How get OST (Built-In Name) of element

Lists-Logic
1

How get OST category name of element?

for examle we are have selected pipe in Revit to IN[0]

ostcategory=GetOST( IN[0] ) ??

And we get this:
OUT=ostcategory

OST_PipeCurves

1 Like
2

Revit Category Guide.xlsx (368.6 KB)

I use this spreadsheet which lists the OST Revit Categories.

3 Likes
3

@Claus thanks, but im want to get Built-In Name (AsString) of element in Dynamo )

4

Hi @til.shviger

Are you looking for this?

image
image.jpg1494Ă—281 78.9 KB

2 Likes
5

@Kulkul
YES!
can you show what is inside the script?

6

Sure!

import clr, System
clr.AddReference("RevitNodes")
import Revit
clr.AddReference('RevitAPI')
from Autodesk.Revit.DB import *
clr.AddReference("RevitServices")
from RevitServices.Persistence import DocumentManager
doc = DocumentManager.Instance.CurrentDBDocument
 
catname = IN[0]
bic = System.Enum.GetValues(BuiltInCategory) 
cats, bics = [], []
for i in bic:
    try:
        cat = Revit.Elements.Category.ById(ElementId(i).IntegerValue)
        cats.append(cat)
        bics.append(i)
    except:
        pass
 
for i, b in zip(cats, bics):
    if catname == str(i): 
        ost = b 
 
OUT = ost
17 Likes
7

@Kulkul

everything works perfect! :ok_hand:

Thank you!

8

@til.shviger You’re welcome!

Merry Christmas :christmas_tree: and happy holidays :slight_smile: . Cheers!

9

Merry Christmas ! :sparkler: I Wish you happiness and success at work in the New Year :hugs:

10

I tried this just now and got the following error:

Warning: IronPythonEvaluator.EvaluateIronPythonScript operation failed. 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 25, in <module>
NameError: name 'ost' is not defined

so basically the variable to get the resulting category is not working for me. The end game for me is to get a handle on Revit Links and extract information from linked RVT documents. Found the category:

Autodesk.Revit.DB.BuiltInCategory.OST_RvtLinks

but not sure how to access the elements with this built-in category.
Thoughts?

11

If you are like me and must know the details to remember something here is a nugget for you.

Built-in Category OST Prefix - What does it stand for

Almost all the built-in category enum values come equipped with an “OST_” prefix.
OST_ it is short for “O” bject “ST” yle.

Credit: Jeremy Tammik + arnostlobel

2 Likes
12

Hi @Kulkul,
I’m trying to understand your script line by line (novice), and can’t work out the ById() part. Where does it come from? I can’t seem to find it in the API documentation, or in Dynamo (although most of that path is there).
I can make it work, but I don’t understand it at all! Any help most appreciated!

13

Please convert Catname ToString

if catname.ToString() == i:

14

image
image802Ă—397 22.1 KB 

# by Alexander Berg | 2020-03-07 | Automated Design Solutions

import clr, System
clr.AddReference('RevitAPI')
import Autodesk
from Autodesk.Revit.DB import *

OUT = [i for i in System.Enum.GetValues(BuiltInCategory) if str(i) == "OST_"+IN[0]]
2 Likes
15

This guide is so helpful, thanks for sharing

16

Does OST refers to object style type?

17

Hi,
Do you know what’s the correct Python syntax for the following C# line?
I’m having trouble matching the Id value to the string OST_Rooms.

if ( (BuiltInCategory)element.Category.Id.IntegerValue == BuiltInCategory.OST_Rooms)
{
...
}

Thanks

19

hello you can try this
if element.Category.Id.IntegerValue.ToString() == BuiltInCategory.OST_Rooms.value__.ToString() :
OR better
if element.Category.Id == ElementId(BuiltInCategory.OST_Rooms) :

5 Likes
20

Perfect, thanks!
Can you explain a bit where the .value__ parameter comes from?

21

value__ is a property (getter) to get the constant value (integer) of the enumeration, another way is to get the enumeration type and then convert it

explain value__ from bic
explain value__ from bic1428Ă—820 80 KB

4 Likes