Manufacturing DevBlog

Autodesk Inventor API Wishlist Survey, 2013

By Adam Nagy

Each year we organize a survey to find out what improvements you'd like to see on the Inventor API front. Here is your chance this year round to provide some feedback: Click here to take survey
The survey is ending on the 16th of June.

Thank you in advance! :)

Writing Inventor API code that modifies multiple BRep entities

By Philippe Leefsma

I was dealing with a support case recently where the developer was noticing an unexpected behavior: he was selecting multiple faces and his code was iterating through the SelectSet to create multiple MoveFaceFeatures one after the other. The first feature was created successfully, but the subsequent ones will fail.

There are two reasons why such an approach will fail:

1/ The content of the SelectSet will be cleared after each transacting operation, such as a feature creation, so you should store each selected entity in a collection or your custom data structure if the rest of your code is going to perform transaction, directly or as a result of invoking an API method.

2/ After any operation that is going to modify the BRep, you should assume that any pointer to BRep entities isn’t valid anymore, even if the modification was not involving precisely those entities (Faces, Edges and so on…). The correct approach for that scenario is to store ReferenceKeys of the selected entities prior to do any modification to the BRep and use those later when you need to process the entity.

Here is a VBA sample that illustrates the approach. It assumes the user has selected several faces from the UI and will create MoveFaceFeature for each of them:

Sub CreateMoveFace()

    Dim oPart As PartDocument
    Set oPart = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
   
    Dim oDef As PartComponentDefinition
    Set oDef = oPart.ComponentDefinition
    
    Dim oFace As face, colFaces As FaceCollection
    Dim oMFD As MoveFaceDefinition, oMF As MoveFaceFeature
   
    ' Get the reference keys for the selected faces.
    Dim keyContext As Long
    keyContext = oPart.ReferenceKeyManager.CreateKeyContext
   
    Dim keyCollection As New collection
    For Each oFace In oPart.SelectSet
        Dim key() As Byte
        Call oFace.GetReferenceKey(key, keyContext)
        Call keyCollection.Add(key)
    Next
   
    Dim tempKey As Variant
    For Each tempKey In keyCollection

        key = tempKey
        Set oFace = oPart.ReferenceKeyManager.BindKeyToObject( _

            key, keyContext)

        Set colFaces =  _

            ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateFaceCollection

        Call colFaces.Add(oFace)

        Set oMFD = oDef.Features.MoveFaceFeatures.CreateDefinition( _

            colFaces)

        Call oMFD.SetDirectionAndDistanceMoveType(0.1, oFace)

        Set oMF = oDef.Features.MoveFaceFeatures.Add(oMFD)

    Next

End Sub

Renew thumbnail of document

By Xiaodong Liang

When a document is saved, Inventor will follow [File Save Options] to save the thumbnail. in default, it is always ISO component  view.

API also provides the relevant method:

Document.SetThumbnailSaveOption(
  SaveOption As ThumbnailSaveOptionEnum,   [ImageFullFileName] As String )

- kActiveComponentIsoViewOnSave
  The isometric view of the document is set as thumbnail on save.

- kActiveWindow
  The currently active view is immediately set as thumbnail.

- kActiveWindowOnSave
  The active view of the document is set as thumbnail on save.

- kImportFromFile
  The specified image file is set as thumbnail.

- kNoThumbnail
  No thumbnail is set.

So to renew the thumbnail, you could change the camera to the view you desired and call Document.Save. You can even use external image as thumbnail, using SaveOption = kImportFromFile.

Sub test()
    Dim oDoc As PartDocument
    Set oDoc = ThisApplication.activeDocument
    ' change the current view
    Dim view As view
    Set view = ThisApplication.ActiveView
    Dim camera As camera
    Set camera = view.camera
    camera.ViewOrientationType = kRightViewOrientation
    camera.Fit
    camera.Apply
    ' set save option
    oDoc.SetThumbnailSaveOption kActiveWindowOnSave
    'call saving
    oDoc.Save
End Sub

Copy title block prompted entries from one sheet to the other

By Xiaodong Liang

Question:
The title blocks that we use have prompted entries. I would like to find a way using iLogic to copy the entries from one title block to another within the same drawing. 

