Getting parameter information from a schedule

[qianr]

The "ScheduleField" class has a property "ParameterId", which is good.

Now I would like to know more about the this parameter:

1. The name of the parameter,

2. If it is an instance or type parameter,

3. If it is a shared or built-in parameter,

4. The parameter Unit,

5. GUID of the parameter if it is shared.

I think I can get 1 and 2 working, but pretty much clueless about 3, 4 and 5.

Any lights for help, thanks a lot in advance.

Roy

[jeremytammik]

Dear Roy,

Thank you for your query.

Before anything else, I must ask you:

Have you installed RevitLookup and are you using it on a regular basis in your Revit database exploration?

If the answer is 'no', I suggest we terminate this discussion right here and now until you have installed it and tested using it for your situation:

https://github.com/jeremytammik/RevitLookup

With that tool, you can interactively snoop the database.

In this case, you could grab one of those ParameterId values, use the Revit API Manage tab to select the corresponding database element, regardless of whether it has a graphical representation or not, and interactively explore its nature, contents, parameters, relationships with other elements, etc.

That will probably answer your question right then and there.

It is statically compiled, however, so it mainly displays properties. It does not dynamically evaluate all methods available on all classes.

For that, you can use other, even more powerful and interactive database exploration tools:

http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2013/11/intimate-revit-database-exploration-with-the-python...

Also, my blog post yesterday on How to Research to Find a Revit API Solution might come in handy for you at this point:

http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2017/01/virtues-of-reproduction-research-mep-settings-ontol...

I hope this helps.

Best regards,

Jeremy

[qianr]

Dear Jeremy,

Thanks so much for the quick response.

I have installed the "Revit Lookup" tool for Revit 2015 (the version I'm developing as our development needs to be backward compatible with our current projects).

"Revit Lookup" is a great tool that can save hundreds hours of time on browsing the "watch" in the debug mode, which I have been using.

However, I still can't find the field parameter definitions (shared or builtin) for the "schedulefield" class. I understand the "viewschedule" and "schedulefield" are different classes. I suspect this may have to do with Revit API's limitation.

By the way it seems the "Revit Look Up" is a ribbon panel in the "Add-ins" tab, I can't see "API Manage Tab", am I missing something here?

Best Regards,

Roy Qian

[FAIR59 · Accepted solution]

1  Name =  Field.GetName()

2  Type or Instance?  Probably only a definitive answer for a schedule of 1 System Family Category. Shared Parameters in User Created Families can be both Type and Instance ( in different families)

3  Shared or BuiltIn? 

• Field.ParameterId < -1 : BuiltInParameter     Field.ParameterId == BuiltInParameter value
• Field.ParameterId >0:    SharedParameter
• Field.ParameterId = -1: miscellaneous ( calculated value, percentage)

Shared Parameter:

      SharedParameterElement shElem = doc.GetElement(Field.ParameterId) as SharedParameterElement

      You can find the answer to 4 and 5 in shElem.Definition 

BuiltParameter:

      You need a element (Elem) to get access to a BuiltInParameter, so you need to have a non empty schedule.

      Parameter par = Elem.get_Parameter((BuiltInParameter) Field.ParameterId.IntegerValue);

      You can find the answer to 4 in par.Definition

[qianr]

Very nice answers, thanks a lot.

Regards 2, I guess I have to use the FamilyManager to open the families to find out if the shared parameter is a "Type" or "Instance".

Roy

[jeremytammik]

Dear Roy,

Thank you for your appreciation.

Select element by id is part of the standard end user interface:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/EN...

As said, it comes in handy for using RevitLookup to snoop element data and properties, since it can be used on invisible elements that cannot be selected in any other way as well.

Cheers,

Jeremy

[qianr]

Yes indeed Jeremy. 

I have found the post you mentioned and tried, it works well that I can find the the shared parameter visually on the Revit property panel even it is a "hidden" element, that's quite cool. 🙂

Thanks.

Roy

[jeremytammik · Accepted solution]

Thank you, Roy and Fair59, for the fruitful discussion and succinct solution.

I summarised and published it on the Building Coder:

http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2017/01/schedule-parameter-and-shared-parameter-guid.html#3

The post also includes a new solution for retrieving the GUID of a shared parameter:

http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/2017/01/schedule-parameter-and-shared-parameter-guid.html#2

I hope you find this useful as well.

Cheers,

Jeremy