Description
Key Learnings
- Discover conventional challenges for interoperable working.
- Discover the seamless collaboration of distributed project teams and daily workflows possible in your designs using Data Exchange.
- Learn how to integrate Data Exchange SDK into projects using a step-by-step approach.
- Learn how to create and read data exchanges with custom parameters and geometries.
Speakers
- Vivek MahajanVivek is Head of Strategic Partnerships and Alliances at CCTech. Vivek has contributed to developing scalable software applications for CFD, CAD, BIM, and the Oil and Gas industries. He has deep expertise in conceptualizing meaningful solutions to real-world problems in the engineering domain. He has led teams that built solutions using cloud computing, Autodesk Forge services, and machine learning. Vivek is a technology evangelist and believes that new advancements in computing can help resolve problems in the engineering domain more effectively.
- Sandip JadhavCEO and Co-Founder of CCTech, a certified Autodesk FORGE SYSTEMS INTEGRATOR partner, digital transformation enabler for AEC and manufacturing industries. CCTech is also a leading cloud platform developer such as simulationHub CFD. We are building a wide range of Autonomous CFD apps HVAC, buildings, and valve industry. We are specialized in engineering application development for our clients using BIM, Machine Learning, AI, WebApps, cloud computing technologies. We building digital twins, engineering configurators, by the convergence of REVIT IO, Inventor IO, various forge services.
- Vijay MaliVijay is passionate about people and technology and working on how to bring them together to make the world a better place, a place to fulfill individual dreams. In the role of COO, his vision is to build a people-centric organization with excellent processes and systems. He is on the mission of creating an environment of freedom, collaboration, and growth for people. He wants to harness the technology to build agile and scalable systems supporting the growth of both people and organization. In his 15 years of career, Vijay has played many technical roles. He has experience in providing CFD solutions for many complex problems. He has conceptualized many software solutions, including the Pedestrian Comfort Analysis & Control Valve Performer app developed on Autodesk Forge and simulationHub. Vijay is known for his transformative way of teaching and trained more than 500 candidates on complex topics like computational fluid dynamics and design optimization. He has delivered talks at various events and engineering colleges about CFD and its use in product design optimization. Vijay holds a master's degree in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay).
Hello, everyone. Welcome to our class, How to Create Data Exchange Connector using Autodesk Data Exchange SDK to Autodesk University 2023. Here, I'm your host for the class Sandip Jadhav, CEO of CCTech.
And with me is my colleague, Vivek Mahajan our Head of Strategic Partnerships and Alliances. Both of us would walk you through how to build a Data Exchange Connector using the new SDK. Let me go to next slide.
VIVEK MAHAJAN: Hello, everyone.
SANDIP JADHAV: So before I deep dive into the Data Exchange Connectors, let me also share our team. We have a big team working on Data Exchange Connectors. There are young guys who have done a really great job in the last 18 months. And we have built a lot of connector, almost 8 to 10 connector in last 1 and 1/2 years. So we will be sharing our journey our learning with all of you. I hope you find this helpful.
So agenda for the class is I'm going to go through a journey of HVAC design, tell you the short story of how HVAC design actually happens in a real life. We will also go through a case study of Autonomous HVAC CFD, a platform for doing a building physics simulation. We will also understand the different components that are involved in Data Exchange .NET SDK, and how do we actually start building a Data Exchange workflows.
And the last but not the least is there is always going to be a question going to remain to be or not to be, that is the question. I'm going here philosophical. Reason being there are so many ways you can now move your data from one application to another application. Data Exchange is definitely one of the way to do it. But we feel this is one of the best way to move your data from one application to another application.
So in design, those who have worked on it know that it is a very iterative workflow. In HVAC, you are working with a different stakeholders and different industry vendors to build a system. So let me explain you through this background of how HVAC design becomes iterative process. Typically in HVAC, when you are trying to design a system, there are multiple objectives.
Objectives are building envelope, you want to make sure that your building envelope is tight, that it doesn't emit a lot of heat, and it the cost wise it is less. Then you want to do a heat load calculations and want to make sure that whatever the heat load that is getting emitted that is minimum so that your equipment sizing can be managed.