Solution:
In API, every title block has the corresponding title block definition which defines the prompt text. When the end user tries to insert a title block, the mechanism behind is inserting an instance of the title block definition. The user will be asked to input the final text for the prompt text.  the API object TitleBlock provides the method GetResultText to know the final text. Conversely, if you want to set the final text, you can call TitleBlock.SetPromptResultText.

Following iLogic code assumes the drawing has two sheets which use the same title block. In the title block, there is one prompt text named "MY_PROMPT". It will get the result string in sheet1 and copies to sheet2.

 ' assume sheet1 and sheet use the same title block definition
    
    Dim oDoc  
      oDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
    
    'get first sheet
    Dim oSheet1  
      oSheet1 = oDoc.Sheets(1)
    
    'get titleblock of sheet1
    Dim oTB1  
      oTB1 = oSheet1.TitleBlock
    
    ' search the textbox in definition
    
    Dim oPromptText  
    Dim oEachText 
    Dim I 
    For I = 1 To oTB1.Definition.Sketch.TextBoxes.Count
          oEachText = oTB1.Definition.Sketch.TextBoxes(I)
        If (oEachText.Text = "MY_PROMPT") Then
            ' found the prompt text we want to copy
              oPromptText = oEachText
            Exit For
        End If
    Next I
    
    'get the result string of the prompt text
    Dim oPromptEntry  
    oPromptEntry = oTB1.GetResultText(oPromptText)
    
    'get sheet2
    Dim oSheet2 As Sheet
      oSheet2 = oDoc.Sheets(2)
    
      'get titleblock of sheet2
    Dim oTB2 As TitleBlock
      oTB2 = oSheet2.TitleBlock
    
    ' copy the result string of the prompt text to the prompt text in sheet2
      oTB2.SetPromptResultText(oEachText, oPromptEntry)

Running programmatically a specific version of Inventor

By Philippe Leefsma

In order to run programmatically Inventor from an external application, you would typically rely on code that looks like this in order to access a reference of Inventor.Application:

Type inventorAppType =

     System.Type.GetTypeFromProgID(

     "Inventor.Application");

 

Inventor.Application app =  

    System.Activator.CreateInstance(

      inventorAppType)                          

           as Inventor.Application;

With AutoCAD it is possible to launch a specific version of the product if you have several releases installed side by side on the machine, by specifying the version along with the ProgId, for example “AutoCAD.Application.19.1” will launch AutoCAD 2014.

However this versioning mechanism doesn’t apply to Inventor, so how would you fire a specific version of Inventor from your Exe?

The small utility class below exposes two different workarounds that contain similarities:

. AdnInventorLoader.CreateInstanceFromProcess:

This method will read a specific registry entry depending on the version you passed as argument in order to extract the full path of the desired Inventor.exe. It will then start a new process from that path and use GetActiveObject to retrieve the running instance of Inventor.

. AdnInventorLoader.CreateInstanceFromCLSID:

This method will also retrieve the path of Inventor.exe from the registry, but instead of launching a new process, it will update the path of the last run version of Inventor inside the CLASSES_ROOT hive of the registry and will fire Inventor using CreateInstance.

You may prefer using the first method, as modifying the CLASSES_ROOT entries may require admin or specific privileges that user doesn’t necessarily have.

// Utility Class to launch specific version

// of Inventor Application

// By Philippe Leefsma, May 2013 – Devtech

class AdnInventorLoader

{

    public enum Version

    {

        Inventor_2010,

        Inventor_2011,

        Inventor_2012,

        Inventor_2013,

        Inventor_2014

    };

 

    public static Inventor.Application

        CreateInstanceFromProcess(Version version)

    {

        try

        {

            string exePath = GetExePath(version);

 

            if (exePath != string.Empty)

            {

                CleanUpRegistry();

 

                System.Diagnostics.Process process =

                    System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(

                        exePath);

 

                if (process != null)

