Manufacturing DevBlog

Vault API: Users and Roles, part 3

By Marat Mirgaleev

Issue

Is there any programmatic way to add a user to the Vault server?

Solution

Yes, in Vault API we can easily create a new user with usage of the Autodesk.Connectivity.WebServices.AdminService class.

I will add a new method to the AdminSample class which we were working on in these posts: Vault API: Users and Roles, part 1 and Vault API: Users and Roles, part 2.

Sorry that I hardcoded the user’s data, I hope it is Ok for the purpose of a sample showing the process. Also, we will need to assign some role and some vault for the new user, this will require to find the IDs of the respective objects.

Here is our new method called AddUser():

    // Add a new user.

    // Let it be me with the 'Adminstrator' role and access to

    //   the vault called 'MaratVault'.

    //===============================================================

    public static void AddUser()

    {

      using (MyVaultServiceManager mgr = new MyVaultServiceManager(

                               MyVaultServiceManager.Mode.ReadWrite))

      {

        try

        {

          // Let's find the 'Administrator' role

          //------------------------------------------------------

          Role[] roles = mgr.Services.AdminService.GetAllRoles();

          Role admin = FindRole(roles, "Administrator");

          if( admin == null )

          {

            MessageBox.Show("FindRole() failed.");

            return;

          }

          long[] roleIdArray = new long[] { admin.Id };

          // I want to provide the user access to the vault called

          //   "MaratVault". So, let's find that vault Id:

          //---------------------------------------------------------

          KnowledgeVault vault = mgr.Services.KnowledgeVaultService.

                               GetKnowledgeVaultByName("MaratVault");

          long[] vaultIdArray = new long[] { vault.Id };

          // Now create the user

          //---------------------------------------------------------

          User newUser = mgr.Services.AdminService.AddUser(

              "MaratM",      // user name

              "123456",      // password

              AuthTyp.Vault, // authentication - not Active Directory

              "Marat",       // first name

              "Mirgaleev",   // last name

              "email",       // email address

              true,          // is active

              roleIdArray,   // which roles

              vaultIdArray); // which vaults

        }

        catch (System.Exception err)

        {

          MessageBox.Show("Probably, a user name conflict.\n"

                        + "The user name may already exist.\n\n"

                        + err.ToString(), "Error");

        } // try

      } // using

    } // AddUser() 

You may have noticed that we connect to Vault in the ‘Read-and-Write’ mode only if we need to change or add some information.

Let’s check whether is really works:

Nice, we did it! And it wasn't very difficult.

Vault API: Users and Roles, part 2

By Marat Mirgaleev

Issue

How do I get the list of Roles from the Vault server?

Solution

We will need to use the Autodesk.Connectivity.WebServices.AdminService class for this.

In my previous post I explained how to get the list of the Vault server users. Let’s continue working with the same code sample and add a ListRoles() method to our AdminSample class:

    // List all roles in the database

    //===============================================================

    public static void ListRoles()

    {

      using (MyVaultServiceManager mgr = new MyVaultServiceManager(

                                MyVaultServiceManager.Mode.ReadOnly))

      {

        try

        {

          // GetAllRoles() - this is the way to get all the Roles

          //------------------------------------------------------

          Role[] roles = mgr.Services.AdminService.GetAllRoles();

          // Prepare a string to show the Roles in a message box

          string msg = "Id |   Name\n";

                msg += "-------------\n";

          foreach (Role role in roles)

            msg += role.Id.ToString() + ": " + role.Name + "\n";

          MessageBox.Show(msg, "Roles found");

          // This is how we do find some arbitrary role

          Role admin = FindRole(roles, "Administrator");

          if (admin != null)

            MessageBox.Show("Administrator role Id is "

                          + admin.Id.ToString());

        }

        catch (System.Exception err)

        {

          MessageBox.Show(err.ToString());

        } // try

      } // using

    } // ListRoles()

Also, in this piece of code we look for a role called "Administrator", for this purpose we’ve created a very simple function which iterates through the roles array:

    // Find a role by its name.

    // Parameters: - An array of roles;

    //             - Role name to find.

    // Returns the found Role or null, if didn't find.

