BimorphNodes v3.0 for Dynamo adds Recursive CAD Link/Import Text Extraction Without Exploding

[Thomas_Mahon]

Dear Dynamo aficionados

I am pleased to announce the release of BimorphNodes v3.0 available for download via the Dynamo Package Manager.

BimorphNodes v3.0 includes some major updates and a range of new nodes, including the new CADTextData.FromLayer node, which extracts text from a CAD link or import without exploding. Overview:

• Built on the Revit 2019 API with backwards compatibility up to Revit 2016 and Dynamo v1.2
• Major refactoring, performance enhancements and improved exception handling
• New CADTextData, LinkElement and CAD nodes
• Updates to existing nodes
• Full support for all Revit language versions

What’s New

BimorphNodes v3.0 is a major update with a focus on new nodes which include text extraction from CAD links or imports, bug fixes, multi-language support, speed enhancements, stability improvements and better exception handling. Continue reading for a detailed look at whats new:

CADTextData Nodes

New CADTextData nodes provide rapid extraction of text data from linked or imported CAD files in Revit. The node avoids exploding the CAD instance so it is not restricted to Revits 10,000 element limit. It means the days of pre-processing CAD files to isolate text for the purposes of exploding in Revit are over - simply link or import your CAD file and you can extract the text within seconds.

The CADTextData.FromLayers node also includes custom algorithms which work recursively to parse text entities from the CAD instance, enabling it to locate text in nested blocks regardless of the nested depth or any transformations. For example, if the text is in a block which is scaled, mirrored, and/or rotated, and it has nested blocks containing text which are also scaled, mirrored, and/or rotated, the node will compute all the transforms accordingly as it parses each nested depth.

The text is returned as CADTextData objects enabling you to decide how to use the data in your workflows. For example, the data can be used to create text notes in Revit (using the OOTB TextNote.ByLocation) or used for more advanced workflows involving geometry creation, such as extracting survey data to create toposurfaces:

Feature overview:

• Extracts all text entities from an input CAD link or import (ImportInstance’s)
• Avoids explode so there is no element limit and no need to pre-process your CAD file
• Works recursively to extract text data from any blocks with nested blocks to n-depth
• Supports all Revit documents and Families
• Supports all valid view types, including Section, Elevation, and Legend views
• Supports shared coordinates and rotations from true north
• Supports translated, scaled, mirrored and rotated Import Instances
• Dynamically adjusts units from the CAD file to your display units in Revit
• Provides nodes to query a wide range of text data attributes for maximum workflow flexibility, include the text value itself, insert point relative to your Revit coordinate space, and more
• Compatible with Dynamo Player

Action Nodes (methods) to obtain CADTextData instances:

Query Nodes (properties) for extracting attribute data from a CADTextData instance:

CAD Nodes

CAD.PointsFromCADLayers has been added to BimorphNodes enabling the collection and filtering of points from CAD links or imports. The node works much in the same way to the Curve-From-CAD-Layer nodes; input an Import Instance and leave the layerNames input unconnected to import from all layers, or input layer names as a list of strings to filter points from those layers.

CAD.SetLayerVisibility is also new and enables visibility control of specific layers for imported or linked CAD files in the input view.

LinkElement Nodes

LinkElement.ByRayBounce is a new collector node which takes a point and projects it to infinity. Any linked elements which intersect the ‘ray’ (the projected point), will be collected and returned as a Bimorph LinkElement. The node will return linked elements from any linked Revit file with optional inputs to filter elements by Category or only return the nearest element hit by the ray point. For convenience, the intersection point which hits the face of the element is also returned.

LinkElement.CopyToActiveDocument copies LinkElements into the active document. This method performs rehosting of elements where applicable and is designed primarily for model elements. Element binding is used to ensure that if you run the node multiple times (it might form part of a larger workflow), there are no risks of duplicates appearing every time your graph updates.

Note that not all elements are supported due to limitations in the Revit API, and due to the way Dynamo interacts with Revit, this node should only be used when Dynamo is in Manual execution mode, otherwise there is a risk of triggering a never-ending process.

LinkElement.GetParameterValueByName gets the parameter value from a LinkElement and resolves the issue with the OOTB Element.GetParameterValueByName which only works with elements in the active document (parameter queries require the document object, which is invalid for linked elements). It works the same way as the OOTB node, but modified to work with linked elements.

LinkElement.Document is a new query node which returns the document object of the LinkElement.

