topic Re: Support for BCF API in Revit API Forum

Support for BCF API

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 18:57:08 GMT

Can anyone answer if Revit supports the BCF API to allow for third party integrations?

Re: Support for BCF API

jeremytammik — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 05:20:51 GMT

I searched the Internet for 'bcf api' and found this:

https://github.com/BuildingSMART/BCF-API

Is that what you are talking about?

Being a REST API, you can use it perfectly well from your own .NET add-ins.

The BCF API GitHub repo points to a C# client:

https://github.com/rvestvik/BcfApiExampleClient

You can try integrating that very code into a Revit add-in and see how it goes.

Cheers,

Jeremy

Re: Support for BCF API

jeremytammik — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 05:27:41 GMT

Out of interest, I took a slightly deeper look.

I see that BCF stands for BIM Collaboration Format.

I also see that the C# sample can easily be integrated into a Revit add-in.

Cheers,

Jeremy

Re: Support for BCF API

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 13:35:14 GMT

Yes the BCF Rest API is what I was asking about.

Thank you for your response, great information.

Re: Support for BCF API

Anonymous — Mon, 02 May 2016 19:20:44 GMT

Another question: Can you tell me if the Revit API will create the JSON for us or would we be required to create it via the addin?

Re: Support for BCF API

jeremytammik — Mon, 02 May 2016 19:33:05 GMT

I was not aware of BCF until you raised this question, and I am pretty sure that Revit does nothing to support it.

So if the JSON is BCF specific, you will probably have to create it with your own custom add-in.

Re: Support for BCF API

jeremytammik — Tue, 03 May 2016 21:09:25 GMT

Please take a look at my new project:

https://github.com/jeremytammik/RvtBcfApiExampleClient

How can I obtain the required BCF API access credentials to test it?

  string clientId = "YOUR_CLIENT_ID";
  string clientSecret = "YOU_CLIENT_SECRET";

Thank you!

Cheers,

Jeremy

Re: Support for BCF API

jeremytammik — Tue, 03 May 2016 21:08:52 GMT

One step forward...

https://github.com/BuildingSMART/BCF-API

tells me that "Your applications 'ClientID' is the username, your 'ClientSecret' is the password."

That begs the next question:

Where can I obtain the required user name and password?

Thank you!

Cheers,

Jeremy

Re: Support for BCF API

jeremytammik — Tue, 03 May 2016 22:28:36 GMT

I completed my Revit sample app.

It works, or to be more precise:

It fails in the exact same way as original BCF-API sample, in the line:

  login.ShowDialog();

The error message says:

  Serverfehler in der Anwendung /.
  Die Ressource kann nicht gefunden werden.
  Beschreibung: HTTP 404. Die gesuchte Ressource oder eine ihrer Abhängigkeiten wurde möglicherweise entfernt, umbenannt oder ist vorübergehend nicht verfügbar. Überprüfen Sie folgende URL, und stellen Sie sicher, dass sie richtig geschrieben wurde.
  Angeforderter URL: /bcf/f

It looks like this:

As said, exact same behaviour in both the original BcfApiExampleClient and my Revit add-in RvtBcfApiExampleClient, so I count that as a success.

I raised an issue for the failure in the original sample:

https://github.com/rvestvik/BcfApiExampleClient/issues/2

Do you or Jim have any connections to ensure that it is attended to?

Thank you!

Cheers,

Jeremy

Re: Support for BCF API

jeremytammik — Wed, 04 May 2016 06:47:58 GMT

Good news.

I received a reponse to the issue I raised, saying "a few things in the Api have changed since the example client was written. I'll see to get a small working example by the weekend":

https://github.com/rvestvik/BcfApiExampleClient/issues/2

I'll be back...

Cheers,

Jeremy