Automation APIs - Public Beta Programs

At Forge DevCon Las Vegas, new public betas were announced for the Automation API. The Automation API can be used to create applications that automate output and configurations of design files. With the time saved from automation, engineers can spend their time focused on more creative, unique, and difficult tasks.

There are 3 beta programs focused on building applications using the Inventor Automation API, Revit, and 3ds Max. You can explore the details of each to gauge if this is for you and where to get started. If you have questions at any time you can reach out to forge.help@autodesk.com


Inventor Automation API
If your customers are continuously submitting orders for custom configurations of your product, the Automation API can help automate some of the processes.

Here’s how it works: using the Inventor Automation API, plus your own custom code and iLogic rules, you can set up an automatic responder to not only receive these orders but also to prepare initial documents and models for engineers to fine-tune or validate. The automatic handler can modify parameters in part files and assembly files and update relevant drawing files. The preliminary processing is done in the cloud, and initial documents are delivered straight to the engineers’ desktops.

How to access:
Grab the documentation and start coding. A working example can be found here.

Helpful resources:

Petr Broz shares step-by-step code samples and resources on getting started in his blog.

Watch these class recordings from Forge DevCon 2018:

Automation: Revit and Inventor – Better Together

Bringing your Inventor Add-in into Forge Automation


Revit Automation API
Large-scale multidisciplinary projects can take around a week to set up between consultants and sub-consultants. This is a largely administrative process, and can now be automated using the Automation API, reducing time to set up from a week to days.

Using the Automation API, you can manage company content and standards in a non-formatted way, and then apply project-specific sets of standards to automatically generate the native Revit file customized for your new project.

How to access:
Information on how to access this beta is expected to be released in early February 2019.

Helpful resources:

Mikako Harada shares the resources available to get started in her blog.

Forge class recordings from AU focused on Revit can be found here.

If you want to get hands-on help creating applications using the Revit Automation API from Forge experts, apply for the upcoming Accelerator in Boston, MA, from February 4-8, 2019. Learn more and apply here.


3ds Max Automation API
3ds Max offers rich capabilities for 3D data modeling, animation, rendering, and simulation. Even if you aren't working exclusively with 3ds Max files, the 3ds Max engine can be used to load and import data from a wide range of sources. The 3ds Max Automation API allows you to perform many of the same functions as the 3ds Max Batch API, only now you can do it in the cloud.

Here’s how it works: through Maxscript/Python and its extensive SDK, data can easily be processed for optimization, rendering, and publishing. The 3ds Max Automation API provides access to the 3ds Max API running in 3ds Max Batch mode. This allows for very flexible workflows with the ability to provide configurations and data to the automation job. For example, you could have a configurator website that takes information from your customer, then using 3ds Max Automation you could auto-generate a max model to give back to your customer.

How to access:
Documentation is already available for you to start coding.

Helpful resources:

More details can be found in this blog post from Kevin Vandecar.

Information on 3ds Max Batch can be found here.

3ds Max Node.JS sample can be found here.