Using Dynamo to display door swing information

By Dennis Collin

Whilst training I am often asked the question whether Revit will show door swing or handing information in a schedule and/or in a drawing. The answer is yes, providing you have some knowledge of Dynamo (or know someone that does!). Now this really is not as difficult as it sounds, because there is an ample supply of tools, sample scripts and resources that can be accessed. A good place to start is here: https://dynamobim.org/

When creating door schedules, Revit can determine which room a door opens into or from.  Dynamo can access that information and with a few extra packages added to the default Dynamo set of nodes, this task can be accomplished with a custom node, some Python code buried within, determining the value of a user specified door set parameter. I will stress that you do not need to understand the Python programming language to use it. The Python code is situated deep inside the relevant nodes, all that is needed to wire the relevant nodes together and connect them to your ‘Door_Set’ parameter.

The script in the image below can be played from the Dynamo editor environment or via Dynamo Player. I have indicated the customised nodes which are available after the Clockwork and Archlabs packages have been installed.

For more details on installing additional Dynamo packages read my post here:

https://www.cadlinecommunity.co.uk/hc/en-us/articles/360005372377-Extending-Dynamo-s-functionality

Once the script has been applied, then the door schedule will update as shown. If the parameter has been setup as a Shared Parameter, then it can show in a tag family as well.

A few points to bear in mind regarding this process; the door family will need to be modelled and drawn correctly to reflect the correct handing. Also, it is worth ensuring that the room location point is enabled in the relevant families. Dynamo utilises this to determine the door set parameter.