Of HVAC equipment, there are, again, different choices. Today, there are more than 50 types of HVAC equipment available. You want to make sure your HVAC equipment are optimally chosen so that you can reduce your energy footprint, your carbon footprint. So that brings us to the point, the energy. Today, everyone's attention is toward energy and climate crisis, decarbonization.
So it's very vital that any design process tries to minimize the energy, and this is one of the single most focal point in today's HVAC design. While doing all of this, we also have to make sure that there are some constraints that we need to follow. So we need to make sure the HVAC design is compliant to the building codes. It is compliant to the ASHRAE standards.
That itself is a bigger task because there are a lot of building codes and ASHRAE standard which define how a HVAC design should be. While doing that, professional engineer also has to worry about the risk and liability. Because of the system that we are building in which it could be residential where a lot of people are living, it's a commercial in which there is a equipment and people that are going to use this. So if something goes wrong, it can create a lot of challenges for the occupants. So risk and liability are always around.
While making sure all of that, why we use HVAC? We do it to feel comfortable, right? So how do you measure comfort? So that's measured by our thermal comfort parameters defined by ASHRAE. And you want to make sure that you get most optimum best possible thermal comfort within a space. You also want to make sure you have a good indoor air quality, right?
In a space, a lot of times CO2 level increases and that makes air not breathable. Pandemic has taught us how important is our air. So as you can see, if you try to move one of these parameter, let's say you try to change one of the parameter like you change the building envelope, it has an impact on heat loads, it has subsequent impact on equipment and then energy.
So it cascades down. And if you try to change one, the other parameter definitely going to change. So this continuous changes creates a lot of problems. Another problem is the tools that professional use is not a one tool. They use what are the best tool possible for that particular area. So a lot of engineers would use Revit to take up the building envelope data.
They would use Inventor to do a mechanical design. They will use separate tools for fabrication. They would use energy simulation tools. They will use Excel's calculation. Teams to collaborate. So there are all these tools which are working in silos. They are not connected with each other. And many of the times, the thing that HVAC professional engineer tells me that most of the time consumes is in copying of files or copying a data.
So they are continuously copying the data by mouse and so they are just doing the clicks. So one of the thing they ask is, can you reduce the number of mouse clicks. I think this is what we need to change and this is one of the challenge that we see in this industry. And Data Exchange try to address this problem on a really at the center point.
So let's look at a case study that we developed with Autonomous HVAC CFD. So simulationHub is a cloud-based platform in which user can perform simulations using cloud. It is built using Autodesk technologies. So this was a case to leverage the power of Data Exchange. What is the Autonomous HVAC CFD. Let me just go through this in one slide.
Basically in Autonomous HVAC CFD, what it asks for architectural design which comes from the architectural team. Then enclosure details, which includes a lot of details about the building components and the materials, the interior furniture details, and a mechanical design. Once you collect this data, many times this may not come from a single software, like Revit. It might come from multiple software.
So federation of data is also one of the thing that is required for professionals. This all this data once you submit to Autonomous HVAC CFD, the application, it basically creates a thermal comfort assessment report. What it contains? It contains the value of PMV, PPD, EDT, draft rating temperature, humidity, all of those. It creates a compliance report which can be used to get your design certified.
So this is a very helpful tool for doing your building assessment at a pre-built stage. But it also had a challenge of data movement. For us, to bring all this input design into a application, there were three choices. We could go ahead with a file translator. So read a Revit file and start working from that. And most of our developers also earlier wanted to try that because it's very popular in a way at the beginning easy to implement.
But the challenge is as you start to do iterative workflow, it becomes a big problem. Because when you move a file from one application to another application, it loses the context. File is more of a binary representation of the whole data. And in another software, you need to again contextualize your data. So once you bring a file and you want to make a change, the workflow keeps on breaking.
So it becomes also a challenge if you are having a large file. So if you are working on a project which has a 2 gigabytes of Revit file, downloading that file and uploading again on another application takes a considerable time. So another application is we can build a native plugin basically write a plugin which tries to extract a data from Revit and then just try to move your data into [? ASC ?] kind of application. This is a large development efforts. Those who have done it, they would know it.
