An Interface to the 'AutoDesk' 'API' Platform.

Introduction

AutoDeskR is an R package that provides an interface to the:

• Authentication API for obtaining authentication to the AutoDesk Forge Platfrom.
• Data Management API for managing data across the platform's cloud services.
• Design Automation API for performing automated tasks on model files in the cloud.
• Model Derivative API for translating design files into different formats, sending them to the viewer app, and extracting model data.
• Viewer for rendering 2D and 3D models.

Quick Start

To install AutoDeskR in R:

install.packages("AutoDeskR")

Or to install the development version:

devtools::install_github('paulgovan/autodeskr')

Authentication

AutoDesk uses OAuth-based authentication for access to their services. To get started with this package, first visit the Create an App tutorial for instructions on creating an app and getting a Client ID and Secret.

We highly recommend that the Client ID, Secret, and access tokens be stored in a file called .Renviron and accessing these keys with the Sys.getenv() function. This step is a possible solution for preventing authentication information from being in a publicly accessible location (e.g. GitHub repo). For more information on storing keys in the .Renviron file and accessing them with Sys.getenv(), see the appendix in this API Best Practices vignette.

To get an access token, use the getToken() function, which returns an object with the access_token, type, and expires_in variables.:

resp <- getToken(id = Sys.getenv("client_id"), secret = Sys.getenv("client_secret"))
myToken <- resp$content$access_token

Data Management

The Data Management API provides users a way to store and access data across the Forge Platform.

Create a Bucket and Upload a File

To create a bucket, first get a token with the bucket:create, bucket:read, and data:write scopes.

resp <- getToken(id = Sys.getenv("client_id"), secret = Sys.getenv("client_secret"), 
            scope = "bucket:create bucket:read data:write")
myToken <- resp$content$access_token

Then use the makeBucket() function to create a bucket, where bucket is a name for the bucket.

resp <- makeBucket(token = myToken, bucket = "mybucket")

To check the status of a bucket:

resp <- checkBucket(token = myToken, bucket = "mybucket")
resp

Finally, to upload a file to the bucket, use the uploadFile() function, which returns an object containing the bucketKey, objectId (i.e. urn), objectKey (i.e. file name), size, contentType (i.e. "application/octet-stream"), location and other content information. Note the unique urn of the file and store it in .Renviron for future use.

resp <- uploadFile(file = system.file("samples/aerial.dwg", package = "AutoDeskR"),
            token = myToken, bucket = "mybucket")
myUrn <- resp$content$objectId

Design Automation

The Design Automation API provides users the ability to perform automated tasks on design files in the cloud.

Convert a DWG File to a PDF File

To convert a DWG file to a PDF file, use the makePdf function, where source and destination are the publicly accessible source of the DWG file and destination for the PDF file, respectively.

mySource <- "http://download.autodesk.com/us/samplefiles/acad/visualization_-_aerial.dwg"
myDestination <- "https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BygncDVHf60mTDZVNDltLThLNmM&usp=sharing"
resp <- makePdf(source = mySource, destination = myDestination, token = myToken)

Note that in this example, the token must be generated with the code:all scope.

To check the status of the conversion process:

resp <- checkPdf(source = mySource, destination = myDestination, token = myToken)
resp

Model Derivative

The Model Derivative API enables users to translate their designs into different formats and extract valuable data.

Translate a File into OBJ Format

To translate a supported file into OBJ format, first get an access token with the data:read and data:write scopes. Note that only certain types of files can be translated into OBJ format. To find out which types of files can be translated into what format, see the Supported Translation Formats Table.

resp <- getToken(id = Sys.getenv("client_id"), secret = Sys.getenv("client_secret"), 
            scope = "data:read data:write")
myToken <- resp$content$access_token

The platform requires that the urn of the file be Base-64 encoded. Fortunately, the jsonlite package has a nifty function for encoding the urn.

