LearnRevitAPI

Oct 6, 2024

Is Revit API Hard?

You probably think that learning Revit API is not for you, or that it's impossible...

Believe it or not, that's what I thought in the beginning as well. But like any other skill, we have to start small and learn it step by step.

And I want to help you learn it by providing all necessary resources, samples and steps to follow.

But before that, let me share my Revit API journey​.

"The Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
- Lao Tzu

My first steps

Five years ago I was sitting at my desk when I heard that we need to redesign the facade on 114m tall high-rise project.

The Idea was to Place large panels to follow a curve and smaller panels in between. It was clear that we needed computational design tool like Dynamo.

'Q-Tower Wien' by RLP RΓΌdiger Lainer + Partner

By that point I already knew a little about Dynamo, but I didn't believe that I could do it on my own...

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However, I was the only person who knew anything about Dynamo, so I decided to try it anyway.

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And after a few days of constant trial and error, I managed to create a proof of concept. It was game on!

It was not perfect, but it was already more than I expected!

The Big Problem

Once I had a proof of concept, I focused on improving it.

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After numerous trials and errors, I had an even bigger spaghetti monster in Dynamo, but I improved one step at the time.

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But there was one big issue.

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The script took 40 minutes to run. So every time I made any changes I had to take a walk... It was very annoying.

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But, it sounded reasonable time to place 15,000 panels. It would take me a week to do it manually, so I considered it a win.

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But then I noticed that one node was slowing everything down. I couldn't find any replacement, so the solution was a custom Python node with Revit API. Scary, but necessary.

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I don't know how, but thanks to many forums and examples, I made my custom Python node. It was horrible code, but it worked.

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And Result?

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The script now took only 40 seconds!

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By fixing a single node, I improved the script runtime by 6000%!

Once you get a result like this you start to pay attention.

The big realization

I broke my previous belief that Revit API was hard.

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Now, I've experienced first-hand what kind of return it gives and I made it without knowing python...

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And so my Revit API journey began.

Learning Revit API

After we finished that project, I started using more python nodes.

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I still didn't know Revit API basics I needed. I was learning everything on the go. But I kept trying.

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If a task would take 5 hours but coding took 10, I would always try to code(Just, don't tell my boss that).

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But the next time the same task would take me minutes instead of hours. So it was all worth it.

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Also, I'm not going to lie: I failed to create a lot of scripts. But I always learnt something new. And over long enough, I learnt a lot about Revit API!

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And once you nail the basics of python and Revit API, it actually becomes really fun.

Switching to pyRevit

Then one day, I was introduced to pyRevit. Initially, I was very skeptical, and I didn't want to learn anything new.

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But soon I realized how much value it provides:

  • pyRevit is Open-Source

  • Many Reusable Functions for Beginners

  • Easy to create custom Extension

  • Includes a lot of free tools

  • Great Community

  • Absolutely Free

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Too good to be true... But it is!

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I started to learn more about pyRevit and I loved everything I found about it.

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This was also around the time I had issues with Dynamo, and I had to use the classic programmer's response:

So, I focused more on pyRevit instead.

Fast Forward to Today

Since switching to pyRevit, I’ve continued to create more tools and learn even more about Revit API and python.

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There was not enough resources or tutorials, and unfortunately no Chat GPT back then.

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So I had to learn everything the hard way, by spending countless evening searching for simple answers.

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πŸ’‘ But you don't have to!

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Because I decided to give back to the community and I will provide you everything that you need to get started in no time.

πŸ™‹β€β™‚οΈBecoming an Expert

It has been 3 years since I started teaching and sharing code and I've managed to become the go-to Expert about pyRevit and Revit API.

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I've Shared:

  • More than 100 tutorials about Revit API

  • Hundreds of different scripts

  • Wrote 2 Free E-Books,

  • Created StarterKits

  • Spoke at a few BIM Summits

  • and made a whole platform - LearnRevitAPI​

I've made all of that to make Revit API as simple as possible to learn. And I'm not done yet!

Want to Learn More?

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⌨️ Happy Coding!
Erik Frits

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