Does the Forge design automation AutoCad engine also support commands from the Civil3D and Map3D packages (which are a kind of extension of AutoCad)? Could not find any in the documentation, primarily looking for this because attached Object Data in Map3d does not seem to be extracted to the metadata when converting in the model derivative Api.
Related
I cannot find any resource similar to the Model Derivative API that has a list of supported file translations.
can the autocad Design Automation API take in .dxf, pdfs, etc., or is there a list somewhere?
Design Automation for AutoCAD can process DWG,DXF,DWT and DWS, unlike Model Derivative which has translation capabilities, Design Automation is a service to run automated jobs.
At the moment, importing PDF in Design Automation for AutoCAD is not possible.
I have found a plug-in to manually export schedules (rebar, production bom, material lists) from Revit models. However, our company is looking to automate this and take out the human required element of exporting these schedules.
I have not, so far, found a way in the Forge API (Revit Design Automation API) to access these schedules like a can with a custom plug in.
Is this support coming or is there a place to vote on this capability?
Thanks,
Chris
The Forge Design Automation API for Revit enables you to run the same .NET Revit API code as the Revit.exe executable on the Windows desktop. Therefore, you can probably convert the existing desktop add-in to run within the Forge environment. There is no missing capability, not additional support needed, and no need to vote for anything. The Building Coder has explored and documented how to migrate and convert existing desktop Revit API add-in code to run in the Forge design automation environment in the topic group on DA4R – Design Automation for Revit.
Actually, I want to find a way to work with .rvt file without starting Revit Application. I want to create monitoring plugin to track changes in Revit Document Model. I suppose it can be made with Application events DocumentChanged. But it may slow the work with model for users. So I'm trying to find a way to work with .rvt file without starting Revit. So, does command that implements IExternalDBApplication need working instance of Revit application?
Your question is confusing.
I assume you are confused.
There are two ways (and two ways only) to access Revit API functionality:
Install Revit on the desktop and launch an interactive end user session. Within that session, you can set up a .NET Revit add-in to subscribe to certain events and make use of the Revit API functionality within those event handlers.
Make use of the Forge Design Automation API for Revit.
In the latter case, you do not have Revit installed locally.
Instead, you upload your application to the Forge system and make use of the Forge API via HTTP requests to launch a Revit engine in the cloud and process your Revit API functionality.
In both cases, however, there is a running instance of the Revit application somewhere providing the Revit API functionality you make use of. This cannot be avoided.
Some helpful links for you:
Getting started with the Revit desktop .NET API
Forge Design Automation for Revit
The Building Coder discussion on DA4R, Design Automation for Revit
I hope this clarifies.
I'm building a cross platform 3D viewing application in C#/C++ and would like to add support for Autodesk SVF files.
I looked at Autodesk Forge but it has limited support for exporting to open formats such as OBJ, and Autodesk SVF does not appear to be the same format as the similarly named Simple Vector Format (http://www.svf.org/) as was stated here: https://forge.autodesk.com/blog/updated-little-more-detail-behind-autodesk-forge-apis-0
Is there a schema or specification available somewhere that details the structure of Autodesk's SVF format?
The short answer: no there isn't as it's a proprietary format (that has been breached in some country already and legal actions were needed to resolve the issue...)
The long answer and please view this as my personal rambling w/o any real authority or credibility:
I'd recommend to stay tuned to the official Forge website and see if they'd choke up more info on SVF(aka the Streaming Viewing Format) for public knowledge.
I am an App developer with no experience with AutoCAD at all, and for my current project I need to convert DWG files into Spatial Data - ESRI Shapefile / GeoJSON, etc.
Given that DWG is a proprietary format owned by Autodesk, the Autodesk Forge API becomes my only option to interpret such file. I have been evaluating the Model Derivative API for a week now, and what I found is that it won't work for my purposes. It has only 3 output formats (f2d, f3d, rvt) for DWG files and none of them fits my purpose.
For this reason, I started to look at others API's in the platform and ended up finding the Design Automation API which might be helpful, however it lacks documentation.
One of the examples in the API is the PlotToPdf activity that exports a DWG into a PDF. I wonder if there is a way to export other formats other than PDF.
I tried to find the possible "commands" in the interface by listing all the activities, workItems and AppPackages but none of these end-points returned me any useful information.
So here are my questions?
How can I can convert a DWG into a non Autodesk format? Being more specifically, the output must be an open format that I can interpret without using proprietary tools.
If the answer for the first question is Autodesk Forge API, which one should I use?
In case I should be using Design Automation API for that, where can I find complementary documentation once the one provided is lacking details?
I would say that Design Automation API is the best option if you don't have (or don't want) AutoCAD running (or any other DWG compatible desktop app).
To be complete: Design Automation includes an instance of AutoCAD running on the cloud, where you can upload a .DWG with a sequence of commands (script) and a .NET custom app to execute more advanced routines. Then download the results. By default, neither AutoCAD nor Design Automation can export to GIS formats (like those you mentioned), only some verticals, like Civil 3D or Map 3D, but these are not available on Design Automation. As you mentioned, Model Derivative API (via REST calls) don't have what you need, it's focused on metadata, not the specifications of the geometry.
Design Automation API supports the same commands AutoCAD Console does. For DXF creation, you can use DXFOUT command, your script would be something like (not tested):
FILEDIA
0
DXFOUT
outputfilename.dxf
QUIT
As per comment, it's a huge effort to just convert to .DXF. I'm not familiar with other libraries do perform the same task.
Now I'm not an expert on GIS data formats, but you may consider move from .DWG to .DXF then an approach like described here.
I don't quite understand this point that you are making in the comments:
I would only use the API to convert DWG to DXF, which means a huge waste of resources considering the monthly cost of the API and the time to develop and maintain the interface.
Can you clarify? Are you saying that transaction cost for Design Automation is too high? Or are you saying that development cost associated with deploying the script that Augusto gave you is too high?
Thanks
Right now the derivativeApi is the way to go for this: You can convert any input format from this list (https://developer.autodesk.com/en/docs/model-derivative/v2/overview/supported-translations/) to the "intermediate format" svf and the convert the svf file to obj for example. This will also create a material file which can be downloaded seperately. I am evaluation the forge api right now and can produce obj from dwg files right now.