    //===============================================================

    private static Role FindRole(Role[] i_roles, string i_roleName)

    {

      Role found = null;

      foreach(Role role in i_roles)

        if (role.Name == i_roleName)

        {

          found = role;

          break;

        }

      return found;

    } 

This is the program output showing the list of Roles that exist in Vault by default:

                      

Vault API: Users and Roles, part 1

By Marat Mirgaleev

Issue

I would like to get a list of the users registered at the Vault server. Could you provide a code sample for this task, please?

Solution

Autodesk.Connectivity.WebServices.AdminService is the class which manipulates users, groups, roles etc.

To access the list of the users, we will need to connect to the Vault server and read the WebServiceManager.AdminService property first. I will create a utility class to maintain the connection (see the MyVaultServiceManager class in the code below).

Next, there is the AdminService.GetAllUsers() method that returns an array of objects of the User class. From the User class we can get information about the user like his/her name, ID, email address etc.

Here is a sample. The AdminSample.PrintUserInfo() method is what you need to call from your program, for example, when the user presses a button:

private void printUserInfo_button_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

  MyVault.AdminSample.PrintUserInfo();

}

This is the program output:

                         

And this is the code itself:

using System.IO;

using System.Windows.Forms;

using Autodesk.Connectivity.WebServices;

using Autodesk.Connectivity.WebServicesTools;

namespace MyVault

{

  // A wrapper for the Vault server connection.

  // Place it in a 'using' block for automatic call of Dispose(),

  //   which insures that it logs out when we are done.

  //=================================================================

  class MyVaultServiceManager : System.IDisposable

  {

    // We will incapsulate the WebServiceManager here.

    // The WebServiceManager will be used for our Vault server calls.

    private WebServiceManager _svcManager = null;

    public WebServiceManager Services

      { get { return _svcManager; } }

    public enum Mode { ReadOnly, ReadWrite };

    // Preventing usage of the default constructor - made it private

    private MyVaultServiceManager() { }

    // Constructor.

    // Parameter: - Log in as read-only, which doesn't consume 

    //              a license.

    //===============================================================

    public MyVaultServiceManager(Mode i_ReadWriteMode)

    {

      UserPasswordCredentials login = new UserPasswordCredentials(

                           "localhost", "Vault", "Administrator", "",

                           (i_ReadWriteMode == Mode.ReadOnly) );

                // Yeah, we shouldn't hardcode the credentials here,

                // but this is just a sample

      _svcManager = new WebServiceManager(login);

    }

    void System.IDisposable.Dispose()

    {

      _svcManager.Dispose();

    }

  } // class MyVaultServiceManager

  // In this sample we will try different things related to the

  //    Vault administration.

  //=================================================================

  class AdminSample

  {

    // Lists all the users along with their roles and the vaults they 

    //   have access to.

    //===============================================================

    public static void PrintUserInfo()

    {

      try

      {

        using (MyVaultServiceManager mgr = new MyVaultServiceManager(

                                MyVaultServiceManager.Mode.ReadOnly))

        {

          // The GetAllUsers method provides all the users' info

          //-----------------------------------------------------

          User[] users = mgr.Services.AdminService.GetAllUsers();

          // We will show the information in a simple message box

          string msg = "";

          foreach (User user in users)

          {

            UserInfo userInfo = 

              mgr.Services.AdminService.GetUserInfoByUserId(user.Id);

            msg += user.Name + "\n----------------";

            if (userInfo.Roles != null && userInfo.Roles.Length > 0)

            {

              msg += "\n   Roles:";

              foreach (Role role in userInfo.Roles)

              {

                msg += "\n\tId:   " + role.Id 

                     + ".\tName: " + role.Name;

              }

            }

            if (userInfo.Vaults != null && userInfo.Vaults.Length >0)

            {

              msg += "\n   Vaults:";

              foreach (KnowledgeVault vault in userInfo.Vaults)

              {

                msg += "\n\tId:   " + vault.Id

                     + ".\tName: " + vault.Name;

              }

            }

            msg += "\n================================\n";

          }

          MessageBox.Show( msg, "Completed!");

        } // using

      }

      catch (System.Exception err)

      {

        MessageBox.Show(err.Message);

      }

    } // PrintUserInfo()

  } // class AdminSample

} // namespace AdminExample

Connecting an Inventor AddIn from an external application (VB.NET)

By Philippe Leefsma

This posts illustrates how to connect an Inventor addin from an external executable and invoke a method through the COM server that will be performed in-process by the addin.

