BIM 360 Assets API – Public Beta is Here

Today we’re announcing the availability of BIM 360 Assets API as public beta! 

BIM 360 Assets API provides read/write access to the data stored in BIM 360 Assets module, which allows you to track your project’s assets and equipment from design to handover. With Assets, you can easily maintain an inventory of jobsite equipment, carry out inspections, document defects, and generate issues related to assets for quick resolution.

Using the Assets API, you can:

• Read, create and update Asset records, including custom attribute values. You can access records either individually one-by-one or in batch-mode which allows you to access multiple records in one API call. 
• Filter assets when reading assets records. (e.g., fetch assets that were modified since a given date by query parameter filter[updatedAt]).
• Read, create and update Asset-statuses. Read access has batch-mode access as well. 
• Read, create and update custom attributes definition in project Admin settings, including the ability to set custom attributes to a given asset category. You can also read multiple custom attributes definition in batch-mode in one API call. 
• Read, create and update categories in project admin settings. You can also use batch-mode to read multiple categories in one API call.  
• Read, create and update status set in project admin settings. You can use batch-mode to multiple status set in one API call.
• Read, create links to issues/checklists/document in Docs module through Relationships API.   

Using API, for example, you can extract assets data to export to external system and import back to the BIM 360 Assets module. You can also automate setting up initial data, eliminating tedious manual tasks.

For information about the product features, see the BIM 360 Assets help documentation.

For more information about the Assets API, please check out the official API documentation on forge developer portal. The tutorial section will be a good starting point to understand how Assets API works.

Documentation:

• Field Guide
• Step-by-Step Tutorials 
• Reference Guide 

Code Samples on GitHub: 

• Postman Collection 
• Export/import asset data to/from Excel  
• Set up Assets from a Design Model (Integration with Viewer and Design Automation) 
• View Assets in Design Model (Integration with Viewer and filtering by rooms and levels)  

Recordings and Presentations:

If you would like to know what will be possible with Assets feature and its API, please check out these recordings from the recent Autodesk University presentations:

• Tracking Assets and Equipment in BIM 360 (product features) 
• BIM 360 API Update and Beyond (Assets API overview starts at 16:15, including demo samples)  

For three GitHub samples, their authors, Xiaodong Liang, Zhong Wu, and Eason Kang are planning to make blog posts with more detailed information soon. Stay tuned for more blog posts to follow.
If you are interested in working on a proof of concept project using Assets API, join us at the Forge Accelerators: