4.7 Working With Parameters
Accessing parameters is one of the fundamental skills you’ll need to get up and running with the Revit API. However, the Revit parameter system itself is somewhat complex.
Working With Parameters
There are a few different ways to set up parameters in Revit and each of them has a corresponding different way of being accessed.
Shared parameters (defined in a .txt file)
Project parameters (defined in a .rvt file)
Family parameters (defined in a .rfa file)
BuiltInParameters (hard-baked into the Revit software itself)
Shared, Project and Family parameters are known as 'custom parameters' as users can define them as they wish; we'll look at BuiltInParameters separately. Each kind of custom parameter has a different way of being accessed within a project.
Global parameters (accessible everywhere throughout the file)
Family Instance and Family Type parameters (accessible via a family type or a family instance)
Project Information parameters (accessed via the project information dialog)
Group parameters (accessed through a group definition or a group instance)
Finally, custom parameters can be made category-specific, so they might only be valid for Revit categories (e.g. a parameter that only applies to sheets).
Identifying Which Is Which
To get started with accessing a parameter using code, we’ll first need to identify which sort of parameter you’re wanting to access. Follow these steps to figure out what you're working with:
Does the parameter appear in the Properties Window when you click on a Revit family instance? This means it is an instance parameter.
If not visible in the Properties Window, does it appear when you click on the family and open the 'Edit Type' window? If so, then it's a type parameter.
Does the parameter appear in the Manage > Global Parameters dialog? If so, it's a global parameter and there are special ways to access this.
If the parameters appears in the Manage > Project Information parameter, there's a special way to access this, too.
Does the parameter appear in the Properties Window when you click on a model or detail group? This means it is a group instance parameter.
If not visible in the Properties Window, does it appear when you click on the group and open the 'Edit Type' window? Then it's a group type parameter.
RevitLookUp
Another great way to understand which kind of parameter you're dealing with is to use the free RevitLookUp addin for Revit. This lets you read (almost) every visible and invisible value for any Revit element.
To make installing RevitLookUp easier, Harry Mattison (of the BoostYourBIM blog) has put together Windows installers, which can be found here.
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