The Addin must return the AddinServer class intance through the Automation property:

    Public ReadOnly Property Automation() As Object _

        Implements Inventor.ApplicationAddInServer.Automation

 

        Get

            Return Me

        End Get

 

    End Property

-

It should also provides and implement an Interface, in this case we use a simple interface with a single method to implement:

 

    Public Interface DemoInterface

        Sub DemoMethod(str As String)

    End Interface

 

    <ProgIdAttribute("DemoVbAddIn.StandardAddInServer"), _

    GuidAttribute("7ce7b998-b41b-4ff5-b62b-19e73fc5ec7b")> _

    Public Class StandardAddInServer

        Implements Inventor.ApplicationAddInServer

        Implements DemoInterface

 

        ' ApplicationAddInServer implementation here...

 

        Public Sub demoMethod(Str As String) _

            Implements DemoInterface.DemoMethod

 

            MsgBox(Str)

 

        End Sub

 

    End Class

 

On the exe side, you need to access the addin, using the GUID is the most reliable way, then obtain this interface:

 

    Private Sub Form1_Load(

        ByVal sender As Object,

        ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _

            Handles Me.Load

 

        Try

            Dim InvApp As Inventor.Application =

                System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject( _

                    "Inventor.Application")

 

            Try

 

                Dim addIn As Inventor.ApplicationAddIn =

                    InvApp.ApplicationAddIns.ItemById( _

                        "{7ce7b998-b41b-4ff5-b62b-19e73fc5ec7b}")

 

                _addInInterface = addIn.Automation

 

            Catch ex As Exception

 

                System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show( _

                    "Error: AddIn not found...")

                Button1.Enabled = False

                Exit Sub

 

            End Try

 

        Catch ex As Exception

 

            System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show( _

                "Error: Inventor must be running...")

            Button1.Enabled = False

            Exit Sub

 

        End Try

    End Sub

 

AutomationDemo VB.Net.zip

Assigning a date-type property in C++

By Philippe Leefsma

Q:

How to convert a FILETIME structure to a CComVariant object to be stored in any of the Inventor date-type Properties?

A:

If you have a  FILETIME structure and want to store its contents into one of the date-type Properties for example "Creation Time" Property of the "Design Tracking Properties" PropertySet,  a COleDateTime object has to be used as an intermediate object of conversion. One of the constructors of the ColeDateTime class can take a FILETIME structure pointer. With the COleDateTime object created, this can be assigned to a CComVariant object. The CComVariant object can then be passed to the Property->PutValue method.

 

HRESULT AddDateProp(

      CComPtr<ApprenticeServerDocument>

      pApprenticeServerDocument)

{

      HRESULT hr;

 

      // Get property sets

      CComPtr<PropertySets> pPropSets;

      hr = pApprenticeServerDocument->get_PropertySets(

          &pPropSets);

      if FAILED(hr)

            return hr;

 

      // Get "Design Tracking Properties" property set

      CComPtr<PropertySet> pPropSet;

      hr = pPropSets->get_Item(

            CComVariant("Design Tracking Properties"),

            &pPropSet);

 

      if FAILED(hr)

            return hr;

 

      // Get "Creation Time" property

      CComPtr<Property> pProp;

      hr = pPropSet->get_Item(

          CComVariant("Creation Time"), &pProp);

 

      if FAILED(hr)

            return hr;

 

      // Creates FILETIME structure

      FILETIME filetime;

      filetime.dwHighDateTime = 200;

      filetime.dwLowDateTime = 100;

 

      // Create a COleDateTime object

      // based on the FILETIME structure

      COleDateTime newtime(filetime);

 

      // Put the value in the date-type Property

      hr = pProp->put_Value(CComVariant(newtime));

      if FAILED(hr)

            return hr;

 

      // Save changes to the properties

      hr = pPropSets->FlushToFile();

      if FAILED(hr)

            return hr;

 

      // Close the Apprentice object

      hr = pApprenticeServerDocument->Close();

      if FAILED(hr)

            return hr;

 

      return hr;

}

Implementing Events in VC++ Using the Inventor Wizard

By Philippe Leefsma

Run the Add –> Class command from the right-click menu in Visual Studio. This will display the dialog shown below. From the category list select Inventor and then click the Add button.

