Benchmarking library for Revit

Write performance benchmarks for your Revit add-ins using the BenchmarkDotNet, and share reproducible measurement experiments.

Installation

You can install this library as a NuGet package.

The packages are compiled for specific versions of Revit. To support different versions of libraries in one project, use the RevitVersion property:

<PackageReference Include="Nice3point.BenchmarkDotNet.Revit" Version="$(RevitVersion).*"/>

Writing your first benchmark

Start by creating a new class inheriting from RevitApiBenchmark:

public class MyBenchmarks : RevitApiBenchmark
{

}

Add one or more methods marked with [Benchmark]:

using BenchmarkDotNet.Attributes;

public class MyBenchmarks : RevitApiBenchmark
{
    [Benchmark]
    public void MyBenchmark()
    {
        
    }
}

This is your runnable benchmark. The base class ensures the benchmark executes within Revit's single-threaded API context.

Running your benchmarks

You can run your benchmarks with a simple configuration. BenchmarkDotNet uses the Release configuration by default to run, which will cause a failure when running benchmarks for Revit, where API multi-versioning is required. In this case, use the WithCurrentConfiguration() extension for the Job, which will run the benchmark for your selected Solution configuration.

using BenchmarkDotNet.Configs;
using BenchmarkDotNet.Jobs;
using BenchmarkDotNet.Running;
using Nice3point.BenchmarkDotNet.Revit;

var configuration = ManualConfig.Create()
    .AddJob(Job.Default.WithCurrentConfiguration());

BenchmarkRunner.Run<MyBenchmarks>(configuration);

Important

You must have a licensed copy of Autodesk Revit installed on your machine to run benchmarks, with a version that matches the selected Solution configuration.

Application-level benchmarks

Benchmark Revit application-level operations:

using BenchmarkDotNet.Attributes;

public class RevitApplicationBenchmarks : RevitApiBenchmark
{
    [Benchmark]
    public XYZ NewXyz()
    {
        return new XYZ(3, 4, 5);
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public XYZ CreateNewXyz()
    {
        return Application.Create.NewXYZ(3, 4, 5);
    }
}

Document benchmarks

Use OnGlobalSetup and OnGlobalCleanup overrides to open and close a document around benchmark iterations. BenchmarkDotNet provides [GlobalSetup] and [GlobalCleanup] hooks, but due to library limitations, they cannot be assigned twice:

using BenchmarkDotNet.Attributes;

public class RevitCollectorBenchmarks : RevitApiBenchmark
{
    private Document _document = null!;

    protected sealed override void OnGlobalSetup()
    {
        _document = Application.NewProjectDocument(UnitSystem.Metric);
    }

    protected sealed override void OnGlobalCleanup()
    {
        _document.Close(false);
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public IList<Element> WhereElementIsNotElementTypeToElements()
    {
        return new FilteredElementCollector(_document)
            .WhereElementIsNotElementType()
            .ToElements();
    }

    [Benchmark]
    public List<Element> WhereElementIsNotElementTypeToList()
    {
        return new FilteredElementCollector(_document)
            .WhereElementIsNotElementType()
            .ToList();
    }
}

BenchmarkDotNet v0.15.8, Windows 11 (10.0.22631.6199/23H2/2023Update/SunValley3)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600 3.50GHz, 1 CPU, 12 logical and 6 physical cores
.NET SDK 10.0.100
  [Host]    : .NET 8.0.22 (8.0.22, 8.0.2225.52707), X64 RyuJIT x86-64-v3
  MediumRun : .NET 8.0.22 (8.0.22, 8.0.2225.52707), X64 RyuJIT x86-64-v3

Job=MediumRun  BuildConfiguration=Release.R26  IterationCount=15  
LaunchCount=2  WarmupCount=10  

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev	Allocated
WhereElementIsNotElementTypeToElements	2.203 ms	0.0494 ms	0.1440 ms	295.05 KB
WhereElementIsNotElementTypeToList	2.190 ms	0.0436 ms	0.0929 ms	310.09 KB

Benchmark configuration

BenchmarkDotNet initializes Revit with the English - United States language and the C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Revit {version} installation path. To override these defaults:

• Add the assembly-level attribute to any .cs file in your project (e.g., Program.cs):

  using Nice3point.Revit.Injector.Attributes;
  
  [assembly: RevitLanguage("ENU")]
  [assembly: RevitInstallationPath("D:\Autodesk\Revit Preview")]

• Or add the attributes directly to your .csproj file:

  <!-- Revit Environment Configuration -->
  <ItemGroup>
  
      <AssemblyAttribute Include="Nice3point.Revit.Injector.Attributes.RevitLanguageAttribute">
          <_Parameter1>ENU</_Parameter1>
      </AssemblyAttribute>
  
      <AssemblyAttribute Include="Nice3point.Revit.Injector.Attributes.RevitInstallationPathAttribute">
          <_Parameter1>D:\Autodesk\Revit $(RevitVersion)</_Parameter1>
      </AssemblyAttribute>
  
  </ItemGroup>

The RevitLanguage attribute accepts a language name (e.g., "English - United States"), code (e.g., "ENU") or LanguageType enum value (e.g., "English_GB" or "15").