Model Vanity Metrics

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What this tool does

Model Vanity Metrics runs a quick pass on your active Revit model and gives you a fake “score” out of 100, plus a tongue-in-cheek rating like Model Citizen or Full Goblin Mode.

It is not a real QA tool.
It’s meant to be a fun way to explore the Revit API and talk about what actually makes models painful to work with.

Metrics it looks at

Right now the command gathers:

  • Warnings – Document.GetWarnings()
  • CAD imports/links – ImportInstance count
  • In-place families – FamilyInstance where Family.IsInPlace is true
  • Detail lines – elements in OST_Lines
  • Groups – Group instances
  • Views (non-template) – all View where IsTemplate == false
  • Views without a view template – View.ViewTemplateId == InvalidElementId
  • File size (if saved) – via Document.PathName + FileInfo

Each of these feeds a very simple scoring function that starts at 100 and subtracts points based on “model sins”.

Revit API concepts this demonstrates

If you’re learning the Revit API, this command is a compact example of:

  • Getting the active document from ExternalCommandData
  • Using FilteredElementCollector with:
    • OfClass(...)
    • OfCategory(...)
    • WhereElementIsNotElementType()
  • Working with warnings via Document.GetWarnings()
  • Inspecting families (FamilyInstance → Family.IsInPlace)
  • Checking view templates via View.ViewTemplateId
  • Basic TaskDialog usage to show a formatted string

Why I call it “vanity” metrics

These numbers are mostly about “how this model looks on paper”, not whether it will actually coordinate or build correctly.

It’s meant to spark questions like:

  • Why do warnings matter?
  • When are CAD imports actually a problem?
  • Are in-place families always bad, or just easy to abuse?
  • Should every view really have a template?

How to run it

  1. Open any Revit model (preferably a test model).
  2. Go to the Chaos Lab tab.
  3. Under the Safe panel, click Model Vanity Metrics.
  4. Read the score and decide if you’re a Model Citizen or in Full Goblin Mode today.