In the Short Name field, enter the name for the class you want to create that will handle the events. This name should not be the same as the Inventor object that supports the event or a name clash will occur. For example, in this case I want to connect to the ApplicationEvents. I cannot use this name and have instead chosen “AppEvents” for the name of the class for this example.

On the Inventor Events tab you select which event sink you want to implement. The wizard provides a list of the possible event sinks. In this case the ApplicationEventsSink has been chosen.

Once you’ve specified the name and selected the event sink to implement you can click the OK button. This will add two additional files to your project and insert some additional code. There are also some additional manual steps that you’ll need to perform to complete the implementation.

The first step is to declare an instance of the class that was created by the ATL Wizard to handle these events. In this example the name specified when using the Inventor Add-In Wizard to create the project was “test”. The declaration of the event sink object is done in the .h file of the add-in class definition. The shaded line below illustrates the additional code that was added to testAddInServer.h.

//----------------------------------------------------------------

//----- testAddInServer.h: Declaration of the CtestAddInServer

//----------------------------------------------------------------

 

#include "resource.h"

#include "AppEvents.h"

 

 

public:

    CComPtr<Application> m_pApplication ;

    CComPtr<ApplicationAddInSite> m_pAddInSite ;

 

    CComPtr<ApplicationEventsObject> mpAppEvents ;

    CComObject<CAppEvents> *mpAppSinkObject ;

 

    //{{AFX_INV_VARS_DECL(CtestAddInServer)

    //}}AFX_INV_VARS_DECL

The second step is to connect to the event source. The shaded code below was added to testAddInServer.cpp. The code in the Activate method connects to the event source while the code in the Deactivate method disconnects from the event source and cleans up.

//----------------------------------------------------------------

//----- testAddInServer.cpp : Implementation of CtestAddInServer

//----------------------------------------------------------------#include "StdAfx.h"

 

#include "test.h"

#include "testAddInServer.h"

#include "AppEvents.h"

 

//----------------------------------------------------------------

STDMETHODIMP CtestAddInServer::Activate (IDispatch *pDisp, VARIANT_BOOL FirstTime)

{

       AFX_MANAGE_STATE (AfxGetStaticModuleState ()) ;

 

       if ( pDisp == NULL )

              return E_INVALIDARG ;

 

       HRESULT hr =pDisp->QueryInterface (__uuidof (m_pAddInSite),

reinterpret_cast<void**>(&m_pAddInSite)) ;

       ATLASSERT( SUCCEEDED( hr ) ) ;

       if ( FAILED( hr ) )

              return hr ;

      

       //----- Get the application object.

       hr =m_pAddInSite->get_Application (&m_pApplication) ;

       ATLASSERT( SUCCEEDED( hr ) ) ;

       if ( FAILED( hr ) )

              return hr ;

 

       //{{AFX_INV_INIT_EVENTS(CtestAddInServer)

              hr = m_pApplication->get_ApplicationEvents(&mpAppEvents) ;

              CComObject<CAppEvents>::CreateInstance(&mpAppSinkObject) ;

              mpAppSinkObject->AddRef() ;

              mpAppSinkObject->DispEventAdvise(mpAppEvents) ;

       //}}AFX_INV_INIT_EVENTS

 

 

       //{{AFX_INV_INIT_CMDS(CtestAddInServer)

       //}}AFX_INV_INIT_CMDS

 

       return S_OK ;

}

 

//----------------------------------------------------------------

STDMETHODIMP CtestAddInServer::Deactivate ()

{

       AFX_MANAGE_STATE (AfxGetStaticModuleState ()) ;

 

       //{{AFX_INV_DEACT_EVENTS(CtestAddInServer)

              if ( mpAppSinkObject != NULL )

              {

                     mpAppSinkObject->DispEventUnadvise (

                         mpAppEvents) ;

                     mpAppSinkObject->Release () ;

                     mpAppSinkObject =NULL ;

                     mpAppEvents.Release () ;

                     mpAppEvents =NULL ;

              }

       //}}AFX_INV_DEACT_EVENTS

 

       //{{AFX_INV_DEL_CMDS(CtestAddInServer)

       //}}AFX_INV_DEL_CMDS

 

       m_pAddInSite.Release () ;

       m_pApplication.Release () ;

 

       return S_OK ;

}

The final step is to add the implementation for the event. The code below is a section from the AppEvents.cpp file that was created by the ATL Object Wizard. This file contains the sink methods for all of the events supported the event set chosen in the ATL Object Wizard. By default, none of them are implemented. To implement any of the events you just add your code and change the return code from E_NOTIMPL to S_OK. The shaded section of code is the code that was modified in the OnNewDocument method.