                {

                    //Wait for 5 Mins

                    if (process.WaitForInputIdle(

                        300000))

                    {

                        Inventor.Application app =

                            Marshal.GetActiveObject(

                               "Inventor.Application")

                              as Inventor.Application;

 

                        return app;

                    }

                }

            }

 

            return null;

        }

        catch

        {

            return null;

        }

    }

 

    public static Inventor.Application

        CreateInstanceFromCLSID(Version version)

    {

        try

        {

            string exePath = GetExePath(version);

 

            if (exePath != string.Empty)

            {

                CleanUpRegistry();

 

                using (RegistryKey inventorKey =

                    Registry.ClassesRoot.

                        OpenSubKey("CLSID").

                        OpenSubKey("").

                        OpenSubKey("LocalServer32",

                            true))

                {

                    string[] names =

                         inventorKey.GetValueNames();

 

                    inventorKey.SetValue(

                        names[0],

                        exePath + " /Automation");

 

                    inventorKey.Close();

 

                    Type inventorAppType =

                        System.Type.GetTypeFromProgID(

                            "Inventor.Application");

 

                    Inventor.Application app =

                      System.Activator.CreateInstance(

                          inventorAppType)

                            as Inventor.Application;

 

                    return app;

                }

            }

 

            return null;

        }

        catch

        {

            return null;

        }

    }

 

    // Clean up registry to prevent

    // "Re-registration" dialog

    // http://tinyurl.com/dx4tsnu

    private static bool CleanUpRegistry()

    {

        try

        {

            using (RegistryKey inventorKey =

                Registry.CurrentUser.

                    OpenSubKey("Software").

                    OpenSubKey("Autodesk").

                    OpenSubKey("Inventor").

                    OpenSubKey("Current Version", 

                       true))

            {

                if (inventorKey == null)

                    return false;

 

                inventorKey.DeleteValue(

                    "Executable");

                inventorKey.DeleteValue(

                    "LastVersionRun");

                inventorKey.DeleteValue(

                    "Registered");

                inventorKey.DeleteValue(

                    "RegistryVersion");

                inventorKey.DeleteValue(

                    "SilentMode");

                inventorKey.DeleteValue(

                    "UBI");

 

                inventorKey.Close();

 

                return true;

            }

        }

        catch

        {

            return false;

        }

    }

 

    // Retrieve Inventor.exe fullpath based on version

    private static string GetExePath(Version version)

    {

        try

        {

            string key = string.Empty;

 

            switch (version)

            {

                case Version.Inventor_2010:

                    key = "RegistryVersion14.0";

                    break;

                case Version.Inventor_2011:

                    key = "RegistryVersion15.0";

                    break;

                case Version.Inventor_2012:

                    key = "RegistryVersion16.0";

                    break;

                case Version.Inventor_2013:

                    key = "RegistryVersion17.0";

                    break;

                case Version.Inventor_2014:

                    key = "RegistryVersion18.0";

                    break;

                default:

                    return string.Empty;

            }

 

            using (RegistryKey inventorKey =

                Registry.LocalMachine.

                    OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE").

                    OpenSubKey("Autodesk").

                    OpenSubKey("Inventor").

                    OpenSubKey(key))

            {

 

                if (inventorKey == null)

                    return string.Empty;

 

                string path = inventorKey.GetValue(

                  "InventorLocation")

                    as string;

 

                inventorKey.Close();

 

                path += "\\Inventor.exe";

 

                return (System.IO.File.Exists(path) ?

                    path :

                    string.Empty);

            }

        }

        catch

        {

            return string.Empty;

        }

    }

}

 

Here are examples of use for both methods:

 

Inventor.Application app =

    AdnInventorLoader.CreateInstanceFromProcess(

        AdnInventorLoader.Version.Inventor_2013);

 

if (app != null)

   app.Visible = true;

 

             -------------------------

 

Inventor.Application app =

    AdnInventorLoader.CreateInstanceFromCLSID(

        AdnInventorLoader.Version.Inventor_2014);

   

if (app != null)

   app.Visible = true;

