Visual Studio does not provide a class library project template that we can use for our WOF-ed plugins. So we need to create it. We will be starting to create a project template from a WPF application.<\/p>\n
1.) From the File<\/b> menu, create a new project. On the left panel, select either C#<\/i> or Visual Basic<\/i>, and from the center panel, select WPF Application<\/b> (see figure below). <\/p>\n
Name your project appropriately, (in my case, it’s Revit API with WPF<\/i>), and then click the OK<\/b> button.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-1\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-1.png\")
<\/p>\n
Initially, the new project is created like the figure below. There are files created here that we really do not need, so we have to remove them.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-2\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-2.png\")
<\/p>\n
2.) Delete the files MainWindow.xaml<\/i>, App.xaml<\/i> and App.config<\/i>. All subsequent files will be deleted automatically.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-3\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-3.png\")
<\/p>\n
3.) Let us add the reference files we need for creating new Revit API plugins.<\/p>\n
From the Solution Explorer window, right-click on References<\/i>, and click Add Reference…<\/b><\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-4\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-4.png\")
<\/p>\n
4.) The Reference Manager window as shown below will open. Click on the Browse…<\/b> button.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-5\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-5.png\")
<\/p>\n
5.) Browse to your Revit application location, and select the files RevitAPI.dll<\/i> and RevitAPIUI.dll<\/i>. Click on the Add<\/b> button when done. Then on the Reference Manager window, click OK<\/b>.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-6\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-6.png\")
<\/p>\n
Try to expand the References<\/i> item from the Solution Explorer window, and we can confirm that the files were added.<\/p>\n
Everytime we create a new Revit plugin project, these files will be included in our project. But most of the time, these files post a warning saying that their location is not found.<\/p>\n
To enable the location of these files to be always found, let us proceed to the next step.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-7\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-7.png\")
<\/p>\n
6.) In the Solution Explorer window, right-click on the project name, and select Properties…<\/b> and in the properties window, select the Reference Paths<\/b> item.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-9\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-9.png\")
<\/p>\n
7.) Click the ellipsis button on the upper right hand of the window, and browse for the folder where the reference files we just added are located.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-10\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-10.png\")
<\/p>\n
Click the Add Folder<\/b> button. When we add the folder, Visual Studio will recognize the location of the reference files, and the warning icon will not show up anymore.<\/p>\n
In addition to this, whenever we update these reference files to newer versions, we will just re-locate the folder (if in case we update the files to a version say Revit 2018, we can just change the text 2017<\/i> to 2018<\/i> and click the Update<\/b> button).<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-11\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-11.png\")
<\/p>\n
Let us set the output type of this project template. Since we are creating a project template which is a class library, let us set it to a class library.<\/p>\n
8.) In the same window, switch to the Application<\/b> tab. Set the Output Type to Class Library<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Close the window if you wish.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-12\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-12.png\")
<\/p>\n
9.) Compile the project. The compile must be successful.<\/p>\n
Next, we need to change one property from the project, but we will not do this inside Visual Studio.<\/p>\n
10.) Open Windows Explorer and locate the project. Right-click on the project file (the one with a .csproj extension), and open the file with Notepad or any text editor you have (mine is with Notepad++).<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-13\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-13.png\")
<\/p>\n
11.) From the text editor, look for the line with a <AssemblyName> entry. The entry must be the same as the name of our project.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-14\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-14.png\")
<\/p>\n
Change the name with $safeprojectname$<\/i>.<\/p>\n
We do this so that whenever we create a new project, the assembly name will always be the name of our project. If we do not, the assembly name will always be the name of the project template.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-15\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-15.png\")
<\/p>\n
12.) Save the file in your text editor.<\/p>\n
When we do that, Visual Studio will prompt like the window show below.<\/p>\n
Click on Reload<\/b> to reload and update the project file.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-16\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-16.png\")
<\/p>\n
Now the necessary basic settings are done, we can already export the project to a template.<\/p>\n
13.) From the File<\/b> menu, select Export Template…<\/b><\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-17\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-17.png\")
<\/p>\n
14.) Make sure the template type is set to Project Template<\/i>. Then click the Next><\/b> button.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-18\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-18.png\")