//----------------------------------------------------------------

//----- AppEvents.cpp : Implementation of CAppEvents

//----------------------------------------------------------------

 

STDMETHODIMP CAppEvents::OnNewDocument (

struct Document *pDocumentObject,

enum EventTimingEnum BeforeOrAfter,

struct NameValueMap *pContext,

enum HandlingCodeEnum *pHandlingCode)

{

       if ( pHandlingCode == NULL )

              return (E_POINTER) ;

 

       if ( BeforeOrAfter == kAfter ){

              AFX_MANAGE_STATE (AfxGetStaticModuleState ()) ;

              AfxMessageBox (_T("New Document Created."), MB_OK) ;

       }

 

       return (S_OK) ;

}

 

InvEventsCpp.zip

Update to Shortcut Key Customization Blog

By Barbara Han

Some times back, Gary posted a blog talking about “how to set the shortcut key to a customized command in Inventor”, however the code in that sample is quite out-of-date, so I want to give a update and also added one more point that you need to notice:

There are two types of shortcut key - Shortcut and Alias. Inventor API help document mentioned that the accelerator shortcut key can't be duplicate, but the alias shortcut key can. The alias shortcut key is interpreted as "Alt+<key>" (<key> is the letter showing in the Customize –> keyboard window), for instance, "I" alias shortcut key means that you can press Alt+I to bring out that command.

The following is a VBA code sample that assigns the alias shortcut key "I" to a custom command along with the code of deleting the command and custom ribbon. With VB.NET, the code is similar.

Below code is saved VBA Editor’s DocumentProject –>ThisDocument module:

Private WithEvents oBtnDef As ButtonDefinition

Sub AddBtnDefWithShortcut()

Dim oControlDefs As ControlDefinitions

Set oControlDefs = ThisApplication.CommandManager.ControlDefinitions

Dim ClientId As String
ClientId = "{3BB9D239-E672-4F2B-AA33-5B6A6EB74C54}"

'Create our own button command

Set oBtnDef = oControlDefs.AddButtonDefinition("MyControldefinition1", "Internal name for my controldef 1", kShapeEditCmdType, ClientId)

'Assign shortcut key to the button command

oBtnDef.OverrideShortcut = "I"

' Find the drawing ribbon.

Dim oRibbon As Ribbon

Set oRibbon = ThisApplication.UserInterfaceManager.Ribbons("Drawing")

Dim oRibbonTab As RibbonTab
Set oRibbonTab = oRibbon.RibbonTabs.Add("AdskRibbonTab", "AdskRibbonTab", ClientId)

' Add a control to the ribbon tab.
Dim oRibbonPanel As RibbonPanel
Set oRibbonPanel = oRibbonTab.RibbonPanels.Add("My Ribbon", "AdskRibbonPanel", ClientId)

Call oRibbonPanel.CommandControls.AddButton(oBtnDef)

End Sub

Private Sub oBtnDef_OnExecute(ByVal Context As NameValueMap)
    MsgBox ("command is running")
End Sub

Sub DeleteControlDef()

Dim oControlDefs As ControlDefinitions

Set oControlDefs = ThisApplication.CommandManager.ControlDefinitions

Dim oDef As ControlDefinition

Set oDef = oControlDefs.Item("Internal name for my controldef 1")

oDef.Delete

End Sub

Sub DeleteRibbon()
' Find the drawing ribbon.