Type mismatch when calling CalculateFacetsAndTextureMap

By Adam Nagy

When calling CalculateFacets or CalculateFacetsAndTextureMap the following way you'll get a Type mismatch exception:

Inventor.Application inv = (Inventor.Application)

  Marshal.GetActiveObject("Inventor.Application");

 

// Select a face before runnig this code

Face face = inv.ActiveDocument.SelectSet[1];

 

double tolerance = 0.1;

int vertexCount = 0;

int facetCount = 0;

double[] vertexCoordinates;

double[] normalVectors;

int[] vertexIndexes;

double[] textureCoordinates;

face.CalculateFacetsAndTextureMap(

  tolerance, out vertexCount, out facetCount,

  out vertexCoordinates, out normalVectors,

  out  vertexIndexes, out textureCoordinates);

You'd need to initialize the input parameters - including the arrays. In case of VB.NET those parameters are underlined warning you about this, but C# does not seem to do that. The following code works fine:

Inventor.Application inv = (Inventor.Application)

  Marshal.GetActiveObject("Inventor.Application");

 

Face face = inv.ActiveDocument.SelectSet[1];

 

double tolerance = 0.1;

int vertexCount = 0;

int facetCount = 0;

double[] vertexCoordinates = new double[]{};

double[] normalVectors = new double[]{};

int[] vertexIndexes = new int[]{};

double[] textureCoordinates = new double[]{};

face.CalculateFacetsAndTextureMap(

  tolerance, out vertexCount, out facetCount,

  out vertexCoordinates, out normalVectors,

  out  vertexIndexes, out textureCoordinates);

Delete suppressed features in iPart

By Adam Nagy

If you ended up with features in your iPart factory which are suppressed in each iPart member then you could delete those like this: 

Sub DeleteSuppressedFeatures()
    ' Open the iPart Factory document before
    ' running this
    Dim doc As PartDocument
    Set doc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
    
    Dim fact As iPartFactory
    Set fact = doc.ComponentDefinition.iPartFactory
    
    Dim col As iPartTableColumn
    For Each col In fact.TableColumns
        ' If the column is about suppression
        If col.ReferencedDataType = kExclusionColumn Then
            Dim del As Boolean: del = True
            Dim cell As iPartTableCell
            For Each cell In col
                ' If it's not suppressed in each row
                ' then we won't delete it
                If cell.value <> "Suppress" Then
                    del = False
                    Exit For
                End If
            Next
            
            If del Then
                col.ReferencedObject.Delete
            End If
        End If
    Next
End Sub

Use PackAndGo of 2014 API

By Xiaodong Liang

2014 API provides the equivalent method PackAndGo like UI. This allows you to pack. The API help reference provides the demo code, but it is not much clear.

 

The ability of PackAndGo is provided by the interop:
    <Inventor 2014>\Bin\Autodesk.PackAndGo.Interop.dll

 

This interop is 32bits on 32bits OS, 64bits on 64bits. So please make sure your application is correctly configured. When I used it the first time on my 64bits, it failed. It took me some time to figure out the failure is due to the application uses X86 configuration in default. After I changed to Any CPU, it works.

The code below is from the API help reference. I added some tips for reference:

   Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As System.Object, e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

        Dim oPacknGoComp As New PackAndGoLib.PackAndGoComponent

 

        'ensure the first argument of CreatePackAndGo is correct assembly,

        'and the path of the second argument exists

        ' otherwise, the method will crash

        Dim oPacknGo As PackAndGoLib.PackAndGo

        oPacknGo = oPacknGoComp.CreatePackAndGo("C:\temp\source\MyNewPartName.iam", "C:\Temp\Destination")

 

        ' set the correct project file.  otherwise, the method will crash

        oPacknGo.ProjectFile = "C:\temp\source\webcast.ipj"

 

        Dim sRefFiles = New String() {}

        Dim sMissFiles = New Object

 

