Automating Revit 2 Create More Flexible Scripts to Share for REVIT Productivity: Automating Revit, #2

By Max Drake

Extending scripts to generalize for better sharing

In this book I look at extending the work in book 1 from specific to generalise the scripts so that other users can modify them to suit their needs, thus making the scripts more shareable

Keyboard Shortcuts like in Revit for your Script Commands

I introduce how to make Keyboard Shortcuts for triggers similar to Revit Keyboard Shortcuts so that triggering your scripts feels as if they are part of Revit

GUI's & Bubble Notes

We look at GUI's and how to build them so that you can make User Inputs easier and effective as well as Bubble Notes with Schedules.

First Book Specific, this book extends scripts for sharing

In the first book I try and show how you can create your own scripts to do mundane and common tasks in Revit, speed up your productivity & also be able to accurately measure your increased productivity.

I hope this is a useful tool in your arsenal of becoming a better designer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: max drake
• Release date: Jun 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201541316

Max Drake

Max Drake is a registered New Zealand Architect originally from England & trained as a Draftsperson and travelled and worked as a designer in Europe USA, Asia, Australia & New Zealand. Taught at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia as an Architecture Lecturer as a NZ Volunteer with VSA. A freelance designer working in Architecture, Building Services & Structures. Worked with the UN in East Timor as UNV and UN staff working on reconstruction & Mission support. VAST Blog on Visual Asset Strategic Tools about BIM, Revit and programming & data capture (https://cr8ive.tk/)

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

This book follows on from AUTOMATING REVIT: Create Simple Scripts for Beginners to Speed up your REVIT Productivity

In the above book I went through the basic script methods that I have found work with Revit. The book is focused on someone who is a beginner at programming and there are workable examples of scripts throughout the book (and can be downloaded) so that the scripts can be used directly so that new users can become familiar with working scripts and then start hacking/adapting them to their own needs.

This book leads on from there, to look at modifying a script for a specific user to look at how to genralise the script for multiple users, allowing individuals to modify them to their own preferences.

Initially it was to be in 2 parts:

Part 1- Generalising the scripts

Part 2- Deploying the scripts

The Deploying the script got a little out for control and I wasn’t sure where to stop. I decided that that could be a separate book and it will be more generalised, not only for people deploying Revit scripts. I have that book mostly developed, I just have to write a prequal to it for general use. So watch this space.

I hope it adds value to the way you work and the way you share your work.

Bonus script from Book 1 Free Download

At the end of book1 I have written a script that I use to manage a lot of my day to day production. It is quite long. I have it in a downloadable form if you follow the link below.

 It comes in 4 parts:

Main Script File: eBookRevitProductivity.ahk

Support Ini file: eBookRevitProductivityUserSettings.ini

Count file for Frequency of use Keys: eBookFrequency.ini

Revit Keyboard Shortcut XML file (to merge with your existing Revit Keyboard Shortcuts - KeyboardShortcutsRevitProductivity.xml

Book 1 Bonus Script Link

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book is published through Draft2Digital. Thank you for your assistance in publishing this book.

DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this book to my Brother Gavin Drake & his family, his loving wife Lisa & his son George and his family. They are going through a tough time at the moment with Gavin’s illness. I wish them all strength and love.

CHAPTER 1- FOLLOW ON FROM BOOK 1

Previous book contents

The previous book in the series, AUTOMATING REVIT: Create Simple Scripts for Beginners to Speed up your REVIT Productivity began with the premise that you had little or no understanding of scripting, but focused on using AutoHotKey to interact with Revit. It was left for the reader to teach themselves other features of AutoHotKey for its other practical productivity uses.

The book contained a simple introduction to using AutoHotKey with and within Revit and as well as showing the scripts also added links for downloadable script files of all the code in the book. It also contained how to setup your environment to be able to run scripts.

If you are coming to this topic without reading the previous book you will find that this book makes little sense.

In book 1 I wanted to give you the fundamental knowledge for scripting with Revit so you can build your own scripts to overcome a personal issue you have with Revit, it may be a mirror command or an issue with dialogue boxes (mine being Visibility Graphics as a particular item of annoyance for me).

The book outlines strategies I used to make using scripts effective in Revit.

This books objectives

This book proceeds on the understanding that the reader has a basic understanding of scripting and how it can be used with Revit.

The topics will be a little haphazard as we will be dealing with enhancements to procedures that were in book 1.

In this book I want to try and move from the specific to more generalized scripting, so not only for yourself but for others, and allowing them to make some adjustments to suit their needs.

There are also considerations about remapping keys, creating Keyboard Shortcuts , similar to Revit Keyboard Shortcuts instead of using Hotkeys (Key and hold down  Modifier keys, eg Ctrl+C)

On this same theme we look at ease of use by adding in GUI’s (Graphical User Interfaces- Or pop-up dialogue boxes) so that we simplify User input into Script commands. These were shown in Book 1 but in this book we build one from scratch.

We also look at using Bubble Notes Based on Revit Pure Plan Notes which have Bubbles and schedules.

In Book 1 I used short Videos as explainers, but these have not been utilized at all so I will not add videos at this point to the book (apart from in the Bubble Notes chapter) but if there is an increased use of them in Book 1 I may add some later.

So first we will take a bit of bespoke code and genralise it.

CHAPTER 2- FROM PERSONAL TO GENERAL-MODIFYING SCRIPT FOR FLEXIBILITY

Visibility Graphics Line & Room Toggle – Our starting point. From Book 1 Chapter 6

Download All Main & Support Files for Chapter 2

Hindsight & 20-20 vision

In a way this is a bit unfair, as I already know the solution after hammering my head against the wall trying to abstract this process from the specific to the general.

The steps and reasoning seem logical and obvious, but while I was grappling to make this a workable solution I went along a lot of wrong paths, and had to start from square one a number of times and try different solutions.

If I were to try and do this again from the beginning, I may even take a different path.

I would do more reading on blogs and forums looking for specific and general issues that were similar to ones I found myself with and see if their methods could help me.

After finding a solution to a number of similar issues, several of the notes methods started specific and I tried to generalize, and I’m trying to apply them to other issues as they arise. I’ve abstracted, in my opinion, the steps I took to reach the goal.

So although the text below flows, that wasn’t how the script was created. This is just shown as 1. Specific solution. 2/ Steps I think I took to take an idea from Specific to general solution  & 3/ The solution.

A lot of blood sweat & tears and very bad scripting in between.

Information for setup

In the Appendix I have brought across Chapter 6 from Book 1.

You should read this before proceeding further otherwise the following won’t make sense.

There are links to videos showing:

Demonstration of the script working

Use of TootltipCoordinates.ahk

Use of CrossHairOnScreen.ahk

There is also a download file of the scripts for:

Line & Room Toggle

TootltipCoordinates.ahk

CrossHairOnScreen.ahk

This script, from Book 1 Chapter 6.

It is very specific & targeted.

It only goes to Line &