Dim oRibbon As Ribbon

Set oRibbon = ThisApplication.UserInterfaceManager.Ribbons("Drawing")
Dim oRibbonTab As RibbonTab
Set oRibbonTab = oRibbon.RibbonTabs.Item("AdskRibbonTab")
Dim oRibbonPanel As RibbonPanel
Set oRibbonPanel = oRibbonTab.RibbonPanels.Item("AdskRibbonPanel")
oRibbonPanel.Delete
oRibbonTab.Delete
End Sub

selection without start selection events

By Xiaodong Liang

Issue

How do I arrange to detect selection of component occurrences in an assembly in a non-modal fashion? i.e. I want to detect the selection of parts or sub assemblies when an assembly is active,
without having to issue a command to start the selection process.
When an assembly is not active I don't want to intercept any selection events.

Solution

There are two phases to this solution..

(1) We need to react to component selection events in an Assembly context. We need to be able to enable/disable this behavior programmatically.

(2) We need to detect when an assembly is active. When an assembly is active we need to enable detection of selection events. When no assembly is active we need to disable detection of selection events.

To satisfy these two goals we need to provide two custom event sinks:

(1) DocumentEventsSink
In this event sink we implement OnChangeSelectSet().
This method is called whenever the selection set changes (something is added to selection,  or something is removed). We install appropriate logic to trap changes to the selection set that indicate that a component occurrence has been selected/deselected. We can then interrogate the selection set to determine the selected items.

(2) ApplicationEventsSink
In this event sink we implement OnActivateDocument, and OnDeactivateDocument. We install appropriate logic to trap Assembly documents being activated/deactivated.
When an Assembly document is activated we register our DocumentEventsSink (outlined above). When an Assembly document is deactivated we unregister our DocumentEventsSink.

Note: the DocumentsEventSink also has OnActivate(), and OnDeactivate() methods.
These methods are called when a document is activated or deactivated. However they are not currently
called when a new document is created - hence we need to use ApplicationEventsSink to manipulate the context of multi-documents.

 

Public oAppEvents As ApplicationEvents

Public oDocEvents As DocumentEvents

 

' start Application events and

' document events for the current document

Private Sub startAppEvents()

        _InvApplication = _

Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal. _

GetActiveObject("Inventor.Application")

 

   oAppEvents = _InvApplication.ApplicationEvents

   AddHandler oAppEvents.OnActivateDocument,

              AddressOf  OnActivateDocument

   AddHandler oAppEvents.OnDeactivateDocument,

              AddressOf OnDeactivateDocument

 

   If Not _InvApplication.ActiveDocument is Nothing then

        oDocEvents =

        _InvApplication.ActiveDocument.DocumentEvents

        AddHandler oDocEvents.OnChangeSelectSet,

        AddressOf OnChangeSelectSet                 

   End If      

End Sub

 

' stop the events

Private Sub endAppEvents()

    ' stop document event

    If Not oDocEvents is Nothing then

       RemoveHandler oDocEvents.OnChangeSelectSet,

            AddressOf   OnChangeSelectSet

       oDocEvents = Nothing

    End If     

 

  'stop application event

  If Not oAppEvents is Nothing then

      RemoveHandler oAppEvents.OnActivateDocument,

            AddressOf  OnActivateDocument

      RemoveHandler oAppEvents.OnDeactivateDocument,

            AddressOf  OnDeactivateDocument

      oAppEvents = Nothing

    End If 

End Sub

 

' ApplicationEvents.OnActivateDocument

Public Sub OnActivateDocument(

            ByVal DocumentObject As Inventor._Document,

            ByVal BeforeOrAfter As Inventor.EventTimingEnum,

            ByVal Context As Inventor.NameValueMap,

            ByRef HandlingCode As Inventor.HandlingCodeEnum)

 

 

   If BeforeOrAfter = EventTimingEnum.kAfter then

 

    ‘the new document is activated

   If Not _InvApplication.ActiveDocument is Nothing then

      oDocEvents =

         _InvApplication.ActiveDocument.DocumentEvents

      AddHandler oDocEvents.OnChangeSelectSet,

            AddressOf OnChangeSelectSet                 

    End If    

 

   End If

 

End Sub

 

'ApplicationEvents.OnactivateDocument

Public Sub OnDeactivateDocument(

            ByVal DocumentObject As Inventor._Document,

            ByVal BeforeOrAfter As Inventor.EventTimingEnum,

            ByVal Context As Inventor.NameValueMap,

            ByRef HandlingCode As Inventor.HandlingCodeEnum)

