RvtIO.Cli 0.3.0

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RvtIO is a .NET library and command line tool that reads Autodesk Revit projects (.rvt) and families (.rfa) directly from disk, without Revit or the Revit API, and exports IFC and JSON.

What it does

• Reads elements, parameters, geometry, file metadata and project information.
• Queries elements through FilteredElementCollector.
• Exports IFC2X3 coordination view, with optional Revit parameters as property sets.
• Writes compact JSON or a full JSON dump with every parameter and geometry.

Install

The packages are published on nuget.org, not on GitHub Packages, so the Packages box of this repository stays empty.

Install the command line tool:

dotnet tool install --global RvtIO.Cli

Add the library to a .NET project:

dotnet add package RvtIO

The library targets .NET 8 and .NET 10. It uses managed code without native dependencies or Windows-only APIs and supports Windows, Linux and macOS. Tests currently run on Windows.

Command line

Export a project to IFC:

rvtio project.rvt project.ifc

Export compact JSON:

rvtio project.rvt project.compact.json --compact-json

Export full JSON, including every parameter and geometry:

rvtio project.rvt project.full.json --json-full

Export IFC with Revit parameters as property sets:

rvtio project.rvt project.parameters.ifc --ifc-revit-parameters

A .ifc output path selects IFC. Any other output path selects JSON, which is compact by default. If the output path is omitted, the tool writes output.json. Diagnostics go to standard error.

Export the state of one project phase:

rvtio project.rvt project.ifc --ifc-phase last
rvtio project.rvt project.ifc --ifc-phase 12345
rvtio project.rvt project.ifc --ifc-phase all

An element is left out of the IFC when it is demolished in the export phase or an earlier one, or created in a later one. Without the option the current profile exports the last project phase and the legacy profile every phase; all keeps every element and room, and an id selects that phase (it must occur in the project's phase order, or the tool exits with code 1). Rooms follow the export phase unless --ifc-room-phase names another one. The compact and full JSON are not filtered. In the library the same choices are IfcExporter.ExportPhaseId and IfcExporter.ExportAllPhases.

The Width and Height quantities of the opening of a door or window are those of the door or window as Revit has them: for a door 0.8 wide and 2.1 high the opening gets Width 0.8 (along the wall) and Height 2.1 (vertical), and the Depth is the thickness of the wall, in a wall of any direction. The Width and Height are the instance values, else the type values; a side the door or window holds no value for is measured from the opening, vertical for Height and along the wall for Width. Where the cut loop of the door or window is decoded, the opening is measured by that loop, as Revit cuts it, which can be larger than the nominal size (a door 0.9 by 2.1 with a frame cut of 1.0 by 2.2 gets Width 1.0 and Height 2.2); the nominal size stays only where the cut loop is not decoded. This applies to openings in straight walls; the openings of curved walls and curtain walls, openings that nothing fills and openings of other elements are measured as before. Releases before this one named the sides of the cut loop by the frame they are measured in, which gave the same door Height 0.8 and Width 2.1. To write those values, restore the earlier reading:

rvtio project.rvt project.ifc --ifc-opening-legacy-axes

--ifc-opening-host-axes, the opt-in of the earlier release for the new reading, is still accepted and does nothing. In the library the option is IfcExporter.OpeningQuantitiesSwapped; IfcExporter.OpeningQuantitiesInHostAxes is kept and is the opposite of it.

Use --ifc-revit-parameter-groups for one property set per parameter group. A file saved in several increments can hold an element in more than one partition stream; the tool keeps only its current copy (every copy is kept when the file's increment tables cannot be decoded). Use --keep-all-copies to decode every copy instead (the earlier behavior; --resolve-current-copies is still accepted and does nothing). Run rvtio --help for all options. Unknown options exit with code 1; options starting with --dev- are not a stable interface.

Exit codes and the export report

--report project.report.json writes a machine-readable report: the fraction of each partition stream and of the element table that decoded, the streams cut by a limit, the elements the export left out with their class and reason, and the exported fraction. --raise-limits raises the limits for a very large model. A complete export without these options behaves as before. The report format and the limits are described in the export report.

