Property Boundary and Coordinate Data - Dynamo

Alternate title: Mr. Revit OpEd finally does something (tho basic) with Dynamo!

I used this problem as an excuse to dig into Dynamo a bit. I created the attached graph to read a text file with coordinate values, one line per X,Y,Z values.

The text file format is very basic, it looks like this:

I created a 3D cylinder and model lines to form a target symbol family, 3D and fairly large so I could see it anywhere in the model. The graph places a target family at each coordinate location. Before running the graph, I assigned the Project Units for Length to Meter. Then I ran (manual) the Dynamo graph to place the target families. The last step was to start the Property Line tool and sketch the property boundary segments from target to target, which looks like this.

It was necessary to move the points closer to Revit's origin so they were not so far away, since Revit hates that. After doing that, I moved the Survey Point (not clipped) to one corner of the property (target family location) and then used Specify Coordinates at Point at that location using the coordinate values for that corner. This will allow me to export the result to DWG, if necessary. I also created a specific Spot Coordinate family type so I could identify some or every target location and make sure each reports the correct coordinates, double checking my work so to speak.

I probably spent a couple hours on this, mostly trying to get my head wrapped around which nodes in Dynamo to use. The next time I'll be twice as fast!

Revit is Crashing

You're suffering with a file that is crashing on your computer. Have you attempted to work with/recover the file on a different computer? Doing so will help rule out the possibility that there is an issue with the PC you've been using.

Revit can be a grouchy bugger with too little RAM or an incompatible Video Card/driver. If you have very little RAM then it could be that Revit is running out of RAM before it can process the file properly during the save which can increase the RAM it requires to function. You can also try to disable the graphics options in the Options dialog > Graphics to see if that makes any difference.

I'd start by eliminating the PC itself, try to restore it using another. If that makes no difference then you need to consider the project file itself. Yet another thing to consider, linked files. You can move any linked files it is looking for to another folder temporarily so it can't find them to load them. If a link is really causing the problem then this file crashing is just a victim of a different problem. I've seen a link crashing the host several times in the past. It's a drag spending a lot of time trying to fix a file that didn't have a problem when a link really did.

In 2011 (my post about it) The Revit Clinic's Kathryn Langan wrote a post about a journal file parser she wrote.

EQ Constraint without EQ

Another question via email: "I want a column that can be defined as equal width on either side of its center line but occasionally I'd like to be able to make it unequal. Is there a way to toggle on or off the EQ (Equality) constraint in a family's dimension from the project?"

It isn't possible to toggle on/off the behavior of the EQ constraint when we apply it to a dimension string. If we ignore that feature we CAN define two parameters for either side of the center line of the column and when we need them equal we can supply the same value to both. When we need it to be unequal we just provide different values. Same result, just a different way of looking at the problem.

Here's a mockup, one way to tackle it, I'm sure there are other ways, other assumptions we could make. In the first image the Equality requirement is "OFF". The conditional statements in the formula column evaluates when the "Make Equal Width" parameter is on or off and the "Width Primary Side" parameter provides a value to define how much the inequality should be, based on a notion of primary side and secondary side width values. We subtract the "Width Primary Side" value from the "Width" parameter to shift the column over.

This next image is based on the "Make Equal Width" parameter being "ON" and we divide "Width" by 2.