Updates and Refactoring

The codebase for BimorphNodes v3.0 has had a major refactoring to aid maintenance and enhance performance. These changes are all internal, so you will not notice any differences if you already use BimorphNodes - just faster and more reliable performance. There have also been a number of feature updates to existing nodes:

CAD.CurvesFromCADLayers
CAD.DetailCurvesFromCADLayers
CAD.SymbolicCurvesFromCADLayers
The above nodes have been refactored to improve performance by minimising boxing and unboxing of the various curve types.

CAD.ReportInstances has been refactored with new internal functionality which subscribes to Dynamo’s events handler, enabling automatic closure of external Revit documents when Dynamo is closed or you close your graph. This only applies if you are using the filePath input to open external files - it has no effect on your active Revit document. This new functionality resolves an issue reported by some users where external documents would remain open in the background because the close input was not set to true before closing the Dynamo file or when using Dynamo Player.

CAD.LayerNamesInUse has three new boolean outputs to support the new CAD.PointsFromCADLayers and CADTextData.FromLayers nodes: containsCurves, containsPoints, and containsText. These outputs can be used as Boolean masks with OOTB nodes such as List.FilterByBoolMask for workflows using any of the CAD or CADTextData nodes.

Element.IntersectsElement includes a new output named intersectsWith to help group clashing elements in a more intuitive fashion. Simply match the index from the intersectsWith list with the corresponding index of the Element list (the sublist index) to group the elements in setB which clash with A. Note that this new output is simply the elementSetA returned unmodified, so previous workflows which group elements using the indexes of the elementSetA input with those of the Element output (the clashing elements) remains valid – as mentioned, this new output has been added for convenience to make grouping of clash results more intuitive.

Element.IntersectsSolid has a new output named intersectsWith for the same reasons and it works in the same way if you want to group the clash results - match the index from the intersectsWith list with the corresponding index of the Element list to quickly establish the elements which intersect with each solid. Like the Element.IntersectsElement node, the intersectsWith output is simply the solids input returned unmodified, and serves to make grouping of clash results more intuitive. The only issue users might encounter with this update is the fact that the output ports have changed order. To understand the potential issue this may cause, see the ‘Before Upgrading’ section.

Sheet.Duplicate has been completely refactored with bug fixes, improved performance and better memory management and exception handling, particularly for workflows which attempt to duplicate the same sheet multiple times. Support for PDF imports on sheets has also been added for Revit 2020 users.

Multi-Language Support

In previous versions of BimorphNodes there were a number of internal legacy functions which used English text (strings) to perform certain operations. Typically these strings were used as look-ups to obtain parameter values from elements in the model. However, the dependency on English-specific queries caused exceptions to occur for our international users who were not using English-language versions of Revit.

In BimorphNodes 3.0 the string queries have either been replaced with robust look-ups using built-in queries in the Revit API which automatically localise to the Revit language, or removed completely so all languages are now supported.

Before Upgrading

Lets be honest - a major drawback of upgrading in-use packages is not knowing how it might affect your graphs, or if a breaking change has occurred between versions. We have good news: BimorphNodes users upgrading to v3.0 can do so without any concerns - there are no breaking changes.

It is built on the Revit 2019 API and includes built-in backwards compatibility to Revit 2016. If you are using older versions of Revit and see compatibility warnings in Dynamo’s Notifications manager, these warnings can be dismissed as BimorphNodes manages combability for you.

With that said, there is one minor issue to be aware of:

Element.IntersectsSolid outputs have been modified to improve its functionality (see Updates and Refactoring for more info). Consequently, the order of outputs has changed such that the exceptions output has moved from output 2 to 3. This change will only affect you if you have connected the exceptions output elsewhere your graph. If so, and you upgrade to BimorphNodes v3.0 please take note of the following and update your graphs as explained below:

Before upgrading:

After upgrading, the wire will remain at output 2 which will cause downstream exceptions. To resolve, manually reconnect the repositioned exceptions output to any recieving nodes:

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[gabdelmo]

Could exporting hatch or region filled from dynamo/revit to AutoCAD be included too

[crapai]

Thanks for the nodes. I’ve been using them to convert our CAD details. While working with the text location node I’ve noticed that it returns a point at the bottom of the text which leads the text notes I create with TextNote.ByLocation to be vertically centered on the bottom of the text. I’ve added a bunch of node to correct this in my script for horizontal and vertical text:

I thought it might have to do with the cad files justification, but it is set to middle left so I thought it would work. Is there something I’m missing here?