This becomes also difficult to maintain. It lacks the security. And it's very difficult to scale because let's say today our design is coming from Revit, but tomorrow it can also come from AutoCAD. It can also come from Inventor. How do you handle the multi CAD scenario? And then there is no versioning. So there are a lot of problems with a native plugin approach. We decided to use the latest technology that is developed by Autodesk Data Exchange.
It has a moderate development effort. It needs a certain connection connector to be developed. But once it is developed, it's highly scalable. The connector that you have developed can be also used for multiple other applications. So that's really a big advantage. It has a great security. It has a three legged security for you. And you are able to choose a subset of data. So that also is very helpful.
So if you have a design, like I said, 2 gigabytes of building design which include a lot of detail about structural design, civil design that you don't need for your HVAC aspect. So you can take only a very subset of data, which could be just 10 megabytes. So that also is a very valuable from data security point of view and performance point of view.
It comes with its own user interface library so it gives you a standard interface which most of the users are familiar with. I would say there would be some of the early challenges with a new platform, littering issues at a beginning. But the team that support Data Exchange is really awesome. They would make sure that wherever you get stuck, they help you to understand the API.
Because for us, those APIs were new. And earlier we had some problem in understanding them. But the Data Exchange team helped us to get over those challenges. So it's all good. So now we will look at how we use Data Exchange Connector for our application. So before going into how we use the Data Exchange Connector, let me share with you what are the challenges we see in our workflow, which is file based.
So in a file based workflow, when you start with a mostly with a Revit file, you take that data, extract the fluid volume, get the heat load calculation, HVAC sizing done, air diffuser system develop, and perform a simulation. So this looks very nice when you are doing you know version 1. But the thing starts to break when you have some changes, and changes are always going to be there.
There could be some changes because of the cost. There could be some changes because of the envelope itself has changed. So changes do come in our projects. Now this becomes a challenge when you have a file based workflow.
So if you have a new file, you need to read that data, extract what was done earlier, what is the new, find out the difference, and then map it manually. So there is a task that comes for a designer. You need to also do a sizing, HVAC sizing again because the envelope is changed, the head load calculations are changed, so definitely the HVAC sizing change.
You, again, might want to do a new air diffuser system, taking care what was earlier, and map it, and then create a new simulation model. So to accommodate the new change, there are many times, at least a day is extra spend. It can go in a week also. This is the challenge with a file based workflow and that we wanted to change.
So what we thought was like to build a single connected workflow using our own application. We created our own designer, we created our own configurator, a simulation studio, and then performing actual simulation and visualization. When we talk to our customer, when we talk to our users, they were very happy with our simulation results.
But they were not so happy with our own Design Studio because it was a browser based and it takes a lot of time for a large projects. So this is where they wanted something to bring a direct Revit design. Let me see how we solve this challenge. Basically, what we did is to develop a Data Exchange Connector. So we decided to substitute the first three component, that is Beam Design Studio, Design Configurator, and Scenario Studio with directly a Revit data.
And to bring that data seamlessly in our application, we use a Data Exchange Connector. Now users are able to leverage the power of Revit to do the design modeling, , scheduling and everything, and a power of simulationHub to perform this actual CFD simulation and get a thermal comfort assessment. So it's a win-win for our customers.
This helps to move our data from one application to another application seamlessly. A user can easily move his building design to a application like Inventor for mechanical design. He can move it for autonomous HVAC CFD for thermal comfort assessment. And now in the future, he can also use it for other applications such as Excel, Teams, Power Automate, and more.
So of the silos that were present in MEP started to get broken at this stage. For AHC connector, the workflow is pretty simple. There is a source app, which is Revit. From here we read our granular data and write them into Autodesk Construction Cloud. In Autodesk Construction Cloud, your data stays safe and secure. Now our consumer connector reads this data and put into Autonomous HVAC CFD application.
Here, it creates the floor layout it creates the whole building envelope with this connected workflow. So there are two connectors that are present. One is a producer connector, another is a consumer connector. So what are the data that it is reading you might wonder. So let me just quickly show so it is reading a lot of data. It reading data about the wall types, thermal properties like transmittance, absorptivity, reflectivity. But also reading a lot of geometric data.
