DYNAMO: Programming for REVIT

DYNAMO: Programming for REVIT

The IDP team organizes weekly different days of internal training, led and presented by the employees themselves, who aim to educate the team the importance of collaborating and sharing information and expanding our knowledge in different subjects ranging from the most technical and focused on knowledge of software and methodologies to more cross-cutting move materials management, organization and personnel development.

Today, we have many tools that help us become more efficient and productive in our work, but we tend to fall into repetitive and unproductive processes due to ignorance of them. Either its existence or its use.

In one of the first sessions held DYNAMO we talked about one of the most useful for the implementation of projects and information management tools in the BIM environment.

Why we use DYNAMO in IDP?

Among other advantages, the use of DYNAMO allows us to:

  • Automating repetitive processes
  • Revit improve performance and project
  • Ease and accuracy in managing models and generating geometries.
  • Positive participation in the workflow
  • Eliminating errors due to the human factor, both in modeling and data entry

However, there are times when we do not recommend their use:

  • It works for linear processes, which is not suitable for multitasking. For these types of routines programmed from Revit API
  • You require trained personnel, since its first use is not easy

To facilitate collaborative use of routines performed DYNAMO each individually follow a procedure for creating and saving these routines on the server. The interesting thing is that we can all participate in the improvement and productivity of projects sharing this development, although it carries a previous effort subsequently saves time on the project for which it was created the routine as well as in future projects in which the process is repeated.

DYNAMO see the interface:

It is divided into five regions:

  1. The menu bar (1) as in any program, includes tools, display options, configuration help … and the most interesting, the packages or packages containing an online library download packages already created nodes previously by other users, or due to program updates.
  2. The toolbar (2) Quick Access: New file, save, undo …
  3. The library node (3) is probably the most interesting of the program region. Since, packages nodes are what makes the program to create, modify or consult within our model.
  4. The work space (4), it is the physical location where nodes are placed, which are to be bonded together for the actions. In addition, in the background, in the same workspace, it displays geometrically actions that are taking place to make use of the nodes.
  5. And finally, the execution bar (5), whose function is to decide whether the action nodes will be held simultaneously automatically use or manually. Due to the possible complication of routine use Dynamo manually recommended, and only perform the routine when completed, or when required to test their use.

Although the theoretical part of the program is much more extensive than recognize its interface, as an example of use and application in project design briefly see how to create basic routines, in this case creating a wall.

The procedure to successfully complete a routine is to identify the node with the action you want to perform, in this case, creating a wall by a line and levels, which is the last node.

To have an Output, which would be the wall (Wall), a number of points that the node itself indicates in this case are required: c (curve); startLevel; endLevel; walltype. Therefore, we should find nodes in Dynamo with which these inputs are achieved. If the node used to achieve these inputs requires more inputs to create the element, the operation remains the same, find nodes that facilitate inputs. It is the case of input c, curve., which requires a start point and an end point, and therefore a node to make a point, and in turn, the point needs two coordinates, so you have to use another node , number, to get it. Reading routine would be from right to left, to understand the workings of it.

During the day pose many new application possibilities with different cases that can generate interesting new routines, which indicates that DYNAMO is a very handy tool that solves common situations during project implementation.