AEC | Product Development - BimorphNodes for Dynamo

We engineered a new range of clash detection and intersection nodes in C# around the Revit API's dedicated intersection methods, coupled with optimization algorithms of our own that filter surrounding elements before each clash test to minimize redundant checks. Because Revit elements are input directly - bypassing the costly per-element solid extraction Dynamo's native nodes depend on - these nodes reduce processing times by up to 99.5% compared to the same workflows built on Dynamo's native geometry nodes. In the published benchmark, the time to clash 2,300 walls against 2,160 ducts - 4,968,000 possible clash tests - dropped from over half an hour using the native workflow to 8.1 seconds. Porting the entire package to C# consolidated development in a single strongly typed environment to accelerate the release cycle and improve node reliability.

Solving the Revit API's Linked-Element Limitation

The Revit API restricts linked elements to their external file's origin-to-origin position, regardless of any transformation applied to the link in the host document - so wherever a link has been transformed for coordination, typically via shared coordinates or manual alignment, API-driven clash results fail unexpectedly. We purpose-built the LinkElement class to solve this limitation, performing operations such as geometry extraction at the element's host location. The obvious alternative - resolving each linked element's Link Instance through its Document property - caused execution times to increase by more than 250% and could not reliably identify the correct Link Instance when the same file is linked into the host document more than once, so we made LinkElements the exclusive input type for linked elements. The payoff: clash tests spanning an unlimited number of Link Instances, and LinkElement-vs-LinkElement clash detection even across links with different origin-to-origin positions - a problem with no direct solution in the Revit API. A logic tree executes only the subroutines each intersection test actually needs, and validation sampling checks user input at intervals rather than exhaustively, keeping the performance cost of validation to a minimum.

Beyond performance, BimorphNodes is the first Dynamo package able to extract and convert text and curves directly from CAD links or imports using layer names as filters. This non-destructive approach preserves the integrity of source documents while enabling automated CAD-to-BIM conversion workflows: curves convert to Dynamo geometry, or to native Revit detail, model, and symbolic curves with line styles mapped in the process, and the CADTextData nodes parse text recursively from blocks nested to any depth - computing every scale, mirror, and rotation transform along the way - without exploding, and without the 10,000-element limit that comes with it. Sheet automation rounds out the package: duplication retains sheet names, numbers, viewports, and title blocks, and rebuilds parent-dependent view structures so duplicated sheet sets preserve the project's organization.

Engineered to Last

A decade of Revit releases is unforgiving to add-ins, so in v4.0 we rebuilt the entire codebase, adding 24 new nodes while making future updates faster to ship. We also redesigned the package's API surface: intersection functions now return dedicated result objects - ElementIntersectionResult, SolidIntersectionResult, and their siblings - which package each clash result into a queryable object and eliminate the index-matching the old list outputs demanded.