This helps us to recreate the exact same beam design in our application. We are also reading the data about the windows. Typically, window has, again, a lot of data about its property. We are also able to take advantage of controlling the level of details because of this connector. Typical one window can be considered of 40 or 50 sub parts. We are able to decide how much of the level of detail is required for simulation and change it accordingly.
It also able to bring a data about the people that are sitting or occupants in a space. So the data about what kind of metabolism rate they have, what kind of surface area they have, where are their location, clothing, all of those. And this is very helpful to recreate the scenarios in our application. So let me do a quickly walk through of our workflow using this demonstration videos.
As I said, our application is a web based. So user can go to our website and start creating a template for office or other space. Once he does that, there is an option to import a building design using our connector. This is we are in Revit and it starts to read this data. Now you see that it is giving an error.
There is a one [INAUDIBLE] standing outside your building, and that's going to be could consume a lot of time for you to realize in your application. So it's validating and contextualizing data immediately. This validation helps to save a ton of time.
Now once it finds that the whole design is right, it is done a pre-checks. It starts to export this granular data into SEC hub. It will write this data. And within a minute or so, you can start getting this data into our application. Here we will give a permission to access this hub. From here, you can see the office space data we have written. So we are able to bring now envelope building envelope information.
The next thing is you also want to bring in the airside system data. This is another interesting approach that because we know that there is a building's space which is architectural design, and then there is a mechanical design which is airside system. So we can bring those two data separately from one Revit model. Then we specify the location of your office or space. Then it helps to basically recreate this design in our application.
See, this is where now we are recreated the whole building model from Revit as it is. It has all the material property. It has all the information which you have specified into Revit. And this is very, I would say accurate and exact data with which would have taken a lot of time to move from Revit to our application using a file based workflow.
How do we use this data? So let me show you what kind of simulation that we perform. So we had brought this data into our application building data into our application, which you start to do a thermal comfort assessment. Here you can see the emojis of people showing a comfort or discomfort. And so that helps users to understand the impact of building envelope on the occupants. It also start to show you the information about local discomfort.
This is very, very important information to all designer to decide what are the corrective action that it needs to be done. We also do a assessment about indoor air quality. It tells you OK, what sort of CO2 level are going to be there? After how much time this space CO2 will increase? So it does help you for doing a ventilation design.
We do a lot of detail level of analysis about surface temperature, velocities, PMV value, which helps designer to make a informed decision. It helps to identify hot spots, cold spot in a build space. And there are slicers which you through which you can completely look at a volume data that is present in our application.
You will also able to see how flow is distributed within a space using a flow lines. So flow line animation is created to show if there is a short circuit between the diffuser and return. So all of this becomes possible because of the exact representation data we get access from Revit using Data Exchange Connect.
So since we looked at this, you can also try this application from Apple's App Store. Both the applications are live. There is one connector for Revit which will help you to extract the data from Revit. And there is another connector which will read the data from your account and pass it on to our simulation app. This can be extended for you for any applications.
So this is just a demonstration that we did for between the Revit and SEC and SEC and autonomous HVAC CFD. But you can do it for almost any applications. That's a really beauty of Autodesk platform that they have built this very highly scalable platform in which you can connect any two applications. There are examples where people are connected to non Autodesk product also. So this is really great platform to move your data consistently.
Autodesk connector system itself is very rich now. In a very short time there are so many connectors that are there. And once you add your connector, your connector becomes a part of a bigger ecosystem and it can start to access your data or read a data or write a data to different applications seamlessly. So this is a great value those who wants to become a part of the new ecosystem.
Let me now start going into what Data Exchange .NET SDK is all about. So there are two ways right now you can build a connector. One is Data Exchange .NET SDK. So there are definitely a lot of advantage. So it is like a pre-baked boilerplate code. You get a lot of codes for authentication, application manager, read write classes, or UI classes. So all of that becomes available to you.
