Creating a custom website controlling a digital twin based on Revit

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am doing my MSc thesis on Electrical Engineering. I am assigned to create a website that will manage a digital twin of a building. I need the website to be able to collect energy analysis results from the Revit API from a local computer and also to be able to send changes e.g. on how high the heating will be, internal temperatures measured, etc to run analysis again in real-time in order for me to make an automated control system for the building. Is this possible?

Would this be better done using the Revit API or maybe Dynamo?

Thanks

[RPTHOMAS108]

Sounds like a job for Autodesk Forge perhaps:

Forge Documentation | Autodesk Forge

Posts containing 'autodesk-forge' - Stack Overflow

Not sure about the local computer part, ordinarily the workflow is to perhaps get local user to upload data from the local computer to the website not have the website extract it i.e. security/privacy considerations. I guess it is possible with the right security settings etc.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply.

Yes, Forge was my first choice but there is no student version for it. I have read within the website about people creating digital twins using Revit directly though. My issue is I need to do the energy analysis on real-time to automate the building through the website. As it is, I am not concerned about security as this is just a thesis. Are there relative commands in the documentation to integrate Revit API on a website and retrieve Energy analysis?

[RPTHOMAS108 · Accepted solution]

As far as I know Revit API has no specific functionality for interacting as a server for a web based interface. There is IExternalEvent which allows you to process an external request in Revit and retrieve data. So you would install the add-in implementing that on the local PC and call it remotely somehow.

I'm not really mentioning security from a philosophical standpoint, there will likely be technical barriers to overcome in what you are doing (at least most people would hope so). A user making a web request is one thing, a remote machine making a request of a local machine and getting a meaningful response is another. Strangely you may even face that if you are doing it all locally for proof of concept via localhost (given the way modern OS isolates things).

Are you studying at an institution that can get you access to Forge i.e. have you had that conversation with them? It may be that certain universities use a lot of Autodesk products so get access to things beyond what an individual can.

[Anonymous]

I see your point. I'll see if they have Forge or otherwise I'll probably not be able to use Revit for this. My experience is minimal, this seems too advanced for me. Thank you!

[malab82994]

Yes, it’s possible, but it depends on how you structure the system.

For this kind of setup, the Revit API is usually the main tool for pulling and pushing building data, while Dynamo is more useful for quick automation and prototyping rather than full real-time control.

Typically, you’d need a backend service between Revit and the website to handle data exchange, plus APIs for sending updates like temperature settings back into the system.

It’s less about just the website and more about building a full pipeline between Revit, backend services, and a dashboard.

Even in other industries like a med spa web design agency or med spa web design company, similar principles apply when connecting systems behind the scenes. In website design for med spa projects, proper backend structure is key for handling bookings, data, and real-time updates smoothly.