        '  Set the options

        oPacknGo.SkipLibraries = True

        oPacknGo.SkipStyles = True

        oPacknGo.SkipTemplates = True

        oPacknGo.CollectWorkgroups = False

        oPacknGo.KeepFolderHierarchy = True

        oPacknGo.IncludeLinkedFiles = True

 

        '  Get the referenced files

        oPacknGo.SearchForReferencedFiles(sRefFiles, sMissFiles)

 

        '  Add the referenced files for package

        oPacknGo.AddFilesToPackage(sRefFiles)

 

        ' Start the pack and go to create the package

        oPacknGo.CreatePackage()

 

    End Sub

Localize Inventor .NET AddIn

By Adam Nagy

There are three things related to this:
1) Localizing the AddIn registration information that shows up in the Add-In Manager dialog
2) Localizing resources used by the Add-In assembly 
3) Localizing data for the installer of your Autodesk Exchange Apps store AddIn

In order to test the localization you would need a localized version of Inventor. You can download language packs from the Autodesk site for that: Autodesk Inventor 2014 Language Packs

Some information about this in the online help: Installing Language Packs

Localizing the AddIn registration information

This basically means adding translated texts inside the *.addin file that provides information about the AddIn. You can simply add a Language attribute to the tags that you want to localize. You should list the language spacific resources first and then the default resource which does not contain the Language tag. Like this:

  <DisplayName Language="1046">Teste de localização</DisplayName>

  <DisplayName>Localization Test</DisplayName>

  <Description Language="1046">Un simples AddIn para testar a localização</Description>

  <Description>A simple AddIn to test localization</Description>

In this case I added a Brazilian Portuguese version of the DisplayName and Description tags. One way to get the number that you need to use for the tag is by checking the LCID Dec column on this site: Locale IDs Assigned by Microsoft 

Now when I check the AddIn information then depending on the language version of Inventor I started I get the appropriate text:

Localizing resources used by the Add-In assembly 

You can take advantage of the .NET Framework localization to implement this. There are many articles that discuss this topic, but here are two of them:
- Retrieving Resources in Satellite Assemblies
- Creating Satellite Assemblies for Desktop Apps

To test things I simply created a new C# AddIn using the Inventor AddIn Wizard that is part of the SDK that comes with the Inventor 2014 installation and then followed the steps that are also listed in this article: Registering AutoCAD commands with localized names using .NET, and added the strings I wanted to use: TestString and TestCommand.

Then I created a button definition and a form, both of which rely on localized content. In case of the form I just modified its InitializeComponent function so that the assigned strings are coming from the resource files and did the same when creating the ButtonDefinition object. 

Visual Studio automatically created a wrapper class called Resources for my resources which makes it very easy to access the strings I want to use - e.g. when creating the button definition:

      m_button = mgr.ControlDefinitions.AddButtonDefinition(

        Resources.TestCommand, "Autodesk:Adam:TestCommand",

        CommandTypesEnum.kNonShapeEditCmdType);

Here is the result when running the AddIn in the English and the Brazilian version of Inventor:

You can download the test project from here: Download LocalizationTest 

Localizing data for the installer of your Autodesk Exchange Apps store AddIn

It's the same for all AddIn's on the Exhange Apps store: AutoCAD, Inventor, etc, so you can just follow the information provided in this blog post: About Exchange App Installer automatic Localization

API webcast archive

By Stephen Preston

As part of our ADN Open work to move our API content to more accessible (search-engine-findable) locations, I'm posting our webcast archive to DevBlog. Some of these recordings are old now, but still contain useful information. And, being recordings of live webcasts, they are not as polished as our DevTV recordings.

Note that some recordings are in Chinese and some in English.

