This section shows how you can manually reference a specific element and bring that into your Grasshopper definition. Later sections discuss the generic ways of collecting elements of various types. To review how Revit Elements and Instances are organized see the Revit: Elements & Instances overview.

Referencing Elements

There are more elaborate ways to collect various elements in Revit. The most basic way to to directly reference an element.

By Selection

Use the context menu on the Graphical Element parameter to reference geometrical Revit elements in your definition:

By Element Id

You can use the Element parameter and add the element Ids into the Manage Revit Element Collection on the component context menu:

Instances

Instances are individual graphical/geometric elements placed in a Revit model e.g. a single Wall, or a single Door, or any other single element. As a subset of Revit Elements, Instances inherit a series of Parameters from their Category and Type and might have instance parameters as well that only belongs to that single instance.

Query Filters

Filter components will allow Grasshopper to select specific Revit elements thru many different properties. These filters can also be combined together to make sophisticated selections.

Normally Filters are created then sent into one of the many Query Components in Grasshopper.

By Category

Filter all the objects in the selected category.

By Type

Use a combination of Built-In Categories component, connected to Element Type Picker , Type Filter , and Query Elements to query all the instances of a specific type. The example below is collecting all the instance of a specific Window type:

By Parameter Value

You can use the Parameter Filter component in combination with a Filter Rule (e.g. Greater Or Equal Rule or Equals Rule ) to filter elements by their parameter values.

The Parameter Filter is used to filter for values of specific parameter on elements. Filter Rules specify the type of comparison that is to be performed on the parameter values. The list of built-in parameter names and types are quite long in Revit. Using the Built-In Parameters is a great way to select the proper parameter with its additional listed detail in the selector.

Filter Rules

Filter Rules can be used with the Parameter Filter to compare values. This example shows using the value of one element to find all other elements in the model with that same parameter value:

By Level

The Level Filter allows you to filter project elements by Level.

Filter for elements only on a specific level. This component is best used with the Levels Picker .

By API Class

Use the Revit API Class names to select Elements in the project. The input can be the Element Classes selector or a string of the class name.

More Query Filters

Filter Element

This component takes a previous selection of Revit elements and returns a True/False list of whether each element matches the filter or not. For example a set of pre-selected Revit elements in the Graphical Element can be filtered by using the Built-In Categories input to the Filter Elements+ v1.0 to create the filter. The Filter Elements+ v1.0 component will return a list of True/False that can be used to filter the original elements list using Cull Pattern component:

Exclusion Filter

The Exclusion Filter is used to exclude a specific set of elements from query results. The example below, excludes two manually selected walls from the results of the generic wall query that normally returns all the walls in the model:

Exclude Types Filter

Exclude Types+ v1.0 can be used to filter out types from a list. This component implements the API method WhereElementIsNotElementType.

Bounding Box Filter

Bounding Box Filter is used to match Revit elements by their geometric bounding box. The initial geometric object can be either from Rhino or Revit.

Input parameters:

  • Bounding Box (Geometry) - World aligned bounding box to query.
  • Union (Boolean) - Target union of bounding boxes.
  • Strict (Boolean) - True means element should be strictly contained.
  • Tolerance (Number) - Tolerance used to query.
  • Inverted (Boolean) - True if the results of the filter should be inverted.

Intersects Brep Filter

Intersects Brep Filter is used to match Revit elements that geometrically intersect a NURBS Brep.

Intersects Element

Intersects Element Filter is used to match Revit elements that geometrically intersect another Revit element.

Intersects Mesh Filter

Intersects Mesh Filter is used to match Revit elements that geometrically intersect a Rhino mesh.

Design Option Filter

Design Option Filter is used to match Revit elements that belong to a specific design option.

Owner View Filter

Owner View Filter is used to filter elements that belong to a specific view. This component is best used with a selector that returns a view from the model.

Phase Status Filter

Phase Status Filter+ v1.2 is used to match elements associated to the given Phase status. The Phase and the status can be found by right clicking on the inputs.

Selectable In View Filter

Selectable In View Filter is used to match selectable elements into the given View

Combining Query Filters

Logical And Filter

Combine multiple filters together using the Logical And Filter . All elements must pass all filters.

Note that more inputs can be added by zooming in on the component.

Logical Or Filter

Combine multiple filters together using the Logical Or Filter . Elements pass by any one of the input filters.

Storing Filters or Selections

Add Parameter Filter

Add Rule-based Filter creates a parameter-based filter in the Revit model. This will also be used as a parameter filter in Grasshopper.

Add Selection Filter

Add Selection Filter+ v1.0 creates a selection filter in Revit and then use that filter in the Grasshopper definition.

Extracting Instance Geometry

Element Geometry used to extract the geometry of an instance. In the example below, the complete geometry of a Stacked Wall instance has been extracted. The Detail Level picker can be used to select the level of detail for geometry extraction:

Instance Base Curve

For elements that are constructed on a base curve (e.g. Basic Walls) you can use the Element Curve to get and set the base curve.

Instance Bounding Box

You can pass an instance into a Grasshopper Box component to extract the bounding box of the geometry very easily:

Instance Bounding Geometry

Currently, Bounding Geometry component only works with Walls but will be extended to work with other Revit categories in the future.

Sometimes it is necessary to extract the Bounding Geometry of an instance. Bounding Geometry is a geometry that wraps the instance geometry as close as possible and generally follows the instance geometry topology. You can use the Element Bounding Geometry component to extract this geometry. In the example below, the bounding geometry of a Stacked Wall is extracted. Notice that the bounding geometry is as thick as the thickest part of the Stacked Wall:

Changing Instance Type

Use the Element Type component to both query the Type of an instance, and to change it to another type.

Placing Instances of Types

Use the Add Component (Location)+ v1.0 component to place an instance of a Type into the Revit model space.

For types that require a host, you can pass a host element to the Add Component (Location)+ v1.0 component as well.

The component, places the given type on the nearest location along the host element. In the image below, the green sphere is the actual location that is passed to the component. Notice that the door is placed on the closest point on the wall.