Using Dynamo to Access Elements Through a Linked File

A common scenario is that you would like to manipulate elements in Revit via Dynamo, but the elements you want to access or manipulate are in a linked file. To access elements through a link you will need to use external packages archilab-grimshaw and steamnodes. To review installation of an external package in Dynamo review my previous article.

These packages will allow you to use the following nodes:

  • Get Documents (archilab-grimshaw package) To extract Link Instance and Link Document which are fed as inputs to the following node as a way of identifying which specific link you want to access.
  • Element.GetFromLinkedFile (steamnodes package) To return elements from the link when fed the previous two outputs as well as a Revit category.

The final output is Revit elements, which can then be treated as though they are in the host file.

A sample video here walks you through extracting level information from both a host and linked file using Dynamo. The sample file demonstrated in the…

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