Add Reference Points Read From CSV File

For your convenience and my own future reference, here is a summary of a recent conversation ↗ with Dermott Mcmeel and a pointer to his video of the resulting add-in in action ↗.

Question: I’m using this wicked tutorial ↗ as a basis for a plug-in that will read info out of a CSV file. However, it’s a few years old and from what I gather some of the definitions have been redefined our outdated. I’ve done the ‘First Revit API plug-in tutorial’ and am stoked about my success. But I’m new to VB and C#, so I was wondering if anyone has updated info? Or could point out changes and where updated info might be found?

Answer: I converted the VB code to read a CSV file and generate Revit reference points ↗ to C# for you:

  string filepath = "insert file path here";
 
  if( File.Exists( filepath ) )
  {
    StreamReader s = new StreamReader( 
      filepath );
 
    while( -1 != s.Peek() )
    {
      string line = s.ReadLine();
 
      string[] data = line.Split( 
        new char[] { ',' } );
 
      XYZ p = app.Create.NewXYZ( 
        double.Parse( data[0] ), 
        double.Parse( data[1] ), 
        double.Parse( data[2] ) );
 
      ReferencePoint rp = doc.FamilyCreate
        .NewReferencePoint( p );
    }
  }

Response: The code is very much appreciated. I am however having some trouble pasting it into the right context…

I’ve tried some remedial trouble shooting, but as I fix one error it creates another one.

I pasted the code straight into a blank C# class library template (as per Revit API tutorial 1) but get lots of errors – I assume I’m making a stupid mistake in the syntax but can’t figure it out. Any help appreciated… and again thanks for the helping hand.

Answer: Please work through one of the getting started tutorials first, before even thinking about CSV:

• Getting started with the Revit API
• Preparing for a hands on Revit API training

Then you will have a reliable working skeleton in place and almost certainly gotten a better hang of it.

Response: Thanks for all your help!

See the results:

Revit API for CSV reading ↗ from Dermott Mcmeel ↗ on Vimeo ↗.

Answer: For the sake of completeness, here is ReadCsvPoints.zip containing Jeremy’s C# version (and complete Visual Studio solution with add-in manifest) of an add-in to read point data from a CSV file and generate Revit reference points from it, and a snapshot of Dermott’s WIP C# code (work in progress).

Many thanks to Dermott for the interesting topic, his research, and sharing the code!