How to Setup your Revit API Development Environment for creating Autodesk Revit Add-Ins

[@ErikFrits]

Let me know if you use any other software for your Development. 😅So far I have forgotten to mention: ✅𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞++ - It's a very light and fast text editor. It's good when you need to open a file for a quick little change and you don't want to wait for pyCharm or another big IDE to load up. Link((notepad-plus-plus.org/))

[@jmco1045]

You are doing a great job with these getting started videos @erik, Keep on!

[@ErikFrits]

Thanks Jean-Mark! I appreciate it to hear that from another expert 😉

[@BIMGeek]

Change in the lighting shows how much effort went into this video. Thanks man! 👏

[@ErikFrits]

Thank you, I think am quite slow with recording 😅

[@marianabarros4398]

Brilliant! I'll support you on Patreon as soon as I get the chance!

[@ErikFrits]

💟 Thank you so much for becoming one of my supporters, it's really motivating for me! 🙏 I'm so glad you're enjoying my content so much

[@Archfix-software]

Thats a briliant explanation!

[@ErikFrits]

Thanks! There are updated videos available for the same topic: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hWq7pWmfit6hrNk

[@Cheminglin1]

Nice Erik, Great Content !! I need to start learning now!

[@ErikFrits]

Thanks. Welcome on board 😁

[@OzK4LO]

hey man , thanks for those videos! i surely gonna learn from them alot. and again, thanks

[@ErikFrits]

Hey, Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate that!

[@YingCai-r8k]

Hi Erik, why you download Visual Studio and Pycharm? what to do for each of the IDE for developing Revit API? Thanks.

[@ErikFrits]

pyCharm is like a text editor on steroids. Bunch of useful features, but the most important for beginners is the ability to add Revit API stubs - This will make autocomplete when you use Revit API classes and methods. then I use Visual Studio for creating custom GUI (WPF). I thought that I will cover making custom GUI by now, but I decided that I need to learn more about them if I want to teach them and I don't have time for that now. My current workflow works for me, but not good enough to teach others, so I need to improve a bit. Sorry for confusion

[@YingCai-r8k]

@@ErikFrits Thanks, Erik. Do you have any resources can help set up python revit api environment in visual studio step by step? Much appreciated.

[@ErikFrits]

There are some articles for VS Code online, but Visual Studio is not so popular for python, not sure if any guide is available

[@YingCai-r8k]

@@ErikFrits Thanks Erik.

[@jasontian9450]

can you make a video to setup visual studio community to debug the tools in revit with python plz?

[@ErikFrits]

Visual Studio doesn't support IronPython anymore. I code with pyCharm and debug live in Revit by running my tools and seeing error messages. It's quick and easy

[@thomassurface8195]

Does it makes sense to use CPython? Does the auto completion work as well?

[@ErikFrits]

Only if you need libraries that work only on CPython, such as pandas, numpy... There are a few struggles when you want to use CPython, as I have heard from others. Otherwise, I would stick with IronPython. Not such a big difference and you often need to use List() from System.Colections.Generic which is not accessible in CPython.

[@AI_Architecture]

tnx Erik. i wan to know how to import revit api to pycharm. there is no api folder in my pycharm env.

[@ErikFrits]

If i understood correctly - You would need to download Revit API stubs. Check out the updated video on how to setup Dev Environment for Revit API on my channel ;) It's more up to date and provides a link to download.

[@ghassenmhmh7988]

in the min 6 you said u can learn from extensions and how people wrote their script , how ?? i installed pyrevit and ef tools but couldn't find how ?

[@ErikFrits]

Hold ALT and click on any pyRevit tool (Incl. additional extensions) This will open folder where python file is located and you can explore it. Alternatively, you can look for GitHub repositories of these extensions and download/read it there.

[@ghassenmhmh7988]

@@ErikFrits thnx very much

[@l.aalbert8596]

Can't find Revit Pyton Shell installer for 2023..

[@ErikFrits]

I think the latest installer will be fine for RPS 2023. Try that one

[@Constantinesis]

Can you use VSCode instead of full VStudio?

[@ErikFrits]

VStudio is great for creating UI with WPF. VSCode is a good alternative to pyCharm, but I code with pyCharm in my Tutorials, so it might be easier for people to follow.

[@KenBoyer-ij9iz]

Erik, should we learn Python 3.11 or Python 2.7?

[@ErikFrits]

As I mentioned there is little difference between the two. So I would recommend looking for the best course you can on either language to pick up basics. pyRevit use to use IronPython 2.7.7 but couple months ago IronPython 3.x came out and I believe pyRevit has started using it instead.

