This sample contains a public interface that allows upload a file to an OSS Bucket. A Design Automation workitem is triggered and extract text and hatch information into a JSON file, the results are saved into a AWS S3 Bucket (temporary). This is used for validation. The user can then upload the file to a BIM 360 Folder. A side recurrent job checks for new issues on that file and notifies the user by SMS.

1. Forge Account: Learn how to create a Forge Account, activate subscription and create an app at this tutorial.
2. Visual Studio: Either Community (Windows) or Code (Windows, MacOS).
3. .NET Core basic knowledge with C#
4. ngrok: Routing tool, download here
5. MongoDB: noSQL database, learn more. Or use a online version via Mongo Altas (this is used on this sample)
6. AWS Account: S3 buckets are used to store result files
7. AutoCAD 2019: required to compile changes into the plugin
8. Twillio: used to send SMS notifications

Clone this project or download it. It's recommended to install GitHub desktop. To clone it via command line, use the following (Terminal on MacOSX/Linux, Git Shell on Windows):

git clone https://github.com/augustogoncalves/bim360-csharp-approval.process

Visual Studio (Windows):

Right-click on the project, then go to Debug. Adjust the settings as shown below.

Visual Sutdio Code (Windows, MacOS):

Open the folder, at the bottom-right, select Yes and Restore. This restores the packages (e.g. Autodesk.Forge) and creates the launch.json file. See Tips & Tricks for .NET Core on MacOS.

MongoDB

MongoDB is a no-SQL database based on "documents", which stores JSON-like data. For testing purpouses, you can either use local or live. For cloud environment, try MongoDB Atlas (offers a free tier). With MongoDB Atlas you can set up an account for free and create clustered instances, intructions:

1. Create a account on MongoDB Atlas.
2. Under "Collections", create a new database (e.g. named designcheck) with a collection (e.g. named users).
3. Under "Command Line Tools", whitelist the IP address to access the database, see this tutorial. If the sample is running on Heroku, you'll need to open to all (IP 0.0.0.0/0). Create a new user to access the database.

At this point the connection string should be in the form of mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@clusterX-a1b2c4.mongodb.net/validation?retryWrites=true. Learn more here

There are several tools to view your database, Robo 3T (formerly Robomongo) is a free lightweight GUI that can be used. When it opens, follow instructions here to connect to MongoDB Atlas.

AWS Account

Create an AWS Account, allow API Access and S3 Full Access (write) permissions, the access key and secret key will be used on this sample.

ngrok

Run ngrok http 3000 -host-header="localhost:3000" to create a tunnel to your local machine, then copy the address into the FORGE_WEBHOOK_URL environment variable.

Environment variables

At the .vscode\launch.json, find the env vars and add your Forge Client ID, Secret and callback URL. Also define the ASPNETCORE_URLS variable. The end result should be as shown below:

"env": {
    "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT": "Development",
    "ASPNETCORE_URLS" : "http://localhost:3000",
    "FORGE_CLIENT_ID": "your id here",
    "FORGE_CLIENT_SECRET": "your secret here",
    "FORGE_CALLBACK_URL": "http://localhost:3000/api/forge/callback/oauth",
    "OAUTH_DATABASE": "mongodb+srv://<username>:<password>@clusterX-a1b2c4.mongodb.net/validation?retryWrites=true",
    "FORGE_WEBHOOK_URL": "your ngrok address here: e.g. http://abcd1234.ngrok.io",
    "AWS_ACCESS_KEY": "your AWS access key here",
    "AWS_SECRET_KEY": "your AWS secret key here",
    "USERID": "Autodesk ID that represents the generic user",
    "TWILIO_FROM_NUMBER": "Phone number",
    "TWILIO_TOKEN", "Token",
    "TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID": "Account SID"
},

AutoCAD plugin

Any changes on these plugins will require to create a new .bundle, the Post-build event should create it. The BUILD action copy all files to the bundle folder, generate a .zip and copy to the webapp folder. It requires 7-zip tool.

Run

Start the app.

Open http://localhost:3000 to upload a new file and start the validation.

This sample is licensed under the terms of the MIT License. Please see the LICENSE file for full details.

Augusto Goncalves @augustomaia, Forge Partner Development