It is also very helpful for that it supports BREP and mesh geometries. And it is pretty efficient for large data handling. Our weaknesses, you need a .NET environment to create this kind of connector. The other alternative is a GraphQL API base, which is equally good, which provides you a very fine granular access of data. It can query any data not limited to what SDK offers. And we also use this for creating a connector for our site.
So when we move data from SEC to autonomous HVAC CFD, we use actually GraphQL API. So this is a really easy and good to use from even from browsers. Sometimes there are some developer face a challenge in architecting that workflows. So if you have someone in experience that definitely helps. And accessing a large model also can be a challenge. If you really accessing too much of data, data .NET SDK is on that side.
Prerequisite for building your own connector using the SDK is definitely need access to Autodesk platform services. You need access to Data Exchange SDK. Now it's public, can be easily accessible. You need to have a authentification SEC subscription Visual Studio because when I started to try myself, I didn't have a Visual Studio installed so definitely need a Visual Studio, C# knowledge, or application like Revit would be helpful to start with because it starts with a Beam and then understanding of Beam itself is helpful.
So this was the background about .NET SDK. And now we are going to do a more technical deep dive. So I would invite my colleague, Vivek, to talk on this point onward. Vivek?
VIVEK MAHAJAN: Thanks for giving us the idea about the need of data exchange technology and how to use it. So let's go deep dive into the .NET SDK. So basically .NET SDK has the Geometry Utility, ACC Construction Cloud ConnectorBase-- schema, user interface are the main building blocks. So let's move towards the SDK architecture.
So you can see that the architecture itself is presented in three different colors. So the darker green color is for web UI. So the SDK web based UI component is there.
Then there are light-blue colors, like AP schema service, APS Data Management Service, APS Data Exchange Service. These are the HTTP-based REST API services. So these are also the web based components.
Then there are light pink colors, which is going towards the Data Exchange SDK. So this is the client side. And it has a dependency on Autodesk Translation Framework, Geometry Utility SDK, and Geometry Primivite SDK. So, basically, the SDK contains the web-based components and the client side components.
So let's go into the deep of the SDK. So when we see the SDK, there is the client connector apps like Revit, Inventor, Rhino. So these are the apps which are basically the plugins developed into the CAD applications, which are based on the DX SDK.
So DX SDK has the connector core and then connector UI component. Connector core has the modules like code component, which majorly handles the authentication using the three tokens. Then there is an FSS component. FSS is nothing but the four-schema service, which talks about the metadata and their attributes, how you are going to store the data.
Then comes the parameter service component, which helps you to give the parameter definitions, how you want to access those parameters. Then when we go into the deeper side of the connector, then comes the geometrical part. Geometrical part majorly handled by Geometry SDK, which is dependent on Primitive SDK and ATF SDK. Primitive SDK help us to define the primitive geometries like lines, circles, curves.
And then comes the ATF SDK, which helps us to define the mesh and data geometries. Then there is the visualization or viewable component, which is basically responsible for creating the viewable-- or we can say the ACC view. So if you trigger this function, then and only then you can view your exchange on the ACC browser. Otherwise, it will not.
Then we go towards the down side. Then there is the hosting provider. Right now Autodesk Construction Cloud has two hosting providers. One is BIM 360 and other is the ACC. Then the contract providers-- contract providers are nothing but how you are going to store the data. Basically, we can call them as a data models.
So right now there are two data models, Revit Contract and AIM Contract. Now we'll talk about the DX API SDK, which is basically responsible for calling the REST APIs. It also provides the mechanism for local caching, which helps users to get the data locally without depending on the internet.
Let's move forward. So let's start discussing about the Create a Data Exchange Connector. To do that, you will first need to create a C# project. And before that, you have to register an app with APS then get OAuth access, then get ACC access, download the DX SDK and then create WPF App.
To do that, the Data Exchange SDK has the packages, which are ForgeAuth then FDXSDK then ConnectoUI, ConnectorCore, ConnectorCoreBase, and ACCSDK. So these six packages are a must in your package folder before you go for creating the connector. Then we talk about the classes, which are available in the SDK.
So it has a user interface, Connector Code base, and authentication. And then customize read and write classes. So these are the base classes which will provide you the functionality of all the connectors. So it contains the read data exchange, write data exchange, and get updates.
