Selection, Sorting and Highlighting Elements in the selected order using PickObjects() method (Revit API)

Question

Is there a method Revit API where I can select elements in order, highlighting the elements selection.

Please note, Selection.PickObjects() does the selection & highlighting but does not save the elements in the order of Selection.

Answer 1

It is exactly as you say. No, the Revit API does not provide a built-in method providing the functionality you require. You can implement it yourself by calling PickObject repeatedly in a loop and collecting the selected elements in your own sorted list.

Answer 2

The easiest way you can fix your problem is by using the following method.

public List<Element> GetElementsBySelection(UIDocument uiDoc)
{
    bool flag = true;
    List<Element> listElem = new List<Element>();
    do
    {
        try
        {
            Reference referencia = uiDoc.Selection.PickObject(ObjectType.Element);
            Element elem = uiDoc.Document.GetElement(referencia);
            listElem.Add(elem);
        }
        catch (Autodesk.Revit.Exceptions.OperationCanceledException e)
        {
            flag = false;
        }

    } while (flag);

    return listElem;
}

This method ends when you press the "Esc" key. Other more elegant ways to detect when the key is pressed were discussed in the following forums: Monitoring keyboard and Detect key press.

I hope that it serves as a guide so that you can continue advancing in the development. Best regards. Thanks to Jeremy Tammik for the general idea to solve the problem.