet = type.Parameters;
                 foreach (Parameter param in paramSet)
                 {
                     ParameterType parameterType = param.Definition.ParameterType;
     
                     if (parameterType == ParameterType.Material && param.AsValueString().Equals("<By Category>"))
                     {           
           noMaterial.Add(true);
                     }
                 }
                 if (noMaterial.Contains(true))
                 { 
                     noMaterialTypes.Add(type.Id); 
                 }
             }
// Retrieve conditioned elements 
             IList<ElementId> familyInstancesList = new List<ElementId>(); 
             foreach (ElementId typeID in noMaterialTypes)
             {
                 FamilyInstanceFilter filter = new FamilyInstanceFilter(doc, typeID); <-- Bug here (Could not retrieve instances from TypeID )
                 IList <Element> familyInstances = new FilteredElementCollector(doc).WherePasses(filter).ToElements(); 
                 foreach (Element e in familyInstances)
                 {
                     familyInstancesList.Add(e.Id);  
                 }
             }
             UIDocument uidoc = new UIDocument(doc);
             uidoc.Selection.SetElementIds(familyInstancesList);

My purpose line:

1. Retrieve all types in category
2. Retrieve the conditioned types from (1)
3. Retrieve elements from model  where element belong to (2)

Step (1) and (2) are easy

Please give me some suggestions so that I can implement the step (3)

Thanks