Thanks in advance
i have a Revit File from outside of our organization , it has parameters on elements that are not modifiable. I want to extract them and add them to my shared parameter file. so i am able to see all of the elements parameters, but i cannot see what the type of parameter it is, I can see the values.
are there some nodes or packages I dont have or is there some python scripting i can plug in to get what i want out?
thanks for pointing me in the right direction, Update User Name.dyn (22.3 KB)
this is just slapped together as i am just trying to figure it out.
I ask as this is potentially very problematic within the context of the project, depending on the use case. Many ānon-user-modifiableā parameters are built that way for a reason, and you risk issues in construction/fabrication/BIM processes by making them editable. Even stuff like the parameters you migrate to might not work in the authorās toolset which can also set you way back, so if the original author will receive the modified model I recommend reaching out to the original author first.
Having said that, parameter migration is a good āmid levelā graph authoring exercise. Start by getting the existing parameters you want to transfer, then use the nodes in the āparameterā section of the library to get what you need in order to make a new parameter:
Thanks Jacob & Galvin, So I did some more exploring and I found out how to inquire the information types, valuesā¦ But this is the scary part when I started looking at the Action Items, so I gather I need to be somewhat careful here, when I start pushing information in. So I pretty sure I am not going to be creating āfor all categoriesā.
Currently I am stuck on just what exactly it is that I want to do, as far as what information I want to manipulate. The goal of the this exercise was to add a plot stamp to someone elseās title block. So I created a shared parameter and applied it to the family, So I fiddled with that for a bit and I got it to show up in the properties and I was able to get a Value on it that I wanted. But I canāt seam to get the Parameter to display in the Sheet. So now I am thinking I did not do something correct when I created the Shared Parameter or I should not have used a Shared Parameter. I was able to add a Time Stamp and it shows up. So looking at all of the information I was able to reveal about the Parameters the one i am having an issue with is the only shared parameter.
So I am going to see If I can learn some more about these and why it may not be showing as I am not sure I am on the correct path at the moment.
If any one can help point me in the correct direction it would be helpful, I may need to repost on the Revit Board.
Thank you both for the help, I definitely understand some more dynamo than when I Started,
The first step to automate that is to write down ALL the steps you have to take to do this manually. Be verbose. Skip nothing as this will be the āmapā for what you have to build. You would have to put it a LOT of extra effort to put too much time into this, but itās very easy to not put in enough.
I like to refer to the exercise you may have had in school - write down the instructions to making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The first time you do this most people forget stuff like āgo get a knife to spread the peanut butterā; in your case that might be āfind the family you want to editā, or āadd the shared parameter to the projectā or āadd the shared parameter to the familyā.
Thanks Jacob, I think my biggest issue is my understanding of parameters in Revit is seriously lacking. I have just recently just gotten started using Revit from using AutoCAD for decades, the environment is very robust and DIFFERENT. I love hate the connectivity and intelligence, yet I do like the ability to customize with Dynamo. It seams easier to grasp and see what is happening real time, and with the addition of python you can really dig into the application.
So I am going to spend some time figuring out how Parameters work, there are so many and so many task they do and all the interactions.
I thought it would be simple task to add some user data and a date-time to a Title Block in an existing drawing from someone else. Even though I was able to put that information in to my own title block, I am clearly missing something. So i will be looking for the missing pieces of my task to make sure I have all the steps in place.
Forgive me if Iāve missed something but why would you want to recreate a shared parameter, instead of using the existing ones you already have in the Revit project &/or families? Recreating shared parameters - even if you give them the exact same name - is actually creating a NEW parameter and you will end up with multiple and completely disconnected parameters that 100% will not interact with each other.
You can export shared parameters within Revit to a .txt file of your choice and then reuse them on other elements in your Revit model.
Elton,
Due to my newbiness, I was struggling to get a plot stamp on an existing title block to show up, not realizing that there are many nuances to parameters. I was thinking incorrectly that I needed to extract the parameters and add them to the shared parameter file so I could make them visible, This was not so, I just needed to follow proper protocol for what I was trying to do. So I tried it again this morning and I was able to get it to work. Needless to say there is still much to learn on how Revit handles all of the data, Nothing Nothing like good old dumb AutoCAD. So I will be keeping that in mind as I keep going on learning this software as much as I can.
Thank you for the insights, so just for understanding purposes (as the issue is resolved) .
I was thinking that Revit can only have one shared Parameter File at a time, and if the one that was there when the drawing was created cannot be located, the links to the shared data are broken and now missing? (I donāt know what happens here, ) and you canāt export parameters if there is no file to get them from?
This is a bit of truth which leads to a bit of a misconception for people who are starting out.
Truth: The Revit application instance can only have one shared parameter file associated at any time.
A lesser known truth: Once added to a Revit file, all parameters stick with it. This means that the shared parameter āColorā which you defined as a text parameter and added to File X last week lives in that file forever, and that the shared parameter āColorā which you defined this week in a new shared parameter file as a integer parameter can be added to File Y. When content from both files gets bound into File Z you now have a Color parameter storing text and a Color parameter storing integers. This is confusing, but the chaos of not having a globally uniform standard definitely matches the AutoCAD life you come from.
The reason that multiple shared parameters with the same name has to be allowed is due to the nature of inter connected design. Firm A has a standard for storing āModel Numberā as text, but firm B might have āModel Numberā as a number while firm C has āModel Number as an integer. That would mean that data combined into one model when firms A B and C collaborate would result in data from one of the 3 getting lost. To fix this parameters get a unique ID or GUID which is how the tag for the color parameter knows which of the color parameters to display. If you open the shared parameters file youāll see these in there, but you can also see them via the API. Users who are only in Revit will never see them though, which makes it harder still to know which one of the ācolorā parameters they should be working with.
Make sense? Likely not. The only way to really gain understanding here is to produce these difficult situations in the tool and play with things as they come along.
Now for the truly confusing point. When using the API to create shared parameters, it is often the case that the automation first sets the applicationās shared parameters file to a temporary file, then creates the shared parameter, then adds the shared parameter from the temp file into the document, and finally deletes the temp file. This means that the API can add 100s of the same shared parameter into documents and families, none of which are actually the same but all have the same nameā¦
following on from that and to answer your query on how to export shared parameters that already exist in your project or families (no need to have the OG parameters file), have a read of this - Help
revitforum.org is a good place for revit specific questions.
