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This page provides information about V-Ray for Revit Public APIs.

Overview

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V-Ray for Revit Public API is a gRPC server application that allows clients to programmatically read and configure V-Ray for Revit's properties and export V-Ray Scenes. 

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Service Definition (public_api.proto)

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V-Ray for Revit Public API provides the 

 file, which represents the service definition and protocol format. Alongside the .proto file, two auto-generated C# files are provided - 

 and 

. These two files contain the C# classes for all requests, responses, messages, and enums. The public_api.proto can be used to generate a binding in a language different from C# and develop a client in any of the supported languages. 

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GetProjectName

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 is a unary RPC that sends a single 

 to the server and gets a single 

 back. It is used to obtain the name of the currently active project in Revit.

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• GetProjectNameRequest has no properties.

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GetProjectNameResponse

• success_status: A boolean indicating whether the RPC succeeded.
• message: A string containing an error message in case the RPC failed for some reason.
• project_name: The name of the project that is currently active in Revit.

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GetProjectChangedNotificationStream

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 is a server streaming RPCs where the client sends a 

 to the server and gets a stream to read a sequence of 

 messages back. It is used to receive a notification each time the active project in Revit changes.

GetProjectChangedNotificationStreamRequest

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• GetProjectChangedNotificationStreamRequest has no properties.

ProjectChangedNotification

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• project_name: A string containing the name of the project that is currently active in Revit.

GetViews

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 is a unary RPC that sends a single 

 to the server and gets a single 

 back. It is used to obtain the names and unique ids of all 3D Views in the project. This information is later used when selecting a view for export.

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• GetViewsRequest has no properties.

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GetViewsResponse

• success_status: A boolean indicating whether the RPC succeeded.
• message: A string containing an error message in case the RPC failed for some reason.

• view_map: A 

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  ViewMap

   containing information about all 3D Views in the active project.

ViewMap

• values: A map containing all views, where the key is the unique id of the 

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  View

  , and the value is the 

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  View

   itself.

View

• unique_id: A string in GUID format that represents the unique id of the view.
• name: A string containing the name of the view, i.e. what the user sees in Revit.
• batch_render: A boolean specifying whether this view will be rendered as part of Batch Render.

SelectView

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is a unary RPC that sends a single 

 to the server and gets a single 

 back. It is used to select a view before exporting a V-Ray Scene.

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• unique_id: A string in GUID format that represents the unique id of the view. This is the same string that is obtained with the 

 RPC. 

SelectViewResponse

• success_status: A boolean indicating whether the RPC succeeded.
• message: A string containing an error message in case the RPC failed for some reason.
  

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SetBatchRenderView

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is a unary RPC that sends a single single

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 to the server and gets a single single

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 backback. It is used to get all V-Ray properties for the active project.GetPropertiesRequestspecify whether the view will be rendered in a Batch Render.

SetBatchRenderViewRequest

• GetPropertiesRequest has no properties.

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GetPropertiesResponse

• successunique_status: A boolean indicating whether the RPC succeeded.
• message: A string containing an error message in case the RPC failed for some reason.

• property_map: A 

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  PropertyMap

   containing all properties of the active project.

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• id: A string in GUID format that represents the unique id of the view. This is the same string that is obtained with the GetViews RPC.
• batch_render: A boolean value specifying whether the view will be rendered in a Batch Render.

SetBatchRenderViewResponse

• valuessuccess_status: A map containing all properties, where the key is the unique name of the Property, and the value is the Property itself.

Property

• unique_name: A string that contains the unique name of the property.
• readable_name: A string that contains the human-friendly readable name of the property.
• type: A string containing the type of the property, i.e. bool, int, string, etc.
• category: A PropertyCategory containing the category of the property, i.e. Camera, Environment, etc.
• value: A PropertyValue containing the value of the property.

PropertyCategory

• boolean indicating whether the RPC succeeded.
• message: A string containing an error message in case the RPC failed for some reason.

GetProperties

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is a unary RPC that sends a single 

 to the server and gets a single 

 back. It is used to get all V-Ray properties for the active project.

GetPropertiesRequest

• GetPropertiesRequest has no properties.

GetPropertiesResponse

• PropertyCategory is enumeration that contains all possible property categories. Currently, the V-Ray for Revit Public API returns only properties from Camera, Channel, Environment, and Local categories.

PropertyValue

• success_status: A boolean indicating whether the RPC succeeded.
• message: A string containing an error message in case the RPC failed for some reason.

• property_map: A 

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  PropertyMap

   containing all properties of the active project.

PropertyMap

• value: Contains oneof the possible values for a property depending on its type.

GetProperty

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• values: A map containing all properties, where the key is the unique name of the Property, and the value is the Property itself.

Property

• unique_name: A string that contains the unique name of the property.
• readable_name: A string that contains the human-friendly readable name of the property.
• type: A string containing the type of the property, i.e. bool, int, string, etc.
• category: A PropertyCategory containing the category of the property, i.e. Camera, Environment, etc.
• value: A PropertyValue containing the value of the property.

PropertyCategory

• PropertyCategory is enumeration that contains all possible property categories. Currently, the V-Ray for Revit Public API returns only properties from Camera, Channel, Environment, and Local categories.

PropertyValue

• value: Contains oneof the possible values for a property depending on its type.

GetProperty

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 is a unary RPC that sends a single 

 to the server and gets a single 

 back. It is used to get a single V-Ray property from the active project.

GetPropertyRequest

• unique_name: A string that contains the unique name of the property.

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GetPropertyResponse

• success_status: A boolean indicating whether the RPC succeeded.
• message: A string containing an error message in case the RPC failed for some reason.
• property: A Property instance representing the requested property.

SetProperty

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 is a unary RPC that sends a single 

 to the server and gets a single 

 back. It is used to set a single V-Ray property in the active project.

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• unique_name: A string that contains the unique name of the property.
• value: A PropertyValue containing the value to be set to the property.

SetPropertyResponse

• success_status: A boolean indicating whether the RPC succeeded.
• message: A string containing an error message in case the RPC failed for some reason.

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ExportVRScene

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 is a unary RPC that sends a single 

 to the server and gets a single 

 back. It is used to export a V-Ray Scene of the currently selected 3D View.

ExportVRSceneRequest

• export_file_path: A string containing the absolute path where the V-Ray Scene should be exported.
• export_compressed: A boolean indicating whehter to compress plugin property values of lists. Requires export_hex_format to be true.
• export_hex_format: A boolean indicating whether to use hex format for arrays and transforms in the V-Ray Scene.
• export_as_archive: A boolean indicating whether to export the V-Ray Scene as a 7-Zip archive along with all referenced assets, i.e. textures, HDRs, images, etc.

ExportVRSceneResponse

• success_status: A boolean indicating whether the RPC succeeded.
• message: If the RPC succeeded, this message would contain the actual path of the exported scene. If the RPC failed, this would be a string containing an error message.

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GetVRayMaterials

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 is a unary RPC that sends a single 

 to the server and gets a single 

 back. It is used to obtain the names of all V-Ray materials in the project. This information is later used when saving a V-Ray material to a .vrmat file.

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• GetVRayMaterialsRequest has no properties.

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GetVRayMaterialsResponse

• success_status: A boolean indicating whether the RPC succeeded.
• message: A string containing an error message in case the RPC failed for some reason.
• material_names: A repeated string field containing the names of all V-Ray materials in the project.

SaveVRayMaterialToFile

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 is a unary RPC that sends a single 

 to the server and gets a single 

 back. It is used to save a V-Ray material along with all of its assets to the file system. When the material is saved, a folder named 

 appears next to the .vrmat file. This folder contains all assets, i.e. textures, used by the material. Always keep the 

 folder and the .vrmat file in the same folder.

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• material_name: A string containing the name of the V-Ray material that should be saved.
• file_path: A string containing the absolute path where the V-Ray Material should be saved.

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SaveVRayMaterialToFileResponse

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• success_status: A boolean indicating whether the RPC succeeded.
• message: If the RPC failed, this would be a string containing an error message.

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Enums and custom types

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LightingAnalysisQuantity

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• Linear: The colors are mapped in linear scale.
• Logarithmic: The colors are mapped in logarithmic scale.

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LightingAnalysisDisplay

• FalseColors: Fills the frame with a gradient ranging from blue (low values) to red (high values). For the out of range values it uses, respectively, black and white.
• GridOverlay: Displays the values at distinct grid points over the frame. They use the same grading colors.

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DenoiserMode

• ReplaceRGB: Generates all render elements required for denoising, but does not compute a denoised version of the image, neither is the VRayDenoiser render element present.
• DoNotCalculate: The VRayDenoiser channel is not present separately in the VFB. The effectsResult channel is generated with the denoised image.
• GenerateChannel: The VRayDenoiser and effectsResult channels are generated.

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DenoiserEngine

• Default: Default V-Ray Denoiser
• NVIDIA: NVidia Al Denoiser

DenoiserRadiusType

• CustomType: Allows the strength and radius parameters to be set to custom values.
• Mild: Applies a subtler level of denoising than the Default preset.
• Normal: Applies default denoising.
• Strong: Applies a stronger level of denoising than the Default preset.

