3 Boring Revit Tasks to Automate with Dynamo

You spend hundreds of hours doing boring and mundane tasks on Revit.

These tasks can be automated using tools like Revit Macros or the visual programming platform Dynamo.

In this guide, you will learn about the difference between Macros and Dynamo. You will also learn 3 boring tasks you should start automating now using Dynamo.

To write this post, I had the help of Michael Kilkelly from archsmarter.com. He is a leader in the Revit programming space and wrote many useful blog posts on this topic. He also has created his own courses about programming and efficiency in Revit.

The main differences between Dynamo and Macros are described in the image below. In short, Dynamo is designed for beginners. If you have little or no programming experience, I recommend that you learn Dynamo before Macros. This blog post will focus on Dynamo.

Ready to automate? Here are the boring tasks.

1- Add Levels Above Selected Level

What if you want to create 50 levels for a high rise building? A simple dynamo script can help you do that. Since the release of Revit 2018.1, the default Dynamo Player include a script called Add Levels Above Selected Level.

This script asks you to select a level, specify a distance between the new levels and the total number of levels to create. You can input this information in the Dynamo Player.

The first step is to bring up the Dynamo player by clicking this icon in the Manage tab.

Click the properties icon next to the script play button on the Dynamo Player.

In the properties, set a number of new levels to create. Then, adjust the distance between each level. Click on Select and pick the level on a your project.

The next step is to click on the Play button in the Dynamo Player. Boom! You've got 3 new levels. Good job.

Want to have a look at the script? Click on the pen icon on the Dynamo Player. Dynamo works by connecting boxes together. Below, the script takes the user input and create a sequence out of it. Then, the information is transfered to a box that create new levels. Each black line represent a link that the user has to create.

2- Rename Sheets

Did you ever create a list of 100 sheets in alphabetical order, only to find out you got a number wrong? Then you have to spend an hour manually renaming every sheet? Ugh.

That's the exact scenario where a simple dynamo script can do the task in 10 seconds.

Click here to download the script

The first step is to add a suffix to the additional sheets so they are in the correct order in your project browser. Then you run the script and boom! The sheets are reordered automatically.

Load the script in the Dynamo Player, then enter the properties in the menu. The sheet ID# number represent the current sheet numbering in alphabetical order. Be careful, 0 is the first sheet. In the exemple above, you have to enter Sheet ID#3 to select sheet A100. To select Sheet A106, you have to enter Sheet ID#15.

Click the play button. Your sheet numbers are fixed.

3- Rotate Multiple Columns on Their Axis

In Revit, it is possible to rotate a column on it's own axis center. But what if you have to rotate every single column in a project on their own individual axis? The only way to do that would be to select every column individually and rotate them on their own. That's a really long and boring task.

Click here to download the script

With this Dynamo script, the process is done automatically. This script was inspired by a video tutorial produced by the great Revit Kid blogger.

In this example, we have created 6 identical architectural columns. In the Dynamo Player, enter an angle and select all the columns.

Click the play button and your work is complete.