The New Token Estimator from APS
Autodesk Platform Services (APS) offers a suite of APIs and web services that help you tap into your Design and Make data to make some awesome applications. With these tools you can build 3D Viewers, Digital Twins, Configurators, enterprise integrations, dashboards, and so much more.
The model is simple. Most of the APS APIs are free to use, except when you make API calls to Premium APIs, you will be charged a fee per usage. But how do you estimate and forecast these costs?
Meet the Token Estimator
Introducing the new Token Estimator. This tool can be used to estimate how many Flex tokens or cloud credits are needed, per month, for our Premium APIs. It’s a tool that can help make informed decisions. An Autodesk Platform Services customer or representative can use the estimator to easily determine how many tokens they or their client will need without having to be super familiar with the APIs. Developers can also use the estimator to roughly calculate their monthly API usage.
How Does the Token Estimator Work?
The estimator has 3 accordion sections and each one is tied to a specific Premium API. Each API is based on usage analytics like processing hours, per # of jobs translated, and number of photos processed. The costs scale up as your usage scales. If you know how many tokens you’re spending you can adjust your purchase to take advantage of things like volume discounts and more.
Let’s dive deeper into each Premium API starting with Model Derivative.
If you want to view 2D or 3D models or extract meta data, then you want to use the Model Derivative API. Model Derivative’s pricing works by charging 0.5 tokens per complex job or 0.1 tokens per simple job. A complex job means converting Revit, IFC, and NavisWorks files to any other supported formats. Any other model type is considered a simple job and will incur 0.1 tokens per job. The exception is if the model location is BIM 360 Docs or Fusion 360. In both cases, these will have no token cost as there is no additional preparation needed for viewing the models.
Next, let's review the Design Automation API.
If you need to create or modify files, then the Design Automation API is the one for you. Its pricing works by charging 2 tokens per processing hour. How this gets calculated is by selecting one of 3 model engines: AutoCAD, Revit, and Inventor. Each engine has its own default model size and intervals. To find this information, you can click on the help icon next to the “Model Size” label. Next is to select the model complexity. For many use cases, selecting “simple” for the complexity will satisfy most Design Automation executions.
Lastly, let's take a look at Reality Capture API.
If you need to generate mesh from photos or a scene, then Reality Capture is the way you want to go and is the last API in the estimator. The calculation is simple. Select the number of pictures and monthly updates. For every 50 photos processed, there will be a charge of 1 token.
Our estimator’s UI makes it straightforward to gauge how many tokens per month you will need to ensure you can use our Premium APIs with little to no interruption. After adding a cost, you will even see a simple breakdown of the estimated costs in a table. With some form inputs, we’ve added helpful tooltip modals to provide more information on what a particular input means.
When to Use the Token Estimator
There is never a bad time to use the Token Estimator. It is an ever-ready tool available to you whenever you need to estimate APS Premium API usage. As a free trial user, you can explore our Premium APIs for 90 days at no cost. However, after the trial ends, we recommend reviewing the pricing page and noting down what cloud resources your application will need to estimate how many tokens to purchase.
When your account is in Full Access, we suggest going to your usage analytics page to see your API usage then navigate to the estimator page to figure out your token cost based on usage history.
Questions, need help, or want to give feedback? Feel free to reach out to our APS Support team at aps.help@autodesk.com