About the Automation API
The Automation API provides the ability to use the core API’s of your favorite CAD engines, in the cloud, leveraging the scale of the Autodesk Platform Service (APS) to run automated jobs. These jobs could be highly repetitive or frequent, or could be larger problems that need large-scale processing power. With the Automation API, you can offload that processing to the Automation Service, which can process those jobs at a much greater scale and efficiency.
Currently, the Automation API supports AutoCAD, 3ds Max, Inventor, Revit and Fusion, with plans in the works to expand to other CAD engines. You can:
Run scripts on AutoCAD DWG files
Imagine you have thousands of DWG files stored in the cloud, and you need them all converted to PDF files. Ordinarily, you would have to download all the files, run a script on them in the AutoCAD desktop software, and then potentially upload them all back to the cloud. Your efficiency would be bottlenecked by the processing power of your computer and your network bandwidth, and you would have to instrument logging and retry logic in your code to ensure that the entire job completed.
Using the Automation API, you can offload all that processing to the Autodesk Platform Service, which can process those scripts at a much greater scale and efficiency. Current functionalities for DWG files include:
- creating new DWG files
- querying for information in existing DWG files
- purging drawings and saving them to other DWF file formats
- plotting DWG files to DWF and PDF
- translating text from one language to another
Note:
- The Automation API does not provide access to commands or APIs of AutoCAD verticals (toolsets and products built on top of AutoCAD).
- The Automation API supports vertical Object Enablers.
Run MAXScript, Python and 3ds Max plugins with 3ds Max Batch
The Automation API provides access to a 3ds Max engine running in the cloud as an APS service. It offers comprehensive tools for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and simulation. The engine can load and import data from numerous file formats, giving you flexibility to work with diverse sources. Using MAXScript, Python, or the extensive SDK, you can easily process this data for optimization, rendering, publishing, and other workflows. This lets you run your existing 3ds Max scripts and plugins in the cloud using 3ds Max Batch, extending your current tools to cloud-based operations.
- Import and export data from any of the plug-ins available with 3ds Max
- Run scripts and modify the file as needed.
- Upload and use your own C++, MAXScript or python plug-ins and implement logic that connect to all parts of the 3ds Max architecture.
- Perform renderings and simulation and other compute intensive operations.
Run Inventor addins and iLogic with IAM/IPT/IDW files
Imagine you have customers continuously submitting orders for custom configurations of your product. Using the Automation API plus your own custom code and iLogic rules, you can set up an automatic responder to receive these orders and 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, doing all the preliminary processing in the cloud, and delivering initial documents to engineers’ desktops. Engineers can spend their time on the creative / unique / difficult aspects of each job, rather than wasting time on repetitive document-copying.
The Automation API provides access to the full Inventor API (“server” only), including functionality such as:
- Modify parameters and features in IPT (part) files
- Configure components in IAM (assembly) files
- Update and fine-tune IDW/DWG (drawing) files
- Use iLogic rules or custom code
- Operate on common, static files, or per-job files
- Provide results in any Inventor-supported formats
To help you get started quickly with the API, we recommend downloading our Visual Studio Project Templates for Inventor from the Visual Studio Marketplace.
The template includes two projects: a working Plugin project where you can add your business logic, and a debugging project that lets you test and fine-tune your plugin locally before deployment.
For a complete working example of an Inventor solution using the Automation API, see our sample project.
Run Revit addins or web applications to process or create RVT/RTE/RFA data
The Automation API provides access to a headless version of Revit running in the cloud as an APS service. This enables you to build cloud-native apps and services that create, extract, and modify Revit data. Since you get full access to the Revit DB API without needing to install Revit on your desktop, you can now run these workflows from anywhere:
- Create custom Revit family content
- Automate model creation
- Explore and analyze model data
- Extract and produce automated reports
- Modify existing models to maintain company standards
- Automatically create documentation
To get started, we recommend that you follow the Execute a Revit add-in walkthrough in the How-to Guide and then go through the Count/Delete Revit elements code sample.
Run scripts to create or modify Fusion data
The Automation API provides access to the Fusion engine and its extensive API, enabling you to execute TypeScript code that automates design and manufacturing workflows. Fusion offers comprehensive capabilities for 3D modeling and manufacturing, making it easy to streamline complex processes. With this API, you can:
- Create or modify 3D geometry
- Create manufacturing models to use in your subtractive or additive manufacturing setups
- Create, modify and calculate manufacturing operations
- Explore, analyze and extract model data
- Import and export to a range of file types
To get started, we recommend that you follow the Execute a Fusion Script walkthrough in the How-to-Guide.
