Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
86 lines (48 loc) · 4.48 KB

README.md

File metadata and controls

86 lines (48 loc) · 4.48 KB
Raw

Developer Guide

Autodesk Revit runs only on Windows, therefore the following documentation is for Windows only.

Project Overview

The project consists of the following components:

  • Individual .NET projects for each version of Autodesk Revit.
  • A shared project containing the majority of add-in code used by the above projects.

This guide covers how to run and build in Visual Studio.

Prerequisites

  • Visual Studio 2022 - Install it from https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads.
  • .NET Framework 4.8 and .NET 8 - These can be installed using the Visual Studio installer. We recommend having ".NET desktop development" under the "Workloads" tab installed.

Clone the Repository

git clone [email protected]:CesiumGS/cesium-ion-revit-add-in.git

Building

Visual Studio 2022

Open CesiumIonRevitAddin.sln in Visual Studio 2022 and build the solution.

Binaries for each project will be located in the individual project folders in either bin\Debug or bin\Release depending on the build configuration used.

Installing

Open the project folder specific to the version of Revit you want to test with.

Copy the contents of the bin\Debug or bin\Release folder into C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Revit\Addins under the specific version of Revit you're using.

When opening Revit, you may see a Security - Unsigned Add-In dialog appear. This is advising you that Revit cannot verify the publisher and confirming if you want to load the add-in. Click Always Load or Load Once to use the add-in with Revit.

Developing

Test changes without restarting Revit

When developing, we use Revit AddinManager to test changes to builds without needing to restart Revit.

Open Autodesk Revit with Revit AddinManager installed.

Navigate to Add-Ins > Add-in Manager > Add-in Manager (Manual Mode)

With the Load Command tab selected, click the *Load button at the bottom right of the interface.

Select a CesiumIonRevitAddin.dll from your most recent build.

You will see the different commands in the Add-in available in the interface. Select one and click the Run button. This will execute the command, just as you would if you clicked the button on the UI.

If you make a change and produce a new build, the Revit AddinManager will utilise the latest changes to the .dll.

Tips

  • Use Add-In Manager (Manual Mode, Faceless) to re-run the previous command without needing to navigate the UI
  • Click Show/Hide Panel (Debug Trace Events) to display a debug console that prints Debug.Writeline() output.

Testing with local files

Debug builds feature an Export 3D Tiles to Disk option in the ribbon. This can export glTF to disk, which can then be used to produce 3D Tiles without uploading to Cesium ion.

By default, a glTF and tileset.json will be exported through this process. If you have a local tiler, the add-in can be configured to automatically call tilers.exe and convert the glTF into 3D Tiles. The glTF remains on the system after conversion for debugging purposes.

To configure a tiler, add a CESIUM_TILER_PATH environment variable to your system, with a value that represents an absolute path to your tilers.exe.

Debugging

When using Revit AddinManager and a Debug build of the add-in, you can attach the Visual Studio debugger to the revit.exe process for proper debugging workflows.

Creating a Bundle

The following steps can be used to create a bundle that supports multiple versions of Revit. This is also the content that gets uploaded to the Autodesk App Store for new releases.

  1. Switch the Solution Configuration to Release in Visual Studio.
  2. Right click on the Solution and choose Rebuild.
  3. Execute the batch file BundleDebug.bat or BundleRelease.bat depending on which configuration you want to bundle
  4. All builds from individual projects will be copied into the /AddinBundle/CesiumIonRevitAddin.bundle folder
  5. To test the bundle with Revit, execute the batch file CopyBundleToRevit.bat. This will copy the bundle to C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\CesiumIonRevitAddin.bundle, which will make the add-in available to all currently installed and supported versions of Revit. NOTE: This will override any existing bundle in the same location
  6. The final bundle can be uploaded to the Autodesk App Store for new releases