The Autodesk Developer Center includes a good overview over the basic resources available for getting started with the Revit API, or Application Programming Interface.
You will also find this page by searching for the keywords "revit devtv". The DevTV Introduction to Revit Programming is a self-paced video tutorial demonstrating how to get started developing with Revit. This page also points to the public Revit API discussion group and the possibility to join ADN, as well as providing links for downloading the SDK or Software Developers Kit, which is also included in every Revit product installation.
Happily, from Revit 2009 onwards, absolutely everything you need to get started with the Revit API is included with the basic Revit product. If you want to write a professional application, you will additionally need a .NET development environment. However, for exploring the API and creating macros, the built-in VSTA or Visual Studio Tools for Applications editor can be used.
The DevTV recording is based on Revit 2008. The principles remain the same in Revit 2009, except that element access has been tremendously speeded up by the implementation of filtered access.
We made a recording of the Revit 2009 API webcast that we held in May 2008. It is available from the public Developer Center course schedule (look for Revit API and the Download link) as well as from the ADN web page. It covers more or less the same material as the DevTV recording, and additionally discusses the filtering features added in the 2009 API. The recording material also includes the presentation itself and the source code of the individual sample commands or labs.
hi, i'm trying to write my first revit external application, and i'm not sure how to save my .vb file as a .dll in visual studio 08 express. I have modified the revit.ini as well. are there any tutorials that show this process? thx
Posted by: zachary aders | April 06, 2009 at 11:54
Dear Zachary,
I'm sorry to say I do not have Visual Studio Express installed to try this out for you. You just need to compile a normal class library. It should be pretty obvious. You might want to google for something like 'visual studio express 2008 vb tutorial'. That turn up lots of useful looking hits for me.
Cheers, Jeremy.
Posted by: Jeremy Tammik | April 06, 2009 at 14:40
Hi Jeremy,
I am looking to develop my first application to take the symbol from a nested family(lightswitch) within a family(generic adaptive family) into the project space. I don't think that this is possible in revit itself.
Could you tell me is it possible before I continue?
Thank you very much for this blog. It is great!
John
Posted by: John Egan | November 12, 2013 at 09:23
Dear John,
Wow, congratulations on getting started with your first Revit add-in.
Yes, this is possible.
You will probably need to use the EditFamily, LoadFamilySymbol and NewFamilyInstance methods:
http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/family
http://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/about-the-author.html#5.25
Cheers, Jeremy.
Posted by: Jeremy Tammik | November 12, 2013 at 11:19