 

Webcast	Language	Date
DevTV: Inventor Module 6 Assembly Essential Chinese	Chinese	16-Apr-13
DevTV Inventor Module5 SheetMetal Chinese	Chinese	27-Aug-12
Autodesk Inventor Module 4 Brep - Chinese.	Chinese	20-Jun-12
MFG DevCamp - June 13, 2012	English	13-Jun-12
DevTV: Vault API-Part 4-Job Server Customization - Chinese	Chinese	12-Jun-12
DevTV: Vault API-Part 3-Vault Explorer Customization - Chinese	Chinese	5-Jun-12
DevTV: Vault API-Part 2-Chinese	Chinese	8-May-12
Inventor Registry Free Addin – Chinese	Chinese	21-Feb-12
The Vault API - Part 5 - Business Logic Customization Through Events	English	16-Feb-12
The Vault API - Part 4 - Job Server Customization	English	14-Feb-12
The Vault API - Part 3 - Vault Explorer Customization	English	9-Feb-12
The Vault API - Part 2 - Server Communication	English	7-Feb-12
The Vault API - Part 1 - Overview	English	2-Feb-12
Autodesk Inventor API	Chinese	10-Jun-11
DevDays Online: Inventor 2012 API updates	English	7-Apr-11
Vault API Case Study - Watch Folder	English	25-Jan-11
Vault API Case Study - Recycle Bin	English	19-Jan-11
Vault API Case Study - Effective Folder Permissions	English	12-Jan-11
Autodesk Inventor API	Chinese	16-Jul-10
Introductory Inventor API_iProperties	Chinese	15-Jul-10
Introductory Inventor API_Part_Assembly_Drawing	Chinese	22-Jun-10
Manufacturing DevCamp	English	2-Jun-10
Introductory Inventor API_Dotnet AddIn and Installer	Chinese	25-May-10
Intermediate Vault programming	English	19-May-10
Introduction to Vault programming	English	13-May-10
Introductory Inventor API_Module 1 & 2	Chinese	11-May-10
Introductory Inventor API_Module 10	English	6-May-10
Introductory Inventor API_Module 9	English	29-Apr-10
Introduction to customizing Inventor for non-Programmers	Chinese	28-Apr-10
Introductory Inventor API_Module 8	English	22-Apr-10
Autodesk Inventor API	English	20-Apr-10
Introductory Inventor API_Module 7	English	15-Apr-10
Introductory Inventor API_Module 6	English	8-Apr-10
Introductory Inventor API_Module 5	English	1-Apr-10
Introductory Inventor API_Module 4	English	25-Mar-10
Introductory Inventor API_Module 3	English	18-Mar-10
Introductory Inventor API_Module 2	English	11-Mar-10
Introductory Inventor API_Module 1	English	4-Mar-10
Autodesk Inventor API	English	10-Jun-09
AutoCAD Mechanical API	English	3-Jun-09
AutoCAD Mechanical API	Chinese	2-Jun-09
Autodesk Inventor API	Chinese	19-May-09
Developer Days Online: Manufacturing	English	24-Feb-09
Autodesk Vault & Autodesk ProductStream API	Chinese	28-May-08
AutoCAD Mechanical API	English	7-May-08
Autodesk Vault & Autodesk ProductStream API	English	29-Apr-08
Autodesk Inventor API	Chinese	28-Apr-08

 

Use DrawingPrintManager from C++

By Adam Nagy

Here is a sample code that is using the DrawingPrintManager object to print the active drawing document:

// Make sure a Drawing Document is active

static void PrintDrawing(CComPtr<Application> app)

{

  CComQIPtr<DrawingPrintManager> mgr = 

    app->ActiveDocument->GetPrintManager();

 

  MessageBox(

    NULL, mgr->Printer, _T("Currently selected printer"), MB_OK);

 

  mgr->PutPrinter(_T("\\\\adsbeidc1\\HP LaserJet 5000 Series PCL"));

  mgr->ColorMode = kPrintColorPalette;

  mgr->NumberOfCopies = 1;

  mgr->Orientation = kLandscapeOrientation;

  mgr->ScaleMode = kPrintBestFitScale;

  mgr->SetSheetRange(1, 1);

  mgr->PaperSize = kPaperSizeA4;

 

  MessageBox(

    NULL, mgr->Printer, _T("Newly selected printer"), MB_OK);

 

  if (FAILED(mgr->SubmitPrint()))

    MessageBox(

      NULL, _T("Error with SubmitPrint"), _T("Error"), MB_OK);

}