<\/p>\n
15.) In the Select Template Options<\/i> window, give an appropriate template name and template description.<\/p>\n
Optionally, you can attach icon and preview images for the template.<\/p>\n
Leave all other options as is.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-19\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-19.png\")
<\/p>\n
16.) Click on the Finish<\/b> button to create the project template.<\/p>\n
The File Explorer will open and show us fhe location of the created template. Close this window when done.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-20\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-20.png\")
<\/p>\n
17.) Try to create a project using the project we just created.<\/p>\n
Create a new project from the File<\/b> menu, and from the template panel, check if the project template is included. If included, select the template and press the OK<\/b> button.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-21\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-21.png\")
<\/p>\n
18.) Look at the Solution Explorer window and check the reference files are added and without warnings.<\/p>\n
Also, try to open the Properties<\/i> window of the project, and from the Applications<\/i> tab, check if the assembly name is the name of our project name.<\/p>\n
When things gone well, we need to check one more thing.<\/p>\n
Let us try to add a WPF window.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-22\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-22.png\")
<\/p>\n
19.) Right-click on the project name in the Solution Explorer, and then from the Add<\/i> item, select Window…<\/b><\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-23\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-23.png\")
<\/p>\n
20.) The template panel must show templates with the (WPF)<\/i> text.<\/p>\n
Select Window (WPF)<\/b>, give it a name, and press the Add<\/b> button.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-24\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-24.png\")
<\/p>\n
Now our template is also capable of creating WPF windows.<\/p>\n
![\"revitapiwpf1-25\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-25.png\")
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Creating an Item Template<\/strong><\/p>\n Although this has nothing to do with WPF, we take advantage of this procedure because we also need to create new plugin classes compliant with our coding workflow.<\/p>\n 1.) Reopen the project template project we created earlier.<\/p>\n 2.) Right-click on the project name from the Solution Explorer. From the Add<\/i> item, select New Item…<\/b><\/p>\n 3.) From the middle panel, select Class<\/b>. Give the new class an appropriate file name, and click on the Add<\/b> button.<\/p>\n 3.) Copy the code on the figure below.<\/p>\n To reduce the typing effort, we do the following sub-steps.<\/p>\n Since the class derives from IExternalCommand interface class, input IExternalCommand<\/i> after the class name separated by a comma. Press Ctrl+.<\/b> (period) and select Autodesk.Revit.UI<\/b> to add the reference class.<\/p>\n Right-click over the IExternalCommand base class, and from the context menu, implement the IExternalCommand<\/i> interface.<\/p>\n This procedure will add the Execute function inside the class.<\/p>\n In the Execute function, add the other set of code as shown below. Also, add the other lines with the using<\/i> statement and the Transaction<\/i> attribute above the class declaration.<\/p>\n The code inside the Execute function may differ to your liking.<\/p>\n 4.) Let us change the class name to comply with the template settings. Select the class name and replace it with $safeitemname$<\/i> as shown below.<\/p>\n 5.) Save the file. Then from the File<\/b> menu, select Export Template…<\/b><\/p>\n 6.) From the window, select Item Template<\/b>, then click Next ><\/b>.<\/p>\n 7.) In the Select Item to Export<\/i> window, check on the file we just created. In this case, the Revit API<\/i> Executable.cs<\/i> file.<\/p>\n Click Next > <\/b>afterwards.<\/p>\n 8.) In the next window, we can add reference files necessary for our item template. Since we do not need any, just click Next ><\/b>.<\/p>\n 9.) In the next window, enter the appropriate template name, description and images if needed.<\/p>\n Click the Finish<\/b> button when done.<\/p>\n Let us see if the item template will appear in the item templates list.<\/p>\n Before we proceed, I recommend to re-open Visual Studio in order for the new item template to be loaded properly.<\/p>\n 10.) Open the test project we created earlier. Try to add a new item.<\/p>\n Once the window is opened, we can see that our item template is already loaded in Visual Studio.<\/p>\n Select the template, give an appropriate file name, and click Add<\/b>.<\/p>\n The new class file will contain all the code we entered during the creation. Also, we can see that the class name is the name of the file.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So there you have it.<\/p>\n If you have any questions, feedback or comments regarding this post, please make sure to post them in the comment section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In this three-part series, I will be tackling about proper basic integration of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) in your Revit API plug-ins using C# .NET. For the first part, we will discuss creating project and item templates that we will use to create new projects with WPF functionality. For the item template, however, the objective […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273,"href":"https:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75\/revisions\/273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"revitapiwpf1-26\"](\"http:\/\/mathcadbimthingys.technikstudio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/revitapiwpf1-26.png\")
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