The Future of Revit: AI, NLP, and API Limitations

[baristankut]

Hello,

I write this message with all sincerity, and I’m curious. I’ve been an engineer for about 25 years, working on mechanical installation projects. I closely follow the process and produce my projects using AutoCAD, Magicad, Autodesk Building System, and Revit. I work on very large projects such as skyscrapers, airports, hospitals, shopping centers, factories, etc. Although I’m a mechanical engineer, I was introduced to programming at a very early age—at 14, I managed to code a 1000-line phone directory in BASIC. Since then, I’ve followed programming languages like Assembly, BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN, C, C++, C#, and Python.

So, what am I doing now?

For months, I’ve been working like crazy to integrate artificial intelligence into Revit, but I constantly hit a stumbling block: the Revit API.

Firstly, I won’t even begin to discuss the difficulties of making Revit execute commands from an external prompt. Especially with Revit 2025 introducing .NET 8.0—it’s complete nonsense. It’s a total waste of time. The entire Revit family and the Revit API migrating to .NET 8.0 will likely not happen until the 2028 version.

What I’m trying to say is this: Every day we see amazing news about AI and its impressive advancements, yet why are we still dealing with absurdities like Autodesk’s .NET 8.0 instead of developing a robust NLP for the Revit API? A version-trained NLP would be phenomenal. I tried to train an NLP myself, but my resources were too limited, and I couldn’t succeed.

Another alternative for the Revit API might be setting up an MCP (Model Context Server). This way, we could generate the necessary code for Revit as needed.

My goal is to build a primary model (LLM) supported by an NLP. A query would be sent to the LLM, the NLP would return fully functional code to the LLM, and then the LLM would pass it to Revit. Essentially, I’ve set up and run this workflow, but as mentioned, I’m lacking a trained NLP or a library like MCP.

Alternatively, Revit could stop dealing with these cumbersome issues altogether and integrate a "Stream Realtime" feature by working with Gemini AI:)

In an era where AI has advanced so far, it’s really frustrating to still have to work with such a cumbersome program.

I look forward to your valuable comments and thoughts.

[jeremy_tammik]

Thank you for the interesting thoughts and concern. First of all, though, just to clarify what you are talking about, can you please define exactly what you mean by NLP? Wikipedia lists these options:

• Natural language processing, a field of computer science and linguistics
• Natural-language programming, a programming paradigm
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLP

Unfortunately, I have no idea at all what MCP might be referring to in this context:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MCP

I'll be happy to continue once I understand your points more precisely.

[fernandomaytorena]

Hi Jeremy, I don't know what he might be referring with NLP either. For MCP, I'm pretty sure he is referring to Model Context Protocol, the middleware-like integration protocol released by Anthropic to connect LLMs to external services and tools more easily.

[ccsk99998888DD6TT]

看到上面的对话，我很能理解这位值得尊敬的工程师做出来的努力；
悲催的是官方工程师的回复；
估计官方都还没有使用过cursor工具，因此他们对于mcp是陌生的；
1）工程师希望的是通过文字的输入，通过大语言模型解析，调用revitapi，自动生成需要的模型结果：
例如帮我创建一个楼层视图，层高3米；
2）工程师希望的是可通过自然语言的描述，调用revitapi，开发自己需要的功能。

下面是我自己通过cursor，搭建的与revit通信的东西；一行代码都没有写过。

[jeremy_tammik]

Google Translation:

Seeing the above conversation, I can understand the efforts made by this respectable engineer;
The sad thing is the official engineer's reply;
It is estimated that the official has not used the cursor tool, so they are unfamiliar with MCP;
1) The engineer hopes that through text input, through the large language model parsing, calling Revit API, and automatically generating the required model results: For example, help me create a floor view with a floor height of 3 meters;
2) The engineer hopes that through natural language description, calling Revit API, and developing the functions he needs.
The following is what I built myself to communicate with Revit through cursor; I haven't written a line of code.

Partial text of the screen snapshot:

RA A5600060-RAEAP清院器
可以看过Cursor%洪请求了，

Partial translation of the screen snapshot:

RA A5600060-RAEAP Hospital Cleaner
You can see the Cursor% Hong request now,

Thank you for your contribution, @ccsk99998888DD6TT . It sounds very interesting. Would you like to elaborate further?