LearnRevitAPI

🔎 Revit API Documentation For Beginners. (How to Get The Most out of It?)

Jul 21, 2025

Let's Look at RVT Docs

Coding without Docs is like sailing with wind.
Not very fun, huh?

So let's dive into Revit API Documentation and I'll show you how to navigate to get the most out of it.

It's a really important resource if you want to create custom Add-in for Revit. So you better get good at that.

So let's check how to use RVTDocs.com

How to Navigate?

Once you open RVTDocs you'll see API version for each year available on the top. Choose the one where you work the most.

Then you can either use the sidebar navigation to find classes you need, or use the search (shortcut CTRL+K) to find it quicker.

The search also includes filters to help you find what you need faster.

While searching you'll notice that all classes are part of Namespaces. Think of them as containers to organize classes.

Majority of classes you need will be under Autodesk.Revit.DB Namespace.This is also from where you'll import these classes in your code using:from Autodesk.Revit.DB import *from Autodesk.Revit.DB.Architecture import Room

Where to Pay Attention?

Once you open any class you'll see a lot of information about it. At first it might be a bit too much, but over time you'll know exactly where to look to get what you need.

Here are the sections you can find.

General information

On the top you'll always find the Name, Description and Remarks of the selected Class or Attribute.

Often times it's self explanatory, but I highly recommend you to pay attention to Remarks section. It often includes very useful information on how to work with selected class.

2. Inheritance Hierarchy

On the right side you'll also find Inheritance Hierarchy this is a crucial OOP concept. It will help you understand the relations between classes.

As mentioned previously all classes in Revit API inherit similar properties from base classes like Element, View... And then they have their own specific class attributes.

This is why most of classes will have attributes like (Id, Category, GetTypeId() and many more...

3. Syntax

Then you'll find the Syntax section explaining the selected Class/Attribute.

In case of Classes it's not so useful... But it's the most useful section when you explore Methods, Properties or Constructors.

This is where you can actually see how to use it in your own code and what arguments you need to provide to make it work. This is the whole reason to open RVTDocs in the first place.

4. Examples

Next if you're lucky, you'll find a code example on how it can be used in your own code. They're often overcomplicated, but they can also be very simple and to the point.

Unfortunately, these examples are in C# and VB Syntax, but it's not hard to translate them to Python, especially with a help of Chat GPT.

P.S.

💡I'm also working on a special AI feature to translate these examples into Python right on the website. It already works but I need to refactor code to make it work well at scale. You'll hear from me when it's published.

Meanwhile, you can drop them to Chat GPT and ask to translate to Python. It does it pretty well.

5. Parameters & Return Value

In the next section you can find more details on the parameters and return value.

Usually the description is self explanatory, but it's very useful to reference the correct types to explore them further in Revit API documentation.

6. Exceptions

Next you'll find a list of common exceptions related to selected Class/Attribute.

Honestly, you don't need to check this section unless you start getting errors and you want to better understand what's going on. Personally, I rarely look at this section myself...

7. Members

Lastly, you'll find a list of all members related to a class like Properties, Methods, Constructors and their description.

You can also find out if these attributes are inherited from other classes, or if the field is empty it means that it comes specifically from the selected class.

Also, there is a quick search bar on the top to help you find what you need fast.

8. Overload List

Lastly, you can also encounter Overload lists.

This means that selected attribute can have various use-cases and might require different amount of arguments.

Read the description to understand the difference and find the one that suits you better.

e.g.

You can see that there are 5 Wall.Create methods to choose from. IT depends if you want to have default wall type, or you want to specify it yourself.

You'll get used to that.

How to use it quick?

Normally, when you work with Revit API Docs you'd find the class/method that you need and then look straight at the Syntax or Example section. This is the quickest way to understand how to use it.

On top of that, do not ignore Remarks. They often contain useful information that can save you a lot of head ache later on...

This information is enough to get back into your code editor and continue writing your script.

But feel free to explore the rest if you need to, especially in the beginning.

What's New Section

Each year we get a new version of Revit and it also affect Revit API. And it's important to be up to date to make changes to your scripts.

You can find all of this in the What's New Section when you select an API version from the home page.

Inside you can find:

What's New?
What was removed?
And API Changes

If you're a beginner, you can completely ignore this for now. Just focus on the Revit version which you actually use in the office, and then update your scripts as you find errors in your code.

Also, you can check my videos where I break down these changes to help you understand what's new.

And in case you have changes that affect your code, you can write different code for each API version to avoid any errors. Here is the code snippet for that: