How to make generative design work for you with the Dynamo Player

If you’re reading this, there’s a chance you’re already familiar with Dynamo Player, the powerful scripting tool that installs with Revit versions 2016 and later.

Or maybe you’re not and would like to know more. Dynamo is a tool for generative design that extends building information modeling with the data and logic environment of a graphical algorithm editor and lets designers create visual logic to explore parametric conceptual designs and automate tasks. Dynamo can help solve challenges faster by designing workflows that drive the geometry and behavior of design models. Using Dynamo you can extend your designs into interoperable workflows for documentation, fabrication, coordination, simulation, and analysis.

So you may be thinking – this is intriguing and has tremendous potential, but frankly in my day-to-day not everyone on my project team has the time, nor inclination to explore what it takes to be competent in Dynamo programming. We may aspire to generative design, but is it realistic for most Revit users to actually use it?

My answer is yes. There are plenty of resources for learning how to use Dynamo — you’ll find some of them listed at the bottom of this post – but what I want to tell you about here is the Dynamo Player. This utility released in Revit 2017.1 democratizes the power of Dynamo by making Dynamo scripts accessible for use by all Revit users, including those who don’t know how to use Dynamo or who don’t have the time to learn it. With the Dynamo Player, users on your team can run a Dynamo script in Revit with just one click—without even needing to know how to script! Now any Revit user can run scripts to minimize repetitive and time consuming tasks, to run model checks, or to extract and utilize information from the Revit model.

One of themes we think about when deciding what should go into Revit is around providing more ways for users to efficiently create information that drives design intent. We also strive to boost your productivity by automating tasks. By capturing the logic that you previously had to reapply every time you made a change in a Dynamo script, we can help you spend more time designing and less time managing changes.

As Dynamo and Dynamo scripts become more mainstream, we know that people who understand their value are looking for ways to share their scripts with other users across their firm. For example:

You can use the sample scripts included with the Player. Imagine that hundreds of sheet titles have been renamed using lower case text. After launching Dynamo Player, you can use the sample Dynamo script provided to update all the sheet names to uppercase text.
If you’re a BIM manager, share scripts you’ve created across your team to give everyone access to the same powerful tool. You can create a custom script that checks for an error and then automatically fixes it.
Use Dynamo Player to run scripts that change rebar visibility settings.

The Dynamo Player is easy to use, too!

You can access the Dynamo Player from a button on the Manage tab in Revit 2017.1 and later.