Info on the Dynamo Builds and Revit

I have some general questions about the Dynamo Builds.
https://dynamobuilds.com/
The zip files add an extra dimension to general installation that I am struggling to find information for.
There’s some general instructions, but the referenced wiki page only seems to tell you how to get Sandbox running.
Revit 2021 comes with the following Dynamo Extension:
2020-05-29T08:09:56.000Z 218881977 DynamoCoreRuntime2.6.1.zip
However, it does not come automatically on Revit 2020. I assume it is compatible?
And if that’s the case, what about version 2.9.0? It is listed as stable, so how do you use it from the revit environment? What process do you follow after extracting the zip files? Do you have to place them in a specific directory? What .exe do you click on so that Revit will run with that version?

I think I am finding some answers.
This is from the release notes:
https://github.com/DynamoDS/Dynamo/wiki/Release-Notes#290

Release Notes

Michael Kirschner edited this page 10 days ago · 203 revisions

2.9.0

User Enhancements:

  • Dynamo now support ASM 227,226,225 which mean users can run DynamoSandbox on top of Revit 2022 Preview, Revit 2021, Revit 2020

This confirms that you can run 2.9.0 in the Revit 2020/2021 environment.
So now the question is, how do you install it so that Revit can use it?

What is the reason to install the latest version in earlier versions of revit?

I would highlight that the sandbox version contains nothing relating to revit which i have said in the below post.

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Thanks @Brendan_Cassidy for you response.
Maybe I am asking the wrong questions.
Let’s start with the release note posted above.
What does that note really mean? Can you run version 2.9.0 with Revit 2020?

I get the sandbox issue, but I am also noticing that version 2.6.1 doesn’t have a download available in .exe format.

The note means that it’s possible to be integrated. Not that the integration is supported in Revit yet.

So with that said, if you want to use this for production work, don’t. Upgrade to a newer version of Revit or wait.

If you want to use it for development work, you can try this: Update Dynamo Core on Revit 2020

Note that this is completely unsupported, so whatever breaks (and stuff will break) will be something you’ll have to fix on your own. It may result in you having to completely rebuild your Revit installation, and extreme situations could corrupt model data in ways that even my colleagues at Autodesk will be able to fix. Use it at your own risk.

To be safe: Don’t access any real projects from that type of build. The only real benefit would be pre-testing of Python code in a Python 3 environment, but even that can (mostly) be done in a sandbox environment…

From Revit 2020 on all Dynamo updates are issued with the Revit installation. There is no more separate installer.

okay.
That helps make a lot more sense.
So that brings me to my next question.
Is it possible to use version 2.6.1 with Revit 2020?

Read @jacob.small reply about why no exe version etc.

On the ASM comment and versions of revit, this is the libraries dynamo has to access if you want to use geometry within dynamo. Yes Dynamo is open source but the geometry library(LibG or ASM) is not and is a Autodesk technology as part of their other software.

This is why if you use sandbox on a machine that has nothing related to autodesk installed you will not be able to use the geometry side of dynamo.

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So the consensus seems to be this:
You cannot/should not install a newer version of Dynamo than the one that comes with Revit - if you want to use it with Revit.
The DynamoCoreRuntime Builds are only Sandbox versions and are not compatible.
That is some very useful information.

That would also mean that if you are testing Dynamo on a later version of Revit, say 2021, that you cannot upgrade Dynamo on another user’s machine separately. You have to upgrade their Revit and get the new Dynamo build with it.

Is this correct?

Yes.

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Thanks,
It is nice to know what your options are while managing dynamo scripts on different versions of Revit. If some graphs are accruing errors for different users with an older version, you may want to push them towards upgrading so that you don’t have to maintenance older dynamo graphs as well.

Sometimes it is not dynamo that is the issue between revit versions, this is sometimes API, Categories, etc being changed between versions.

If anything like this happens you are best to build your script to work between versions or limit it to that version.

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