What is Revit API?

Revit API - Documented set of instructions, written by developer of an application to share pieces of functionality of their software to create custom Revit add-ins.

We can view all available classes, methods, properties and other things in Revit API Docs and then use them in our scripts.

Revit API Docs - Online version of the documentation. You will learn how to read and understand it in the 2nd module of this course.

Benefits of Revit API:

• Automate Boring Tasks

• Optimize Design

• Analyze Data

• Create custom Reports

• Analyze Data and Create Reports

• Export Data from Projects

• Import Data from Another Software

• Standardize our Projects

• Protect projects from users

• and even do things that are not possible to do manually.

All Thanks to Revit API

How to use Revit API ?

We could use Revit API by using different programming languages such as C#, VB.NET, C++ but my preferred way is to use Python.

To use Revit API with python we can use:

• Python nodes in Dynamo

• Revit Python Shell (plugin)

• pyRevit (plugin) <- (The Best Way)

• python node in Grasshopper (RhinoInsideRevit)

Python

Unfortunately, python is not officially supported by Autodesk. But It does not mean that python is lacking any functionality.

Python is a great language for Revit API

• Easy to learn

• More readable, meaning easier to maintain

• Great community of developers

• A lot of code examples for Revit API + python

Also it's very easy to translate C# to python, we will cover this in more details in Module 2.