Autodesk Construction Cloud Backup

ACCBackup is a C# console application built to backup all Autodesk Construction Cloud/BIM360 projects in your account via Autodesk Platform Services (formerly Autodesk Forge).

It can be run as a one-off or scheduled via a script. It was designed to fulfill a need that Veeam Backup didn't support. The only products on the market at the time were $6k AUD per year, took 15-20 hours to backup what ACCBackup does in 3 hours, and required each project to be manually configured as a separate task/job.

By default, ACCBackup will backup all projects in your account.

Update 06/03/2024: Since initial release in May 2022 I've been using ACCBackup to run nightly backups of (now) 150~ projects @ 200 GB~ in 6 hours without issues.

Prerequities

1. Create an app via https://aps.autodesk.com/myapps/. At the time of writing all the APIs the app we are creating will use are free.
2. Make sure to only select the following two APIs: Autodesk Construction Cloud API, Data Management API
3. Save the Client ID and Client Secret as you will need them for the backup.
4. Enable Custom Integrations on your Autodesk admin account (if you don't see the tab email autodesk support as this article describes -- just say you want to build a custom integration).
5. From Accounts Admin -> Settings -> Custom Integrations -> Add Custom Integration -> provide Client ID and App Name. Save the BIM 360 Account ID as you will need that for the backup.
6. Once this is done you will have a forge app with Client ID & Client Secret that will be approved for your BIM 360 Account ID.

Install

• Install latest .NET Runtime 8.X.X -- only the console version is required ("The .NET Runtime contains just the components needed to run a console app. Typically, you'd also install either the ASP.NET Core Runtime or .NET Desktop Runtime.")
• Download the .zip via the releases tab
• Unzip and run (see examples below)

Examples

ACCBackup.exe --help

--backupdirectory           Required. Backup directory.

--clientid                  Required. Client ID of Autodesk Forge app.

--clientsecret              Required. Client secret of Autodesk Forge app.

--accountid                 Required. Autodesk Construction Cloud account ID.

--hubid                     Autodesk Construction Cloud HubId, defaults to b.AccountId. See
https://forge.autodesk.com/en/docs/data/v2/reference/http/hubs-hub_id-projects-project_id-
GET/ for more information.

--maxdegreeofparallelism    (Default: 8) Number of files to download in parallel.

--retryattempts             (Default: 15) Amount of times to retry when there are errors communicating with the
Autodesk API.

--initialretryinseconds     (Default: 2) Each subsequent retry is RetryAttempt# * InitialRetryInSeconds. Default
settings of 15 RetryAttempts with InitialRetryInSeconds 2 totals 4 minutes of retrying.

--dryrun                    (Default: false) Backup will only create 0 byte placeholder files instead of downloading
them, will still create full file structure.

--backupstorotate           (Default: 1) Number of backups to to maintain.

--projectstobackup          Comma separated list of project names OR project ids to backup. If none given, all projects will be
backed up.

--projectstoexclude         Comma separated list of project names OR project ids to exclude from the backup. Takes priority over
'projectstobackup'.

--debuglogging              (Default: false) Enable debug logging. Verbose.

--tracelogging              (Default: false) Enable trace logging. Extremely verbose.

--smtpport                  (Default: 25) Backup summary notification email: SMTP port.

--smtphost                  Backup summary notification email: SMTP server name.

--smtpfromaddress           Backup summary notification email: SMTP from address.

--smtpfromname              Backup summary notification email: SMTP from name.

--smtptoaddress             Backup summary notification email: SMTP to address.

--smtpusername              Backup summary notification email: SMTP username.

--smtppassword              Backup summary notification email: SMTP password.

--smtpenablessl             (Default: false) Backup summary notification email: SMTP over SSL.

--help                      Display this help screen.

--version                   Display version information.

Basic:

ACCBackup.exe --backupdirectory "C:\ACCBackup" --clientid "DRO4zxzt71HCkL34cn2tAUSRS0OQGaRT" --clientsecret "tFRHKhuIrGQUi5d3" --accountid "9b3cc923-d920-4fee-ae91-5e9c8e4040rb"

Basic with email summary:

-ACCBackup.exe -backupdirectory "C:\ACCBackup" --clientid "DRO4zxzt71HCkL34cn2tAUSRS0OQGaRT" --clientsecret "tFRHKhuIrGQUi5d3" --accountid "9b3cc923-d920-4fee-ae91-5e9c8e4040rb" --smtphost "smtp.yourlocalnetwork.dc" --smtpfromaddress "noreply@example.com" --smtpfromname "ACCBackup" --smtptoaddress "me@stewartcelani.com"

Example of a daily backup with 5 daily backup folders rotating:

ACCBackup.exe --backupdirectory "C:\ACCBackup\Daily" --clientid "DRO4zxzt71HCkL34cn2tAUSRS0OQGaRT" --clientsecret "tFRHKhuIrGQUi5d3" --accountid "9b3cc923-d920-4fee-ae91-5e9c8e4040rb" --backupstorotate 5

Example of a weekly backup with 4 weekly backup folders rotating:

ACCBackup.exe --backupdirectory "C:\ACCBackup\Weekly" --clientid "DRO4zxzt71HCkL34cn2tAUSRS0OQGaRT" --clientsecret "tFRHKhuIrGQUi5d3" --accountid "9b3cc923-d920-4fee-ae91-5e9c8e4040rb" --backupstorotate 4

Example of a monthly backup with 12 monthly backup folders rotating:

ACCBackup.exe --backupdirectory "C:\ACCBackup\Monthly" --clientid "DRO4zxzt71HCkL34cn2tAUSRS0OQGaRT" --clientsecret "tFRHKhuIrGQUi5d3" --accountid "9b3cc923-d920-4fee-ae91-5e9c8e4040rb" --backupstorotate 12

Example backing up two projects (you can use project name or project id, as project name can change it is recommended to use project id)

ACCBackup.exe --projectstobackup "Test Project, 7468066c-53e6-4acf-8086-6b5fce0048d6" --backupdirectory "C:\ACCBackup" --clientid "DRO4zxzt71HCkL34cn2tAUSRS0OQGaRT" --clientsecret "tFRHKhuIrGQUi5d3" --accountid "9b3cc923-d920-4fee-ae91-5e9c8e4040rb"

Example backing all projects BUT two projects

ACCBackup.exe --projectstoexclude "Test Project, 7468066c-53e6-4acf-8086-6b5fce0048d6" --backupdirectory "C:\ACCBackup" --clientid "DRO4zxzt71HCkL34cn2tAUSRS0OQGaRT" --clientsecret "tFRHKhuIrGQUi5d3" --accountid "9b3cc923-d920-4fee-ae91-5e9c8e4040rb"

Debugging

• Log files are located in ACCBackup.exe\Logs
• Try running with --hubid "YourAccoundIdHere" OR --hubid "b.YourAccountIdHere" (Autodesk is migrating from BIM360 to 'Autodesk Construction Cloud' but internally, at the moment, the API hubid needs b.AccountId (b. = BIM360).
• First step is to run with the --debuglogging flag
• If the --debuglogging flag doesn't point you in the right direction the --tracelogging flag should be used.
• If all else fails log an issue via the repo with a link to your --tracelogginng log file and I will investigate.
• Or/and email bold.oil7762@fastmail.com with your log file attached.

ApiClient

ACCBackup is designed around an ApiClient class library I wrote that does all the heavy lifting. This makes it very easy for you to take the class library and do your own thing with it if needed. Below is a copy of ApiClient.UsageExample:Program.cs

using ACC.ApiClient;
using ACC.ApiClient.Entities;
using Library.Logger;
using Library.SecretsManager;
using File = ACC.ApiClient.Entities.File;
using LogLevel = Library.Logger.LogLevel;

/*
 * Required parameters
 */
string clientId = SecretsManager.GetEnvironmentVariableOrDefaultTo("acc:clientid", "InvalidClientId");
string clientSecret = SecretsManager.GetEnvironmentVariableOrDefaultTo("acc:clientsecret", "InvalidClientSecret");
string accountId = SecretsManager.GetEnvironmentVariableOrDefaultTo("acc:accountid", "InvalidAccountId");

/*
 * Building ApiClient with default parameters
 */
ApiClient defaultApiClient = TwoLeggedApiClient
    .Configure()
    .WithClientId(clientId)
    .AndClientSecret(clientSecret)
    .ForAccount(accountId)
    .Create();

/*
 * Building ApiClient with all options set
 */
ApiClient client = TwoLeggedApiClient
    .Configure()
    .WithClientId(clientId)
    .AndClientSecret(clientSecret)
    .ForAccount(accountId)
    .WithOptions(options =>
    {
        options.HubId = $"b.{accountId}";
        options.HttpClient = new HttpClient();
        options.DryRun = false;
        options.Logger = new NLogLogger(new NLogLoggerConfiguration()
        {
            LogLevel = LogLevel.Trace,
            LogToConsole = true,
            LogToFile = true
        });
        options.RetryAttempts = 1;
        options.InitialRetryInSeconds = 2;
    })
    .Create();

/*
 * Getting all projects with above ApiClient
 */
List<Project> projects = await client.GetProjects();
foreach (Project p in projects)
{
  Console.WriteLine(p.Name);
}

/*
 * Get project by ID
 */
Project project = await client.GetProject("projectIdGoesHere");

/*
 * Load root folder contents
 */
await project.GetRootFolder();

foreach (File f in project.RootFolder.Files)
{
  Console.WriteLine(f.Name);
}

foreach (Folder f in project.RootFolder.Subfolders)
{
 Console.WriteLine(f.Name);
}

/*
 * GetContents or GetContentsRecursively can be called on any folder
 */
await project.RootFolder.Subfolders[0].GetContents();
await project.RootFolder.Subfolders[1].GetContentsRecursively();

/*
 * GetContentsRecursively can be called directly on a project to enumerate a projects entire directory structure.
 */
await project.GetContentsRecursively();

/*
 * Once the contents are loaded into memory they can be downloaded
 */
await project.DownloadContentsRecursively(@"C:\ExampleBackupDirectory");

/*
 * Folders can be downloaded by themselves...
 */
await project.RootFolder.Subfolders[0].DownloadContents(@"C:\ExampleBackupDirectory");

/*
 * ...or recursively. Remember to enumerate contents before recursively downloading.
 */
await project.RootFolder.Subfolders[0].GetContentsRecursively();
await project.RootFolder.Subfolders[0].DownloadContentsRecursively(@"C:\ExampleBackupDirectory");

/*
 * Example of how to get all projects then back them all up
 */
List<Project> allProjects = await client.GetProjects();
var downloadRoot = @"C:\ExampleBackupDirectory";
foreach (Project p in allProjects)
{
 await p.GetContentsRecursively();
 await p.DownloadContentsRecursively(Path.Combine(downloadRoot, p.Name));
}