So how to download the Data Exchange SDK? So you have to go to the feedback.autodesk.com. And in that section, after logging, you can search for the Data Exchange SDK and API Private Beta. After that on the top side, you can find out the Build Downloads option. And from there, you can download the SDK.
So it also provides you some sample of connectors. After that, downloading the Data Exchange SDK and connector sample, you can move forward with the coding. Before coding, this is just to give you the idea about how to create an APS application. So you have to register an app, then acquire a 3-legged OAuth token with data:create and data:read and data:write scopes, and verify that you have Autodesk Construction Cloud access.
This is the UI-- how you will get-- when you are going to create the APS App, you have to select the desktop, mobile, or single page application. This is how you are going to refer or add your downloaded packages by selecting the package source as Data Exchange and providing the path for that folder so that your Visual Studio can recognize the NuGet packages and deals.
If you want to try-- and this is how you are going to add the custom integration on the ACC so that your application or your old APS application will have the access to the hubs and projects, which are available in your ACC project. When you go for an authorization, this type of window will appear in front of you, in which you have to give the consent for data storage and manage then account related content and source code.
So let's move towards Creating a Base Model as per the type. So in read, there are three types available. The types are Read-only Connector, Write-only Connector, Read and Write Connector. So in the Read-only connector, this type of UI will be present in which you will get only option to load the exchanges.
When we go towards the Write-only Connector, this type of UI will present. And you will get only option to create data exchange. And then we go for the Read and Write Connector. In this you will get both the options, Create Data Exchange and Load Data Exchange.
So when we are talking about the programming interfaces-- so you have to exchange or inherit the base class, BaseReadWriteExchangeModel, to create the Read-Write Connector. It has many methods available already implemented it. But you have to override a few of them, which are compulsory. So those methods are GetLatestExchangeDetailsAsync, ReadWrite, SelectElements, UploadExchangeAsync, UpdateExchangeAsync.
So these are the basic methods which are required to be implemented when you want to create the ReadWrite connector. Similarly, this is the interface for a read-only connector. You can see when we go for the read-only connector, you have to inherit from BaseReadOnlyExchangeModel. It also has the many methods. But when you create a read-only connector, you have to override the custom read-only model, select elements, and unload the ExchangeAsyncs.
And this is the Write-Only Programming Interface. In this you have to inherit from the BaseWriteOnlyExchangeModel. And in this you have to inherit the SelectElements, UpdateExchangeAsync, and WriteOnlyModel. So these are the methods which are necessary to implement. And all this documentation is available. And we have added those links into the section.
So this is how the basic exchange connector will look. So this is the WPF application in which we have created the read and write connector. So after clicking on the load data exchange, you will see the second pop up in which you can select the exchange list. And you can also view that exchange in that UI also. And after clicking on the load button, that exchange will get downloaded. And after that downloading, you can import that data into your relevant CAD application.
So when we move forward-- so connector has the sub menus. In sub menus you will get the option to update the exchange then select the element. This is really interesting, this we [? call ?] When you are creating the subset of element data and you are creating multiple exchange from a current file, so you want to know which exchange reflects created from how many elements. So when you click on this select element, those elements will get highlighted into the CAD application.
Then this is the Delete. This is for deleting the exchange from ACC and from the local also. Then View on Web, this will redirect you on the ACC page. And on ACC you can see the Data Exchange. And this is the Copy Link to Exchange so that you can share that link with different people. Yes, so we seen and understand about the Data Exchange concepts and the SDK components. Now let's move towards When to use Data Exchanges? And I will hand over this to Sandeep.
SANDIP JADHAV: Thanks, Vivek. So let's go through this part of when to use the Data Exchange. We will have a look at a very good explanation about how to build a Data Exchange connector by Vivek. We looked at different methods and different classes that are available today.
So it has its own pros and cons. And I will try to also bring those in front of you. So when we look at a Data Exchange, there is an other alternative, that is, Model Derivative. Model Derivative gives you access to very large data very quickly in that way.