[Thomas_Mahon]

Hi @crapai can you share you CAD file and start a new post as this will help anyone else who may have the same problem find the discussion on the forum.

[Revit_Noob]

Hi I’m using Dynamo 1.3, would just like to ask what particular version of BitmorphNodes is compatible with my version?

[Thomas_Mahon]

Its compatible with Dynamo 1.3 - 2.3 and Revit 2017 onwards.

[Revit_Noob]

Thanks @Thomas_Mahon…

[Vladimir]

Hello, i need to use Element.IntersectsElement with sublists (find intersecting elements in sublists 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 sublists).
How can i do this and will it cut the speed? Thanks!

[vanman]

Hi Thomas. Used your linkelement.copytoactive with great success. Especially eliminating the need to figure out why the coordinates come across different between a linked model and the model.

I was wondering if that workflow could somehow help for this ground line drawing script. It uses a Topo to draw the ground line. However if selecting a linked Topo, it will draw the lines somewhere different as shown below. Do you have a node or method that would translate the lines to the correct position? Do you know what the root cause is? or is there many. I was thinking of getting the linked location origin and the model origin and using that to translate them back to the correct place. However I think it may be more complicated and there could be other factors it shifts the lines off. Thanks for any help!

I found another post of yours… Using Geometry Transform but not sure where to get the correct context coordinate system. I used the one from the Spings.SelectLinkedElement, moved the line closer but not quite there…

I used your LinkElement.TotalTransform but got the same result from springs transform output

Sorry for the ton of input. So I went with the work around of using your LinkElement.CopyToActiveDocument node to copy the topography into the model, draw the lines and delete. One thing I found difficult was how to select the linked topo as a “LinkedElement” element so I had to get all linked elements of the category and filter it by the selected link to copy.

Any better workflows would be appreciated or if you know something I dont to help Feel like I come up with the most bizarre solutions to something that can probably be done easy

[Thomas_Mahon]

You’ve taken all the correct steps to transform the geometry. I suspect the problem is your intersection plane taken from the view. With section and elevation views this is never on the actual view plane so your section lines aren’t where you probably think they are. Try defining your own plane (ie not extracted from a view) precisely where you need it and see if that gets you any closer.

[saju_autodesk]

Hi @Thomas_Mahon,
Your nodes are super fast.!
I want a similar fast node for does intersect whic gives a bool out,do you have one or share a recipe on how to make one.

[Thomas_Mahon]

Thanks @saju_autodesk Your best option is actually quite simple, use the Bimorph intersect node you need, then simply connect the output to a List.IsEmpty OOTB node. Whether the node returns the elements or bools will have negligible impact on performance since the most intensive process (i.e. performing the intersection test) still has to run regardless of the methods (∴ nodes) return type.

[vanman]

Thanks for the reply Thomas. If I’m copying the topo in using the same plane. Wouldn’t that make the plane ok? How would I define my own for each unique situation? Thanks for any help. Still trying to understand this.

[crapai]

Any chance to get layer properties and line override properties similar to text?

[Thomas_Mahon]

There are no updates planned for BimorphNodes other than some fixes when i find the time. I’m releasing more Revit add-ins this year and moving CurvesFromCADLayers into a full app with these features is in the pipeline.

[Dr7]

Hi Cody, would you mind sharing that script? Currently, I am using Michael Kilkelly’s Macro to convert CAD lines into Revit but that does not include text…

I am interested in seeing how it works.

Thanks and kind regards,

[Vladimir]

delete this post, please

[sdijanovic]

Thanks for a great node package @Thomas_Mahon.

I am using CAD.SetObjectStyle node to batch change many layers to one color and one line thickness. Works great, however, I do have a small request / suggestion.

There are three object styles that can be changed under the VG of an imported instance: line style, line color, and line weight.

Currently, using CAD.SetObjectStyle, I can override all three but what if I want to keep one of the object styles as per the original CAD file setting? For example, because I am using CAD links as background in most of my views, I would like to only change the line color to gray and line thickness to 1 but I want the line pattern to remain as per CAD and not turn dashed, center, phantom lines into solid lines.

Not sure if there’s already a solution to my problem. Please see below. Thanks!

[eschefo]

May be is too late to continue with this topic. However, I was tryng CADTextData.FromLayers and for many CAD files and with selected layers or for any layer the problem looks the same:

I’m using Dynamo 2.01 and Revit 2019.2
Happens the same to somebody?