truevis
2010-06-18, 09:23 PM
Following Autodesk’s AEC Boston DevCamp (which I did not attend) Autodesk offered DevLab. I signed-up, but was apprehensive because I had never gotten anywhere useful with Revit’s API. The price was right (free) and the Waltham location was local to where I live.
I had taken the Revit API training twice (2008 & 2009) but never really used the API after that. However, I had been thinking about what would make useful Revit applications for all of that time. I satisfied my urge to customize repetitive tasks (that I’ve had since 1988, and helped with AutoLISP) with AutoHotKey.
So, two days before DevLab, I installed Visual Studio 2008 on my laptop and commenced to remember how to compile and run the samples from Revit’s SDK. It turns out to be easier than before because there is now a method for simply pointing Revit to the app’s DLL and run it. One used to have to modify Revit’s INI file and restart Revit to run any new application. I modified an SDK sample and got it to work but that’s about it.
At DevLab, there were several of Autodesk’s expert API programmers available to help the attendees with whatever application they were working on. It could be Revit or AutoCAD (Civil but not necessarily). With the help if the consultants there, and a code snippet from one of the other attendees, I was able to create four new applications that I was thinking of. This was absolutely brilliant. The gentleman that I worked with the most really knows Revit programming -- both VB.NET and C#. He is Saikat Bhattacharya from Autodesk India. I don’t think I could have made so much progress without his help. In those two days, I went from not being able to do anything useful with the API, to maybe a novice level where at least I can now perhaps ask questions if I get stuck again. I hope that I will be at an even higher level of API programming when they hold the next DevLab
Many thanks to the organizers of this event.
I had taken the Revit API training twice (2008 & 2009) but never really used the API after that. However, I had been thinking about what would make useful Revit applications for all of that time. I satisfied my urge to customize repetitive tasks (that I’ve had since 1988, and helped with AutoLISP) with AutoHotKey.
So, two days before DevLab, I installed Visual Studio 2008 on my laptop and commenced to remember how to compile and run the samples from Revit’s SDK. It turns out to be easier than before because there is now a method for simply pointing Revit to the app’s DLL and run it. One used to have to modify Revit’s INI file and restart Revit to run any new application. I modified an SDK sample and got it to work but that’s about it.
At DevLab, there were several of Autodesk’s expert API programmers available to help the attendees with whatever application they were working on. It could be Revit or AutoCAD (Civil but not necessarily). With the help if the consultants there, and a code snippet from one of the other attendees, I was able to create four new applications that I was thinking of. This was absolutely brilliant. The gentleman that I worked with the most really knows Revit programming -- both VB.NET and C#. He is Saikat Bhattacharya from Autodesk India. I don’t think I could have made so much progress without his help. In those two days, I went from not being able to do anything useful with the API, to maybe a novice level where at least I can now perhaps ask questions if I get stuck again. I hope that I will be at an even higher level of API programming when they hold the next DevLab
Many thanks to the organizers of this event.