How programs talk to BIM software and platforms, desktop APIs, cloud APIs and file-based access, and what each lets you automate.
An API (application programming interface) is the set of commands a piece of software offers to other programs. BIM software has APIs so that scripts, add-ins and other systems can read and change models without someone clicking through the interface. Almost every "automation" in BIM, from a renaming script to an AI assistant that queries a model, goes through one of three routes: a desktop API, a cloud API, or reading the files directly.
A coordinator spends two hours a week exporting issue counts from the CDE and coordination software into a spreadsheet for the meeting pack. A short script calls the CDE's cloud API every Monday at 6:00, collects open issues by discipline and age, and writes them into the pack template. Two hours a week become two minutes, and the numbers are the same every time.
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