Please explain accessing FamilySymbol Name Parameter

[Anonymous]

Can someone please explain why accessing a family Symbol's name parameter is so unusual.  

FamSym.Name

This looks like it should work when I look at the help file, and I've seen examples of this being used online.  However, if I use it in my Python scripts I get an error saying that property doesn't exist.  To get around this I have to use:

FamSym.get_Parameter(BuiltInParameter.SYMBOL_NAME_PARAM)

This obviously works, but it's been a hang up while I'm working, and I'm interested to know why I have to handle this differently than other object names.

Cheers

Eric

[rosalesduquej]

Hi Eric,

I'm no expert with the RevitPythonShell, but like you said I have seen other examples in the past before using similar behaivor to obtain the Family Symbol name. Have you tried FamSym.Family.Name ? 

Here are 2 links where I saw this. 

http://wiki.theprovingground.org/revit-api-py-family 

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

[Anonymous]

Hi Jaime,

Thanks for responding.  Unfortunately FamSym.Family.Name will return the name of the family.  I am looking for the name of Type within that family, which in Revit-API-land is called the Symbol.  

If you open up the RPS you can see the difference between FamSym.Family.Name and FamSym.get_Parameter(BuiltInParameter.SYMBOL_NAME_PARAM)

Any other thoughts?

[Anonymous]

I must say to thanks you, i was crazy when i want to get Name of familytype, but can not i don't know why, and i see your topic. Thanks you moa moa moa

[jgemperline]

Its been some time now. But I ran across the same problem. Wondering if there have been any discoveries in the past couple years on this topic. 

[studio-a-int]

In Python you can simply collect all elements of that Category (below example is for Pipe Fitting), then iterate through  with a simple list comprehension, and you can get the Type Names:

PIPE_FITTINGS = FilteredElementCollector(doc).OfClass(FamilySymbol).OfCategory(BuiltInCategory.OST_PipeFitting).ToElements()

PIPE_FITTINGS_TYPES_NAMES = [i.get_Parameter(BuiltInParameter.SYMBOL_NAME_PARAM).AsString() for i in PIPE_FITTINGS]

[jgemperline]

To get the Name of the symbol I was expecting to use something like:

familysymbol.Name

The proposed solution feels more like a workaround. It works but when I walk through the API dock it seems like Name should work too as one of its properties. I'm new to this stuff so I could be way off.

What am I missing here? 

[RPTHOMAS108]

If you leave it as an Element without casting to FamilySymbol then can you still read the .Name property? I think this is true.

For some odd unknown reason .Name is changed at ElementType level to make it WriteOnly.

WriteOnly properties are a mystery to me as far as the RevitAPI is concerned. I'm allowed to name something but I can't know it's existing name???

[Anonymous]

This has been my go-to solution as well. Being unable to access FamilySymbol.Name seems like a pretty strange omission! 

[Anonymous]

Agreed - there still seems to be something buggy about FamilySymbol.Name.

Access the value via the BuiltInParameter for more reliability!

[MarryTookMyCoffe]

symbol.Name

it is so weird that this doesn't work for you(in C# it work). Family Symbol have changed Set, but you should still be capable using a get from Element class. Shouldn't get be inheritance from Element class? why this work different in C#?

[RPTHOMAS108]

It's overridden as WriteOnly at ElementType inheritance level. There is no real issue in some respects, you just get the name before casting to FamilySymbol or some other ElementType. Can also cast an ElementType to an Element to get the name value.

[jkirk-OMM]

Thank you!!! Finally. This solution worked for what I needed. I just wanted the available family type names in a list.