What’s New in the Revit 2010 API: Element Creation

(Part of the What’s New in the Revit 2010 API series)

For some people, the measure of a CAD API is always how many different types of elements it can create. Revit got off to a slow start in this category, but it continues to get stronger.

In this release, the new Revit API capabilities seem divided into:

• A significant amount of new MEP element creation
• A little bit of new Structure / Rebar options
• A significant amount of new capabilities around family content creation.
• A few very interesting things around the new freeform geometry and divided surface modeling in Revit 2010.

All in all, Revit can now create 70-100 different types of elements (depending on how you count the family content-related things).

What’s New for MEP Creation?

Here are the new MEP-oriented creation capabilities:

• Duct
• Elbow
• ElectricalSystem
• FlexDuct
• FlexPipe
• MechanicalSystem
• Pipe
• PipingSystem
• Cross Fitting
• TakeOffFitting
• TeeFitting
• UnionFitting
• Wire

(not being very MEP-savvy myself, I can’t add any real commentary to them other than to say it looks like an impressive list).

What’s New in Family Content Creation?

This whole area is new and exciting…

• Solid Forms
• Blend
• Extrusion
• ExtrusionForm
• Form By Cap
• Form By ThickenSingleSurface
• Loft
• Revolution
• SweptBlend
• Supporting Elements
• Angular Dimension
• ArcLength Dimension
• Linear Dimension
• Radial Dimension
• Symbolic Curve
• Control
• Alignment (this looks interesting)
• Vertex Index Pair (this is a construct which defines how different profiles in a blend link together, I believe)
• Family Symbol Profile
• More Elements
• Openings
• Model Text
• Freeform Modeling / Surfacing
• Curve By Points
• Divided Surface
• Reference Point

A Brief Story on Reference Points

A year or so ago I pinged Emile Kfouri, the Revit Platform Product Manager about why there were no “Points” in Revit (I can’t recall why I needed them – but I do know how old-time CAD people’s heads look like they’re going to explode when I say that they don’t exist). He said “Points are not BIM” – and I came to agree with the statement, in general (not that Lines are BIM – and they were prevalent in Revit still). In any case – while they’re not BIM, they are quite handy for building things – and it’s nice to see them in there.

A Few More…

Finally, there are a couple last additions and changes…

• Rebars defined by RebarShapes
• Hermite Splines (these are one of the building blocks of the new freeform modeling capabilities)
• Plane from Curves
• Topography Surface (Now this looks very interesting – just pass in an array of XYZ points and get back a surface? I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet – but it should be cool!)

Image: a spline-controlled surface with control points that can be dragged/modified.

Summary

All in all, this release presents a great deal of new capabilities around Element creation… certainly enough to keep most of us busy for the next year until Revit 2011 comes out!