So you have bulk of data basically, it helps. And it is also very hierarchically organized. So you don't need to go into one by one like a granular data. So model data is good at that. But if the data size really goes beyond a certain point, model derivative starts to slow down.
And another thing is with Model Derivative, you have to download the complete whole set of data because there is no concept of granularity right now in that aspect. On the other hand, if you look at Data Exchange, it retrieves the data what you need. It's easy to get the version between the data. The processing is fast. So definitely it is a advantage for many of the developers working on this.
Design Automation is another choice. Here you can load your data into [? Revit ?] and then extract the data that you want. So you have to write the code. You have to build your own plugin. It might take a more time if the model is large. So there is definitely a lot of back end work that one has to do about doing building this plugin and getting this data.
The advantage with Data Exchange is that it is integrated with ACC. So the processing is fast. You don't need actually any [? Revit ?] programming skills that might be in shortage. A web developer can also start working in some of these, or .NET developer can work on this.
Design Automation provides you definitely more data. But I guess with Data Exchange there is definitely-- now more and more [INAUDIBLE] data is getting accessed. So I would think Data Exchange still score better on this point. So when it is on a broad level, where it is suited is, I think, when you are trying to share a subset of data.
As I explained, you have a big [? Revit ?] model of two gigabytes. And the other application is looking just 10 megabyte of data 50 or 100 megabyte of data. That is definitely a good test case to go with it. It is not definitely suited for a complete model. Then you can use many other options that are available.
Data Exchange is also very helpful when you want to give a secured access. So that, again, is a very, very helpful. There is a graph that is available, which enables to help you find out the relation between the different data types. That again is very, very powerful for application, like Autonomous [INAUDIBLE] where we want to know which is the wall, which is connected to another wall, what are the windows that are placed on the particular walls.
All this relational information is also valuable for developing such applications. So those are the definitely good pro points for Data Exchange. And I think you yourself can try and figure out where it fits more. So I think you got the view of how to use now Data Exchange SDK.
There is a great documentation available on Autodesk website. We would recommend you to go through that developer guide. And then there is also a big overview documentation. We would also recommend you to have a look at GraphQL APIs. They are also very nice, pretty powerful. And they're also going to have a more and more functionality as we go forward.
There are a lot of connectors that are available on Autodesk Beta website. There are connectors for Revit, DynamoDB, Grasshopper, Inventor, AutoCAD, Civil 3D. So that's a good way to understand where the technology is going, what are the power that it is developed. So I would recommend you to also try some of these connectors that are already built so that it gives the inspiration for you to build your own connector, your own custom workflows.
CCTech itself is building a different kind of connectors. Already I showed you a connector with simulationHub. Let me take a quick view at one of our connector for PowerPoint. So whenever we want to demonstrate some design to a customer, we typically use images from Revit or AutoCAD into PowerPoint. But wouldn't it be great if we can actually bring a complete 3D design into PowerPoint?
So this is what we are doing. What we are doing is we have built a connector which is able to export a particular view from Revit to a PowerPoint, where you can embed that 3D view. So this helps you bring that great traction with your customer and with a very detailed geometrical representation. As usual when you work with a customer, they ask for some changes.
Again, the Data Exchange connector is very helpful. So here in this case, the customer asks to change the balcony's railing. They wanted to have a different type of railing. So if that is the case, you can go back to Revit, create new type of railings, make the design the way that you want. And then you can export to PowerPoint.
So here as you can see, the railings are getting created. And these railings will be exported to PowerPoint. And user will able to see in a more interactive, more appealing way. And here we are not sharing actually the complete design to the customer. We are just sharing a subset of information, just the viewable information.
So it is not that you are-- data is still secured in doing that. As you can see, it's just updated. So workflows are very easy. And these two people, the designer and the one sales guy can be sitting in two different state, different counties, different countries. So all that is possible with Data Exchange Connector.
And the workflow happens in just few minutes. So it's really, I think, helpful. There are different connector that we have built. And I think as I said already that even Autodesk website has a lot of connectors that you can try.
So thank you for patiently going through this class. I hope you find this class helpful. And we look forward for your feedback and suggestions to improve this class further. Thank you.
VIVEK MAHAJAN: Thank you.