Python. Getting all Revit built-in subcategories

Developers
, ,
1

Hello,

I would like to get all Built-in categories and subcategories, but doing this script in python I only can get by the Categories.

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

clr.AddReference("RevitServices")
import RevitServices
from RevitServices.Persistence import DocumentManager

doc = DocumentManager.Instance.CurrentDBDocument

#create workset collector
userCategories = doc.Settings.Categories
#extract workset's name and ids
names, ids, builtInNames = [], [], []
for i in userCategories:
	try:
		names.append(i.Name)
	except:
		names.append("failure")
	try:
		ids.append(i.Id.IntegerValue)
	except:
		ids.append("failure")
	try:
		tempID = i.Id.IntegerValue
	except:
		tempID = "failure"
	try:
		builtInNames.append(System.Enum.ToObject(BuiltInCategory, tempID))
	except:
		builtInNames.append("failure")

builtInNameStr = []
for y in builtInNames:
	try:
		builtInNameStr.append(str(y))
	except:
		builtInNameStr.append("stringConversionFailure")

OUT = userCategories, names, ids, builtInNameStr, builtInNames
2

This doesn’t quite make sense to me, as elements can contain geometry in multiple sub-categories… Are you after just the geometry of a given sub-category?

2 Likes
3

I want to know if there are instances of subcategories in the revit documents, so my input would be a list of BUILT-IN subcategories but I get it to work with categories only so I want to expand on this because for exampleI could not get the internal origin, project base point which are under the Category Site. Geometry sounds a joke here

1 Like
4

Hi All
You can use lookup node into BriMohareb_2023 package. To get all geometry in the selection element then filter by the subcategory you need. Or use “get geo by subcategory” node in the same package.

image

5

what do you mean by sub-category? any example?

6

Not sure you can do this at project level. My first thinking would be to programatically edit/check/close all loadable families in background and report any that have the object styles present in them of a given name. You could limit by one category given they dont cross categories so wouldnt be too exhaustive.

7

Hello @GavinCrump I just want to be able to get all elements of built in subcategories by giving their name as input, for example Site - Internal Origin, which built-in category is something like OST_InternalOrigin. I don’t need user created subcategories of loadable families and i don’t need to get any geometry, just any project instance elements with the ID

8

Hi,
maybe like this ?

image
image1177Ă—559 74.2 KB

1 Like
9

It works but I only want to get Built-in subcategories from that allSubcategories output

10

something like this?

image
image792Ă—385 94.9 KB

1 Like
11

Perhaps adding a check to get the parent will help, as any sub category will return a value while non-sub categories will return a null value.

12

hello, I tried it and it does what I need, although I think for this case I would need only builtin categories in case of the subcategories in any families placed on the project are identical than other Builtin category.

I resolved partially modifying this part of the code but I cannot get the builtInNames because some of them thay are not builtin, so I get null result based on the code shared above.

AllCategories = doc.Settings.Categories
AllSubCategories = [subcat for cat in doc.Settings.Categories for subcat in cat.SubCategories]

userCategories=[x for n in (AllCategories,AllSubCategories) for x in n]
13

you can use OfCategoryId() method

image
image1331Ă—614 70 KB 

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

clr.AddReference("RevitServices")
import RevitServices
from RevitServices.Persistence import DocumentManager
doc = DocumentManager.Instance.CurrentDBDocument

def ElementsByCategory(category, document=doc):
	collector = FilteredElementCollector(document).OfCategoryId(category.Id).WhereElementIsNotElementType()
	return list(collector)

all_Elems_byCategories = sum([ElementsByCategory(cat) for cat in doc.Settings.Categories], [])
all_Elems_by_SubCategories = sum([ElementsByCategory(subcat) for cat in doc.Settings.Categories for subcat in cat.SubCategories], [])

OUT = all_Elems_byCategories, all_Elems_by_SubCategories
1 Like
15

thank you very much, all working great, I do not want to get all elements, I want to get the categories first, your first answer was quite right and it works, although I would like to filter only the built-in subcategories. Maybe there is a straight forward code to get built-in subcategories?
image

16

Could you check if the category is a built in before proceeding?

If this returns null you’ve got a non-built in category.

1 Like
17

an other way

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

clr.AddReference("RevitServices")
import RevitServices
from RevitServices.Persistence import DocumentManager
doc = DocumentManager.Instance.CurrentDBDocument

def ElementsByCategory(category, document=doc):
	collector = FilteredElementCollector(document).OfCategoryId(category.Id).WhereElementIsNotElementType()
	return list(collector)

dictBic = {ElementId(bic) : bic for bic in System.Enum.GetValues(BuiltInCategory)}
allsubCategories = [cat for cat in doc.Settings.Categories if cat.Id in dictBic]
all_Elems_by_SubCategories = sum([ElementsByCategory(subcat) for cat in allsubCategories for subcat in cat.SubCategories], [])

OUT = all_Elems_by_SubCategories
5 Likes
18

very smart and short code, thanks, quite a lot to keep learning