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VRayRenderEngine

• CPU: CPU
• GPU: CUDA(GPU)
• RTX: RTX(GPU)

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VRayResolutionRatio

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• DPI75: 75 dpi
• DPI96: 96 dpi
• DPI150: 150 dpi
• DPI300: 300 dpi
• DPI600: 600 dpi

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VRayResolutionPrinterUnit

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• Inches: Inches
• Millimeters: Millimeters

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EnvironmentType

• Sun: V-Ray Sun
• Dome: V-Ray Dome Light
• None: No V-Ray Lights

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ScreenPlacementType

• ScreenPlacement: Screen Placement
• SphericalPlacement: SphericalPlacement

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BackgroundType

• NoBackground: No Background
• CustomBackground: Custom Background
• RevitBackground: Revit Background

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VRaySceneQuality

• Draft: Draft Quality
• Low: Low Quality
• Medium: Medium Quality
• High: High Quality
• VeryHigh: VeryHigh Quality

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VRayImageSamplerType

• UnusedVRayImageSamplerType: NEVER USE THIS VALUE. IT WAS INTRODUCED DUE TO PROTO SYNTAX LIMITATIONS.
• Buckets: This sampler takes a variable number of samples per pixel based on the difference in intensity between the pixel and its neighbors.
• Progressive: This is the default image sampler set in V-Ray for Revit. It renders the entire image progressively in passes.

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VRayGIEngine

• IrradianceMap: Indirect Illumination is computed for a few points in a scene. The remaining points use interpolated values. It is built adaptively but is view-dependent.
• BruteForce: The simplest approach where indirect illumination is computed individually for each shaded surface point.
• LightCache: Traces multiple paths from the camera. It is view-dependent, but handles details and corners better.

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VRayLightEvaluation

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• Standard: A traditional pinhole camera.
• Orthogonal: An orthogonal camera.
• SphericalPanorama: Spherical camera with independent horizontal and vertical FOV selection that is useful for generating latlong images for spherical VR use.
• Cube: A variant of the Box camera with the cube sides arranged in a single row. Unlike the Box camera output, Cube6x1 does not produce an empty space in the output image and is useful for generating cubic VR output.

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VRayCameraStereoLayout

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• FixedDistance: Fixes the camera focus to the Focus Distance value.
• FixedPoint: The focus distance is automatically calculated before the rendering starts, and equals the distance between the camera position and the 3D point selected using the Pick Focus Point Command from the toolbar menu. If no point has been selected, the camera target is used as a default point instead.

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LightMixGroupBy

• r: Value between 0.0 and 1.0 for the red color.
• g: Value between 0.0 and 1.0 for the green color.
• b: Value between 0.0 and 1.0 for the blue color.
• alpha: Value between 0.0 and 1.0 for the alpha.

Color

• r: Value between 0.0 and 1.0 for the red color.
• g: Value between 0.0 and 1.0 for the green color.
• b: Value between 0.0 and 1.0 for the blue color.

Code Samples (C#)

Obtaining the Server Port

In order to connect to the Public API Server, the client needs to know which port the server is running on. When the the V-Ray for Revit Public API Server starts, it chooses a random free port to start on and writes this information in the 

Here is how the 

And here is how you can obtain the port, depending on whether your code is executing from within a Revit Addin or from standalone application:

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private const int RevitVersion = 2020;
private static readonly string ConfigJsonPath = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.ApplicationData),

$"Chaos Group\\V-Ray for Revit {RevitVersion}", "config.json");

private static int GetServerPort()

{

var runningInRevitAddon = true;

using (var reader = new StreamReader(ConfigJsonPath))
{

var json = JObject.Parse(reader.ReadToEnd());

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JObject apiServer;
if (runningInRevitAddon)
{

apiServer = apiServers.OfType<JObject>().SingleOrDefault(jo => (int)jo["PID"] == Process.GetCurrentProcess().Id);

}
else
{

apiServer = apiServers.OfType<JObject>().FirstOrDefault();

}

if (apiServer != null)
{

return (int)apiServer["port"];

}

}

}

return -1;

}

• FamilyType: All instances of the same family type are put in a separate Light Select.
• IndividualLights: Each light goes to a separate Light Select.
• LightGroups: Separate Light Select for each group of lights.

VRaySkyModel

• Preetham: V-Ray Sky procedural texture is generated based on the Preetham et al. method. (UI label: Preetham et al.)
• CIEClear: V-Ray Sky procedural texture is generated based on the CIE method for clear sky. (UI label: CIE Clear)
• CIEOvercast: V-Ray Sky procedural texture is generated based on the CIE method for cloudy sky. (UI label: CIE Overcast)
• Hosek: V-Ray Sky procedural texture is generated based on the Hosek et al. method. (UI label: Hosek et al.)
• Improved: V-Ray Sky procedural texture is generated based on the Improved method which has enhanced sunrise and sunset sky. (UI label: PRG Clear Sky)

VolumeVRayToonWidthUnits

• Pixels: Specifies that all of the Contour parameters are considered in pixels.
• Project: Specifies that all of the Contour parameters are considered in the project units.