Plan a downgrade to an older release (experimental)

rvtio downgrade project2026.rvt --target-profile project2025.rvt --check --report downgrade.json

downgrade --check compares the class table of a project (the stream Formats/Latest) with the class table of a project or family saved by an older release, the profile, and reports what editing the first table to fit the second would change. It writes nothing but the report. Nothing is embedded in RvtIO: the profile is read from the file you give. The report lists:

• the classes only the source defines, with the number of elements the file holds in each (counted from the partition streams); in an earlier trial with one 2026 sample project edited by hand and opened in Revit 2025, the 64 elements of such classes were not in the file that Revit 2025 then saved;
• the classes only the profile defines;
• the classes whose version is higher in the source (the version is lowered to the profile's);
• per class, the stored fields that exist in one table only, matched by name (the command only lists them; what an older release does with them was compared in that one trial only, where one element out of 13872 kept in both files differed in the values of a property);
• the classes whose list of upgrade identifiers changes, with the number added and removed. --guid-rule exact (the default) makes the list the profile's list of the same class; --guid-rule minimal only removes the identifiers the profile does not list. A list is empty after the edit only when the rule yields no identifier for that class.

Limits: the plan is computed from the bytes of the two files. This version cannot write a converted file, and no application opened a converted file as part of this change. The tested source release is 2026; a source of a newer release, a source whose saving release differs from the release of its class table, and a profile that is not older than the source are refused with exit code 5 and one line on standard error. A file that cannot be read, or whose partition stream is damaged, exits with code 2; a wrong command line, including an empty or unusable path, exits with code 1. Without --check the command refuses to run.

Library

Open a project, list wall instances through FilteredElementCollector, and export the document to IFC:

using System;
using RvtIO;
using RvtIO.BuiltIns;
using RvtIO.Ifc;

var doc = RvtDocument.Open("project.rvt");

FilteredElementCollector walls = doc.Collector()
    .OfCategory(BuiltInCategory.OST_Walls)
    .WhereElementIsNotElementType();

foreach (var wall in walls)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"{wall.Id}: {wall.Name}");
}

new IfcExporter().Export(doc.RawData, "project.ifc");

The library is silent by default. Set RvtReaderOptions.DiagnosticOutput for reading or IfcExporter.DiagnosticOutput for export to receive diagnostics through a TextWriter.

See the public API for the supported surface and dependencies for package details.

Documentation

The documentation site with the API reference is at https://mahach666.github.io/RvtIO/. offers an automatically generated overview of the repository.

Examples

IFC exports of sample models opened in an IFC viewer:

Revit 2022 sample project	Revit 2025 sample project exported to IFC

Supported files

Reads .rvt projects and .rfa families. Testing covers sample projects saved by Revit 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026. Revit 2027 files open with partial support.

The tested projects include basic and advanced architecture, structure and MEP samples, plus several larger multi-discipline models.

Limitations

• Version 0.3.0 is a preview. The API can change before 1.0.
• Geometry coverage is partial for some element kinds.
• Revit 2027 support is partial.
• There is no support for writing or modifying Revit files.
• IFC output is limited to IFC2X3 coordination view.
• Output was compared with an independent reference exporter on the tested samples. Byte equality with Revit's own IFC export is not claimed.

Build from source and tests

Use the .NET SDK selected by global.json, which specifies 10.0.100 with latestFeature roll-forward.

From the repository root:

dotnet build RvtIO.slnx -c Release
dotnet test

Tests requiring real Revit files are skipped with a message unless RVTIO_TEST_FILES points to a folder containing the private fixtures. The repository includes no Revit models.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md and the Code of Conduct. Release changes are recorded in CHANGELOG.md.

Security

Report vulnerabilities through GitHub private vulnerability reporting in the repository's Security tab. Do not open public issues for security vulnerabilities. See SECURITY.md.

License and trademarks

RvtIO is licensed under the MIT License. Copyright holder: mahach666.

RvtIO is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Autodesk. Autodesk and Revit are trademarks of Autodesk, Inc.

The file format is read by analysing files for interoperability. No Autodesk code or binaries are included.