[@CreateHubTips]

I have Revit 2022 and had trouble installing Revit Lookup. I dont know what installer you used and when I downloaded the latest file there was no msi file in the folder. Is Revit Lookup absolutely necessary?

[@ErikFrits]

Hi, They have made some updates and now there is single installer for all versions since Revit 2015. Try getting latest version from here: github.com/jeremytammik/RevitLookup/releases/tag/2023.1.0 and Yes, Revit Lookup is quite necessary. You can avoid using it, but it will make it so much easier to look inside your elements and explore Revit API if you have it.

[@CreateHubTips]

@@ErikFrits thanks, I was about to skip that step completely!

[@mohamedanany3832]

Very interesting, would you be make videos about GUI implementation? 🙏

[@ErikFrits]

I think so, but not any time soon. I know how to make a GUI that works, but I would need to learn how to do it properly before I start teaching it. I want to make a flexible form that can be reused with python, but I have some gaps with WPF at the moment, and no time to explore.

[@eleazarcastillo2020]

Hi Erik, Excellent Video, excellent channel, I would like to know how to configure pycharm for revit api autocomplete, it would be great if you make a video for this, Thanks.👏👏👏

[@ErikFrits]

Hi, Thanks ! It is coming up next. I think it's an essential thing for beginners. I remember when I was coding without it for months in the beginning😅

[@vrbaac1641]

hi... thank you for your videos, they are very helpfull... ^^... btw is it possible to install revit lookup without admin permission? and is it worth it learning C# when it comes to making revit tools? I notice that there are similarities between python and C#... thanks ^^ thank you ^^

[@ErikFrits]

Glad you liked them! I know it's possible to place .dll file of a plugin to the right folder and normally it should appear, but it depends if placing a file in that folder is right protected or not. There are indeed a lot of similarities between them, mainly due to the fact we have to call a lot of Revit API classes and methods, and they won't change across languages. It depends. Python is much easier to learn and much faster in development. On the other hand C# can run scripts faster but you have to compile your code, which has pros and cons. main pro - you can protect your source code, con - you have to restart Revit to apply changes. pyRevit extensions are open source, so you can see all the code in my EF-Tools for example. But you can share them privately across your office, without issues. In my case I am biased towards python + I would open-source it anyway. I would recommend starting with python, and later switching to C# if you have to. It is going to be much easier, because a lot of stuff can be transferred between these languages.

[@feri4life177]

Thank You.

[@ErikFrits]

You're welcome!

[@thais3268]

Can you tell me if RevitLookup is still available for Revit 2020? I did not find

[@ErikFrits]

Yes it's available. You can install the latest version, and it should work just fine for many Revit versions. They have updated it since, so they removed older verisons of Revit Lookup

[@ErikFrits]

Have a look here: github.com/jeremytammik/RevitLookup/releases If you scroll down to Assets, you will see installation files for different Revit Version. Maybe that will help ;)

[@husamaljawhar4800]

Hello @erik I have Revit 2023, and I could not install RevitLookup and pyCharm, I could no see it on add-ins what should I do.

[@ErikFrits]

1. I had no issues with RevitLookup for RVT23. Have you downloaded the latests release from github repo? 2. Why could not you install pyCharm ? Did you get an error or it failed installation?

[@husamaljawhar4800]

​@@ErikFrits hello Erick, thanks for your answer. I installedpyCharm, but there is an error appeared when I downloaded python 2.7 but when I downloaded phyton 3.12 the problem disappeared. I follow the instruction about add-in Revit API but it does not work, can you help me with that. thanks

[@ErikFrits]

I had similar issue with python 2.7.0 but 2.7.18 worked well. I heard someone else having the same experience. What do you mean by "add-in Revit API"? If you get error messages, it's good to send them, otherwise I can't just guess the problem.

[@husamaljawhar4800]

@@ErikFrits I tried to Setup Revit API with pycharm as you explain in your video no3, but it looks different from what I am trying to do. I sent you an email with pictures. thanks

[@ErikFrits]

I replied to your email, I hope you find it useful. Happy Coding!

[@slay_brrr]

Hi Erick, I am studying Python3 instead of Python2. Is there a way to use Python 3 for Revit API? Or should I learn Python2?

[@ErikFrits]

IronPython 2.7.7 is used by default and py3 is not so different, so don't worry you will be fine. Python3 make sense in Revit if you want to use packages like numpy for your add-in. Otherwise you can stick with ipy 2.7.7.

[@slay_brrr]

@@ErikFrits Thank you so much!🙏

[@MrJai471]

111 th Like and i am a fan of your videos

[@ErikFrits]

Thanks, I appreciate that!