# Here myUrn was generated from the 'uploadFile()' function
myEncodedUrn <- jsonlite::base64_enc(myUrn) 

Then, translate the file into OBJ format:

resp <- translateObj(urn = myEncodedUrn, token = myToken)

To check the status of the translation process:

resp <- checkFile(urn = myEncodedUrn, token = myToken)
resp

To download an OBJ file locally, we need the output urn of the translated file, which is different than the urn of the source file. In this case, use the getOutputUrn() function, which returns an object containing the result, output urn and other activity information.

resp <- getOutputUrn(urn = myUrn, token = Sys.getenv("token"))
resp

Depending on the type of file and translation process, the response may contain multiple output urns for different file types (e.g. obj, svf, png). In order to find the correct OBJ file, look through the resp object for a urn than ends in ".obj" and assign this urn to myOutputUrn, which should look similar to the following:

myOutputUrn <- "urn:adsk.viewing:fs.file:dXJuOmFkc2sub2JqZWN0czpvcy5vYmplY3Q6bW9kZWxkZXJpdmF0aXZlL0E1LmlhbQ/output/geometry/bc3339b2-73cd-4fba-9cb3-15363703a354.obj"

Finally, to download the OBJ file locally:

myEncodedOutputUrn = jsonlite::base64_enc(myOutputUrn)
resp <- downloadFile(urn = myEncodedUrn, output_urn <- myEncodedOutputUrn, token = myToken)

Prepare a File for the Viewer

To prepare a file for the online viewer, first get an access token with the data:read and data:write scopes.

resp <- getToken(id = Sys.getenv("client_id"), secret = Sys.getenv("client_secret"), 
            scope = "data:read data:write")
myToken <- resp$content$access_token

Nex, encode the urn using the jsonlite::base64_enc() function.

myEncodedUrn <- jsonlite::base64_enc(myUrn)

Then, translate the file into SVF format:

resp <- translateSvf(urn = myEncodedUrn, token = myToken)

To check the status of the translation process:

resp <- checkFile(urn = myEncodedUrn, token = myToken)
resp

Finally, embed the urn of the file in the viewer, which is described in the Viewer section.

Extract Data from a File

To extract data from a file, follow the steps in the previous section for getting a token with the data:read and data:write scopes, encoding the urn of the file using the jsonlite::base64_enc() function, and translating the file into SVF format using the translateSvf() function. Next, retrieve metadata for a file using the getMetadata() function, which returns an object with the type, name, and guid of the file. Note the guid and store it in .Renviron.

resp <- getMetadata(urn = myEncodedUrn, token = myToken)
myGuid <- resp$content$data$metadata[[1]]$guid

To get the object tree of a model, use the getObjectTree() function.

resp <- getObjectTree(guid = myGuid, urn = myEncodedUrn, token = myToken)
resp

To extract data from the model, use the getData() function.

resp <- getData(guid = myGuid, urn = myEncodedUrn, token = myToken)

Viewer

AutoDesk provides a WebGL-based viewer for rendering 2D and 3D models. To use the viewer, make sure to first follow the instructions in Prepare a File for the Viewer above. Then simply pass the urn of the file and the token to the viewer3D() function:

viewer3D(urn = myEncodedUrn, token = myToken)

And voila! We can view 2D and 3D models in R!

The viewer can also be embedded in Shiny applications, interactive R markdown documents, and other web pages thanks to the Shiny Modules framework. Here is a simple example of a Shiny app and the viewerUI() function:

ui <- function(request) {
 shiny::fluidPage(
   viewerUI("pg", myEncodedUrn, myToken)
 )
}
server <- function(input, output, session) {
}
shiny::shinyApp(ui, server)

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the developers at AutoDesk for providing this great set of tools and for the support needed to learn and implement these APIs.

Issues

This project is in its very early stages. Please let us know if there are any issues using the GitHub issue tracker at https://github.com/paulgovan/AutoDeskR/issues

Contributions

Contributions are welcome by sending a pull request

License

AutoDeskR is licensed under the Apache licence. © Paul Govan (2016)