AU registration is open, fuzzy comparison is important for real numbers, Python learning material and time for a break:
Registration is live for Autodesk University 2021.
This year the event is a free, virtual and global conference held on October 5-14.
For more info on the conference as a whole, visit the conference page.
If you are curious what Forge is doing, please check out the web page and blog:
On a digital computer, all real number comparisons require fuzz.
This means that you cannot compare two real numbers directly. Instead, you test whether they are close enough together, where 'close enough' is defined by a given tolerance. The tolerance depends on the context and the type of comparison being made.
Revit BIM geometry often ends up with significant imprecision due to various complex editing steps, so fuzz is especially important in this area.
This was highlighted yet again by the recent Revit API discussion forum thread on a weird double value supposed to be zero but isn't:
Question: This happens after I set the beam family parameter Start Level Offset and End Level Offset to any non-zero value and then change it back to zero again:
Answer: This is due to the imprecision associated with real numbers in digital computers.
The 'weird' number that you see is not really weird at all.
It is just a very small number written in exponential or scientific notation. Read about:
From your description, it was generated by adding an offset and subtracting it again. Both of the offsets were not represented precisely, e.g., because they were converted from metric to imperial units. The result is imprecise, almost exactly zero, but very slightly off.
That is completely normal and must be taken into account whenever dealing with real numbers of a digital computer, for instance, in many operations, e.g., comparisons, by adding some fuzz:
The same issue came up again right away in the discussion on element geometry not returning expected face count.
As Rudi @Revitalizer Honke very succinctly puts it:
when comparing double values, it is necessary to add some tolerance.
Values may differ by 0.000000001, for example.
In case you are considering learning Python, or to get started with programming in general, freecodecamp published the ultimate guide on getting started with Python.
For more material on Dynamo, Python, and .NET, please refer to our earlier notes on
I'll be mostly offline for the coming three weeks, from July 26 until August 13, spending time in nature in different parts of Switzerland.
I wish you a happy and fruitful time until I return.