Forge Viewer: Onboarding

Single Autodesk Account with Archibus Forge Client ID

The site's BIM Administrator can set up one generic Autodesk Construction Cloud or BIM 360 user account. They then use this account to give access to the same set of models for all the Archibus users that have access to the Forge Viewer views.

Once the Autodesk repository is connected to the site's Archibus Web Central instance, Archibus users can see both cataloged buildings (models paired to an Archibus building code) and not-yet cataloged models in the Archibus BIM Viewer.

Note: If your staff members already has their own Autodesk Construction Cloud or BIM 360 license, you may wish to instead implement per-user authentication.

This topic has the following sections:

• Prerequisites

• Set Up Access to the Forge Viewer

• Prepare Models

Prerequisites

Archibus Licenses

• Archibus Digital Twins
• In order to work with assets, one of:

• Assets license
• Corrective Maintenance license

Note: The BIM Viewer is available if you purchase the Archibus Digital Twins license. The Archibus Digital Twins license enables the Catalog BIM Models and BIM Viewer views; there is no separate "BIM Viewer license."

Autodesk Subscription

• Autodesk Construction Cloud or Autodesk BIM 360 subscription

Autodesk User Account

• In Autodesk Construction Cloud or Autodesk BIM 360, the BIM administrator sets up ONE generic user account that has access rights to models that will be used in the Archibus BIM Viewer. This user account will be required to log in to the Autodesk repository of models.

Email

• An additional security measure is that the Archibus user’s email address must end in the same domain as the connected Autodesk User. For example, if the connected Autodesk User’s domain is customer.com then the email must include @customer.com.

Application Parameter

• Run the System / CAD and BIM Manager / Configure Application Parameters for CAD and BIM task and set BIMForge-Autodesk-AuthenticationMethod to 1 (Authenticate using one generic Autodesk BIM 360 account).

Set up Access to the Forge Viewer

The BIM Administrator at the company site follows this procedure to set up access to the Archibus Forge Viewer.

Note: This is a one-time set-up procedure. These instructions should be run by a BIM administrator at the site.

Note: In the text below. BIM360 means Autodesk BIM 360 or Construction Cloud. The same procedure applies for both Autodesk Construction Cloud and Autodesk BIM 360.

Note: Forge is also known as Autodesk Platform Services, or APS. For information on Autodesk Platform Services, see https://aps.autodesk.com/.

Step 1: Grant the Archibus Forge application the right to access your company's Autodesk Construction Cloud/BIM 360 APIs.

1. Contact Eptura Customer Support to subscribe to BIM Viewer (the Digital Twins license) using your company's own Autodesk repository (Autodesk BIM 360 Docs or Construction Cloud - Autodesk Docs).
   
2. Eptura Customer Support sends you the Archibus Forge Client ID.
3. Grant permission for the Archibus Forge Client ID to access your organization’s BIM360/Construction Cloud APIs.
   1. This process happens outside of Archibus, on the Autodesk website.
   2. See Scenario 1: https://forge.autodesk.com/en/docs/bim360/v1/tutorials/getting-started/manage-access-to-docs/

Step 2: Connect the Autodesk Generic User Account to Archibus.

1. Eptura Customer Support sends you the Archibus BIM Customer Key.

2. In Archibus, load the System / CAD and BIM Manager / Configure Application Parameters for CAD and BIM task.

   • Select the BIMForge-CustomerKey.

   • In the Parameter Value enter the Archibus BIM Client ID (from step g, above).

   • Save. Reload Application Parameters.

When an Archibus user of this Web Central instance (with the above key) opens the BIM Viewer (Assets or Maintenance) or any other Forge Viewer view (for example, Innovative Solutions / Forge Integration) and clicks on the Building icon (drop down), they will see all the cataloged buildings and not-yet cataloged models from all the Autodesk BIM 360 Docs Projects to which they have access.

Additional Notes

Issue	Notes
Establish access only once for all Asset and Maintenance Managers	The above procedure occurs only once for the entire organization. There is no need for each Asset Manager or Maintenance Manager to have their own Autodesk logins.
Revoke access to the generic Autodesk User Account	From the Archibus web page “Manage BIM360 Account," you can also disconnect the BIM Viewer from the generic Autodesk User account by clicking on the black Sign Out button. At that point the Archibus BIM Customer Key will be cleared and Archibus users will no longer be able to see models from this repository.
Get a new Archibus BIM Customer Key	After signing out (per above), you can sign in again using the Autodesk BIM 360 generic user account. At this point, the web page generates a new Archibus BIM Customer Key. Next, follow steps (2e) through (2h), above.
Demo Environments	In demo environments, setup is not required for demonstrating Forge integration using the default Archibus Forge sample bucket and the sample models (buildings NB and MC10). Users whose email address ends in @archibustgd.com automatically connect to the Archibus Forge bucket. This is the case for user AFM.

Prepare Models

1. Upload models to your Construction Cloud (Autodesk Docs).

   • Since you manually upload the model to your Construction Cloud (Autodesk Docs), there is no need to run the Publish 3D command from the Smart Client Extension for Revit.

2. In Archibus Web Central, link your models to Archibus locations using the Catalog BIM Models task.

3. Use the Smart Client Extension for Revit's Catalog command to register in Archibus the equipment assets of a Revit model.

See Also

Forge Viewer Onboarding: Overview