Tag: vb.net

Autodesk Revit plugin software licensing

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Autodesk® Revit is a powerful building information software, which allows developers to extend its functionality through plug-ins that can be written in either Python or .NET. In order to monetize your plugin, we need to implement a license verification mechanism and a way to accept payments from prospective customers.

License verification

Python plugins

If your plugin is written in Python, you can use the Python2 version of our Python client. A simple license verification can be performed with the code below (your specific parameters can be found here):

from cryptolens_python2 import *
HelperMethods.ironpython2730_legacy = True

pubKey = "<RSAKeyValue><Modulus>sGbvxwdlDbqFXOMlVUnAF5ew0t0WpPW7rFpI5jHQOFkht/326dvh7t74RYeMpjy357NljouhpTLA3a6idnn4j6c3jmPWBkjZndGsPL4Bqm+fwE48nKpGPjkj4q/yzT4tHXBTyvaBjA8bVoCTnu+LiC4XEaLZRThGzIn5KQXKCigg6tQRy0GXE13XYFVz/x1mjFbT9/7dS8p85n8BuwlY5JvuBIQkKhuCNFfrUxBWyu87CFnXWjIupCD2VO/GbxaCvzrRjLZjAngLCMtZbYBALksqGPgTUN7ZM24XbPWyLtKPaXF2i4XRR9u6eTj5BfnLbKAU5PIVfjIS+vNYYogteQ==</Modulus><Exponent>AQAB</Exponent></RSAKeyValue>"

res = Key.activate(token="WyIyNTU1IiwiRjdZZTB4RmtuTVcrQlNqcSszbmFMMHB3aWFJTlBsWW1Mbm9raVFyRyJd",\
                   rsa_pub_key=pubKey,\
                   product_id=3349, key="ICVLD-VVSZR-ZTICT-YKGXL", \
                   machine_code=Helpers.GetMachineCode())

if res[0] == None or not Helpers.IsOnRightMachine(res[0]):
    print("An error occurred: {0}".format(res[1]))
else:
    print("Success")
    
    license_key = res[0]
    print("Feature 1: " + str(license_key.f1))
    print("License expires: " + str(license_key.expires))

C# or VB.NET

If your plugin is either written in C# or VB.NET, you can use our .NET library instead. To add it to your project in Visual Studio:

  1. Right click on your project in the Solution Explorer and click on Manage NuGet Packages.
  2. Search for Cryptolens.Licensing and install it.
  3. Add the code-snippet form this page in the code where the plugin loads for the first time.

Accepting payments

One way to sell an Autodesk Revit plug-ins is by publishing them in the Autodesk App Store, where a basic licensing mechanism is already provided. The problem with this approach is that the licensing models available are quite limited (eg. you can only charge your customers once for the plug-in and they will be able to use it in perpetuity). For instance, selling your plug-in as a service (subscription model) is not supported.

A better approach is to still publish your plug-in in the Autodesk App Store and set it to be a free app. You can then ask your customers to get a separate license key to be able to unlock all features.

You can read more about various ways of selling your software in our help pages. I would also recommend to check out the available licensing models.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out!

Computing and verifying VAT in .NET (for EU businesses)

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When you sell your software as an EU business, you need to take into account the VAT, which depends on whether you sell to a private individual or a company, and their country of residence. Moreover, you need to ensure that the VAT id that they have provided is correct.

In order to solve these two problems, we have published a library for .NET, available as a NuGet package (with source code on GitHub).

Examples

The library has two methods, CalculateVAT and IsValidVAT, which are quite simple to use. We explain their purpose below:

  • CalculateVAT – This method asks for the country of residence of the individual or the company, and their VAT id (if applicable). Based on this information, it will calculate the necessary tax that should be applied to the order. Note, we assume you sell products or services that are covered by the standard VAT (i.e. some categories such as books have a lower tax in some countries).
  • IsValidVAT – This method is responsible for VAT id verification. We use the European Commission’s API for that. Note, this API is not up 24/7 and can be unresponsive some times. You can view all the times it is down (given the country of residence) here.