AColor

• r: Value between 0.0 and 1.0 for the red color.
• g: Value between 0.0 and 1.0 for the green color.
• b: Value between 0.0 and 1.0 for the blue color.
• alpha: Value between 0.0 and 1.0 for the alpha.

Color

• r: Value between 0.0 and 1.0 for the red color.
• g: Value between 0.0 and 1.0 for the green color.
• b: Value between 0.0 and 1.0 for the blue color.

Code Samples (C#)

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Obtaining the Server Port

In order to connect to the Public API Server, the client needs to know which port the server is running on. When the the V-Ray for Revit Public API Server starts, it chooses a random free port to start on and writes this information in the 

, where 

 is the Revit version. When your code is running from within a Revit Addin, use the current process id (i.e. of Revit.exe) to locate the V-Ray for Revit API Server running in the same instance of Revit.exe. When your code is running from a standalone application (console app, WPF app, etc.) and there is more than one instance of the same Revit.exe version running, it is up to you to decide to which instance of V-Ray for Revit API Server to connect to.

Here is how the 

 entry might look like in config.json:

And here is how you can obtain the port, depending on whether your code is executing from within a Revit Addin or from standalone application:

When the Public API Server is shutdown, i.e. the user closes Revit, its entry is deleted from 

.

Note that the code above uses the Newtonsoft Json.NET library, but you can read the json file in any way that you prefer.

Connecting to the Server

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is from the previous code snippet.

Get the active project name

When the Public API Server is shutdown, i.e. the user closes Revit, its entry is deleted from 

Note that the code above uses the Newtonsoft Json.NET library, but you can read the json file in any way that you prefer.

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Panel
borderColor #DBDBDB borderWidth 1 language xml theme Confluence borderStyle solid
public async Task<bool> ConnectAsyncTask<string> GetProjectNameAsync() { try { var serverPort client = GetServerPort new ApiServerClient(this.channel); if (serverPort != -1) { this.channel = new Channel($"localhost:{serverPort}", ChannelCredentials.Insecure); var deadline = DateTime.UtcNow.AddSeconds(1); try { await this.channel.ConnectAsync(deadline); return true; var response = await client.GetProjectNameAsync(new GetProjectNameRequest()); if (response.SuccessStatus) { return response.ProjectName; } else { MessageBox.Show(response.Message, "Error", MessageBoxButton.OK, MessageBoxImage.Error); return string.Empty; } } catch ( TaskCanceledException RpcException e) { return false; } } else { Debug.WriteLine("Public API Server has not started yet!"e); return falsestring.Empty; } }

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GetServerPort

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ApiServerClient

, 

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GetProjectNameRequest

, and 

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GetProjectNameResponse

 are all classes auto-generated by the proto-buffer compiler.

Get all 3D Views from the active project

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, 

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, and 

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 are all classes auto-generated by the proto-buffer compiler.

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Select a 3D View

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GetViewsResponse

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 is one of the unique ids of the views retrieved in the previous code snippet.

Set Batch Render for

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a 3D View

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 is is one of the unique ids of the views retrieved in the previous code snippet.retrieved in the GetViews code snippet.

is a boolean value specifying whether the view will be rendered in a Batch Render. 

Get all properties

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, 

, and 

 are all classes auto-generated by the proto-buffer compiler. 

Get a single property

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is one of the unique names of the properties retrieved in the previous code snippet.

Set property

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 is one of the unique names of the properties retrieved in the 

 code snippet. 

 is a 

 initialized with the correct type of value, based on the property type. The 7 code snippets below use the method defined in this code snippet.

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Set int property

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Set float property

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Set string property

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Set enum property

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Set AColor property

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Set Color property

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Export V-Ray Scene

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, 

, and

 are all classes auto-generated by the proto-buffer compiler.

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, 

, and 

 are all classes auto-generated by the proto-buffer compiler.

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, 

, and 

 are all classes auto-generated by the proto-buffer compiler.

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Resources

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V-Ray for Revit Public API Client Reference Implementation

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After you install V-Ray for Revit, you can find a reference implementation of a C# client at the following location: C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\V-Ray for Revit\PublicAPIClient.zip. Unzip the archive somewhere on your machine and explore the Visual Studio solution. Most of the code snippets above are taken directly from this sample application. The sample application is just a reference implementation and is provided as is.

from this sample application. The sample application is just a reference implementation and is provided as is.

Copyrights

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Copyright (c) 2016-2023, Chaos Software EOOD

All rights reserved. These coded instructions, statements and computer programs contain information proprietary to Chaos Software EOOD, which is protected by the appropriate copyright laws and may not be disclosed to third parties or copied or duplicated, in whole or in part, without prior written consent of Chaos Software EOOD.