manipulate-elements

Manipulate Revit Elements

Perform the following action on Revit elements:

"$ARGUMENTS"

Before scripting

Important: always warn the user — this type of script modifies the model. Recommend:

1. Save a local backup first (Save As → make a copy)
2. Test on a small set of elements before running on the whole model
3. Ctrl+Z works in Revit after Dynamo runs — but only if the transaction closed cleanly

Clarify:

• Which elements? Collect by category, or receive from an upstream Dynamo node?
• What transformation? Move (vector), rotate (axis + angle), change type (new type ID), etc.
• How are elements passed in? As Dynamo-wrapped objects (from nodes) or native Revit elements?

Element modification template

import clr
clr.AddReference('RevitServices')
from RevitServices.Persistence import DocumentManager
from RevitServices.Transactions import TransactionManager
clr.AddReference('RevitAPI')
from Autodesk.Revit.DB import *

# Unwrap Dynamo-wrapped elements to native Revit elements
clr.AddReference('RevitNodes')
import Revit
clr.ImportExtensions(Revit.Elements)

doc = DocumentManager.Instance.CurrentDBDocument

# IN[0] = list of elements from upstream Dynamo node
elements = IN[0] if isinstance(IN[0], list) else [IN[0]]

modified = []
errors   = []

TransactionManager.Instance.EnsureInTransaction(doc)
try:
    for el in elements:
        # Unwrap if element came from a Dynamo node
        revit_el = el.InternalElement if hasattr(el, 'InternalElement') else el

        # ── Your modification here ───────────────────────────────────────────
        # Example A: Move element 1m in the X direction
        # translation = XYZ(3.28084, 0, 0)  # 1 metre in X (Revit uses feet)
        # ElementTransformUtils.MoveElement(doc, revit_el.Id, translation)

        # Example B: Change element type
        # new_type_id = ElementId(123456)  # get from a Type Collector node
        # revit_el.ChangeTypeId(new_type_id)

        # Example C: Rotate 90° around element's Z axis
        # from Autodesk.Revit.DB import Line
        # origin = revit_el.Location.Point
        # axis   = Line.CreateBound(origin, origin + XYZ.BasisZ)
        # import math
        # ElementTransformUtils.RotateElement(doc, revit_el.Id, axis, math.pi / 2)

        modified.append(revit_el.Id.IntegerValue)

    TransactionManager.Instance.TransactionTaskDone()

except Exception as e:
    TransactionManager.Instance.ForceCloseTransaction()
    errors.append(str(e))

OUT = [modified, errors]