Call to Autodesk & Navisworks Developers: Wish list for Navisworks 2021 API ;-)

[alexisDVJML]

While not the current focus of Autodesk, based on feedback at AU 2019, Navisworks usage is getting traction...

Being able to build strong value-add plug-ins and solutions around Navisworks should increase the attractiveness of the Simulate and Manage versions and thus bring extra revenue to Autodesk and indirectly to the community: better plug-ins => more sales...

Thus I would like to initiate here a wish list of what us, Navisworks developers, would like to see in the next release of Navisworks and of course what are Autodesk views on such initiative 🙂

To keep it reasonable and manageable for Autodesk, I'm proposing the following criteria:

1/ no breaking changes, aka no changes of existing API behaviour

2/ prioritize features that bring the best expect cost/benefit

3/ prioritize "read-only" calls that reduce risk of side effects

I would also suggest a beta seed of Navisworks version including these changes before the official release to avoid having to release patches to regular users after actual version release.

So this being said here is my initial list 😀
1/ Autodesk.Navisworks.Api
- Access to geometry primitives all at once and not via a callback. Could be via a blob of data with documented internal structure

- Access to properties all at once, actually via 2 calls, one for the native one and one call for the GUI properties

- Check if an item is currently visible in the view

- Get list of modelItems currently visible aka rendered

- Support exporting a view in a vector format

2/ Autodesk.Navisworks.Api.Plugins Render

- add support for 3D text rendering with color

- add support for 2D text rendering with orientation

- add support for caching overlay rendering, aka for example avoiding having to redraw unchanged elements

3/ NWCreate

- add support for colored text (more like a bug fix, but to avoid breaking existing application, could be implemented as a separate call aka SetTextColor)

Eager to hear feedback 😎

[alexisDVJML]

Adding to the wish list, based on recurring questions and personal investigations:

- Custom properties manipulation is a nightmare, requiring dozens of line of code just to change a single property => request for a simple API to modify these, optionally with a flush to "record' the changes
- DocumentSelectionSets and DocumentSavedViewpoints have very simlar APIs but DO NOT inherit from a common set, every time we need to modify them requires to duplicate the code => request for at least inheriting from a common interface

- more documentation/samples vs 3D widgets, Sectioning/ClipPlaneSet