Dependency conflict with third-party plugins

[Nice3point]

RevitLookup uses third-party dependencies produced by other developers. User plugins may also use these dependencies, but of different versions, which will cause a conflict and an exception on startup. We have no control over this process, and we cannot prevent other developers from using third-party libraries.

Why are you getting this error in RevitLookup and not in another plugin? Because plugins are loaded in alphabetical order, and the 'R' is near the end, so that's where you get the exception and RevitLookup not working. Unfortunately, the plugin that is loaded first forces Revit to use it dependencies for all plugins. And if it's outdated, RevitLookup, which uses the newest one, will simply be incompatible, if everything was in reverse order this could have been avoided.

At the moment there are some ways, disable conflicting plugins:

• Use Revit 2025, in this version RevitLookup dependencies are isolated from other plugins.
• Update user plugins to the newest version.
• You can try to rename the RevitLookup loading manifest, give it a name like _RevitLookup.addin. Add-ins are loaded in alphabetic order.
• Downgrade the RevitLookup version.
• Download the DependenciesReport tool and analyse conflicts.
• Download the AssembliesReport tool and share you report here.

Remember though, you can fix RevitLookup in this way, but there is a chance that conflicting plugins may not work.

RevitLookup dependencies list:
https://github.com/jeremytammik/RevitLookup/blob/dev/source/RevitLookup/RevitLookup.csproj#L45-L71

[Nice3point]

DependenciesReport

This tool designed for static analysis of dependency conflicts between plugins. Displays a conflict summary and optionally updates dependencies to the latest version. It works without starting Revit.

Download:

• DependenciesReport.zip - 80 KB size. Requires .NET 8 installation
• DependenciesReport.zip - 3.3 MB size. No requirements

Source code: https://github.com/jeremytammik/RevitLookup/tree/dev/tools/source/DependenciesReport

If you have problems with running RevitLookup, please send reports:

Be careful when running the upgrade, dependencies that are not backwards compatible may break older plugins:

AssembliesReport

This tool designed for Revit, creates a report on the dependencies used. Aimed at helping to trace the loading of dependencies.

Download:

• AssembliesReport.zip - Revit 2020-2025

Source code: https://github.com/jeremytammik/RevitLookup/tree/dev/tools/source/AssembliesReport

• Download and run the .msi installer.
• Open the Revit.
• Run AssembliesReport command.

Report sample:

[acco-jpitts]

The current RevitLookup 2025.08 uses Nice3point.Revit.Toolkit 2025.0.1
My addin was built using your project templates and is using the latest Nice3point.Revit.Toolkit 2025.0.2

I built RevitLookup using the current Toolkit 2025.0.2 and had no issues loading both.

Why am I still running into this issue in 2025?

I'm unable to run the DependenciesReport because company hyper-aggressive anti-virus doesn't like it.

[Nice3point]

@acco-jpitts at the moment Revit Toolkit is the only one bottleneck that can cause failures in Revit 2025, as it is this library that provides isolation. I will look into how to get around this, thanks for the clarification

[trgiangv]

@Nice3point Please have a look, there have conflict between Python node in Dynamo and RevitLookup

• Tested on
  • Revit 2025.0.2
  • Dynamo 3.2
  • RevitLookup 2025.0.10.0

[Nice3point]

@trgiangv we already have an issue #272. Dynamo team hasn't made any comments on this topic, and I have no idea why initial loading of Python node can affect RevitLookup functioning. I'll try to investigate this problem in the future

[Nice3point]

Native add-in isolation planned for feature Revit updates

Feature Summary - Add-in Dependency Isolation.pdf

[ricaun]

Native add-in isolation planned for feature Revit updates

Interesting! Where did you get this file?
If is the Revit Preview probably is better to share the link to the Feature inside the Revit Preview Forum, and not the Feature Summary file.

Edited:

• Revit Preview: New Feature - Add-Ins Manager - Add-In Dependency Isolation (for Developers)

[ricaun]

I was experimenting with ILRepack and decided to try in RevitLookUp to repack all dependencies inside the main RevitLookup.dll

In the end only RevitLookup.dll and RevitLookup.UI.dll is available inside the plugin, and looks every thing is working like should be.

Looks better and easier than the Isolation approach all the dependencies are inside the main RevitLookup.dll, so is impossible to have some conflict with other dependencies already loaded inside Revit.

Here is a image inside Revit 2025, with only RevitLookup.dll and RevitLookup.UI.dll loaded inside Revit, any Nice3Point dependencies is not loaded because is already inside the main dll.

I was messing with bundle so here is the version with ILRepack I'm using.

RevitLookup.bundle.zip

And the repo: https://github.com/ricaun/RevitLookup/tree/refs/heads/dev-bundle-ilrepack

I'm using my custom ricaun.ILRepack tool to repack the dlls using Target in the end of build process.

• ricaun.ILRepack

Using this code inside the csproj to repack all dlls except the RevitLookup.UI.dll.

<ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="ricaun.ILRepack" Version="1.0.0-rc" />
    <ILRepackIgnoreReferences Include="RevitLookup.UI.dll" />
</ItemGroup>

<PropertyGroup>
    <ILRepackImportance>High</ILRepackImportance>
    <ILRepackCommandImportance>High</ILRepackCommandImportance>
    <ILRepackCommandExtra>/union /allowduplicateresources</ILRepackCommandExtra>
</PropertyGroup>

This would fix once for all the RevitLookup dependency conflict with third-party plugins, and works with all Revit version.

[Nice3point]

I don't really feel like this would make sense in Revit 2026 with a native isolation. What do you think?

[ricaun]

I don't really feel like this would make sense in Revit 2026 with a native isolation. What do you think?

I guess you could not use ILRepack in Revit 2026, but I feel Autodesk gonna mess-up the feature native isolation.

[Nice3point]

Probably they will release it with insufficient quality, given the strict release policy they will not finish the fixes with .addin, and we will need to look for workarounds. Just in case we can use the repack, for now let's wait for April and new news