Saturday, September 12, 2015

Automatic coping with dynamo

Since the first time I created a truss in Revit years ago I didn't like that I have to manually apply coping in order to make things look right. So it was one of the first things I tried to accomplish with Dynamo.
 If you're familiar with dynamo maybe you know in the Clockwork package there is a "FamilyInstance.AddCoping" node. The problem with the node is it expects the number of beams to be cut and the number of the cutting beams to be the same. This is the reason it doesn't work for trusses. So I made a simple correction to the python script in the node.







Then when beams are coped I set the coping distance to whatever I want.

However, I failed to automatically set the start and end extensions of the beams.  I did create a node to set the parameters but in Revit it had some strange behaviour. I then added a node to unpin the beams first, but nothing changed. I am very very open to suggestions here.


 So the definition works that way:
 1. In Revit we select all the beams we need to extend and set manually (I am crying) the extensions (all at once).
 2. In Dynamo we select the family types for the cutting beams and the cut beams.
 3. We type the value of the coping distance we want.
That's it.

Monday, August 31, 2015

AUTOMATIC FINISHING WALLS


So a friend of mine had to create the finish in the bathrooms for some hotel project.
He asked me if this could be somehow automated.
Actually for the given task the Dynamo definition did exactly what we needed.
 How does it work:
 1. We need to have the rooms named.
 2. We need to have the wall type for the finish created.
 3. We type part of the name of the rooms we need
(actually this can be done with another parameter of the room if it is more convenient)
 4. We choose the wall type, the level and the height. We also choose the walls that we'll want joined to the finish walls.

There is a little Python script involved, though.
First I needed it to convert the curves from Revit lines to curves.
This works only in Dynamo 0.75. In dynamo 0.81 it's not even necessary and I don't have a clue why.
Then to join the walls I use another simple python script.