 If BeforeOrAfter = EventTimingEnum.kBefore then

 

      ' the old document is to deactivated

      If Not oDocEvents is Nothing then

           RemoveHandler oDocEvents.OnChangeSelectSet,AddressOf  OnChangeSelectSet

          oDocEvents = Nothing

       End If           

  End If

End Sub

 

' DocumentEvents.OnChangeSelectSet

Public Sub OnChangeSelectSet(

            ByVal BeforeOrAfter As Inventor.EventTimingEnum,

            ByVal Context As Inventor.NameValueMap,

            ByRef HandlingCode As Inventor.HandlingCodeEnum)

 

        If BeforeOrAfter = EventTimingEnum.kAfter then

       If _InvApplication.ActiveDocument.SelectSet.Count >0

                      then

                 Dim obj As Object =  

             _InvApplication.ActiveDocument.SelectSet(1)

                'do your work

            End If 

        End If

End Sub

custom 'Create In-Place Component'

By Xiaodong Liang

By responding to FileUIEvents.OnFileInsertNewDialog the client can replace the 'Create In-Place Component' dialog with their own. This notification is sent to the client immediately after the command is executed but before the standard dialog is displayed to the end-user. By supplying at least the Filename argument and setting the HandlingCode to kEventHandled, Inventor will bypass displaying the standard dialog and use the information provided to create a new in-place component within the assembly. The rest of the command behavior remains the same. That is, if this isn't the first component being placed in the assembly, the end-user must select a location in the assembly to position the new component.

private WithEvents oFileUIE As FileUIEvents

'start file UI events

Sub startFileUIEvent()

_InvApplication = _

Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal. _

GetActiveObject("Inventor.Application")

 

oFileUIE = _InvApplication.FileUIEvents

 

End Sub 

'end file UI events

Sub endFileUIEvent()

    oFileDlgEvents = Nothing

End Sub

'OnFileInserNewDialog

Private Sub oFileUIE_OnFileInsertNewDialog(

           ByVal TemplateDir As String,

           ByRef FileTypes() As String,

           ByVal DocumentObject As Inventor._Document,

           ByVal ParentHWND As Integer,

           ByRef TemplateFileName As String,

           ByRef FileName As String,

           ByRef RelativeFileName As String,

           ByRef LibraryName As String,

           ByRef CustomLogicalName() As Byte,

           ByVal Context As Inventor.NameValueMap,

           ByRef HandlingCode As Inventor.HandlingCodeEnum)

           Handles oFileUIE.OnFileInsertNewDialog

 

TemplateDir = "C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2013\Templates\"

TemplateFileName =  "C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2013\Templates\standard.ipt"

FileName = "c:\newpart.ipt"

HandlingCode = HandlingCodeEnum.kEventHandled

End Sub

 

But, when this is done, the dialog box that appears on selecting the "Create Component" command of the UI is by passed and so, the user is not given the following choices:

1) Constrain sketch plane to selected face or plane, which is specified on the check box which is normally displayed on the dialog box that appears on selecting the "Create Component" command of UI can no longer be specified.

2) the choice of selecting a face from existing occurrences that help in defining the xy,xz and yz planes of the new occurrence that is going to be created. A new part is created with the filename specified in the event, but, the x, y and z axis are the assembly's x, y and z axis and the user is not given a choice of where to create the part.

The workarounds are:

way 1. Create your own command which will execute the following code.

Sub CreateComponent()

 

    ' assume inventor application is available

_InvApplication.CommandManager.PostPrivateEvent(PrivateEventTypeEnum.kFileNameEvent, "c:\newpart.ipt")

 

Dim oCtrlDef As ButtonDefinition

oCtrlDef = _InvApplication.CommandManager.ControlDefinitions.Item("AssemblyCreateComponentCmd")

 

oCtrlDef.Execute

 

End Sub

way 2. Monitor the UserInputEvents.OnActivateCommand. If the CommandName is "AssemblyCreateComponentCmd", then execute the following line to feed in the file name

   _InvApplication.CommandManager.PostPrivateEvent (PrivateEventTypeEnum.kFileNameEvent, "c:\newpart.ipt")

Access thumbnail Images from Inventor 2011 file

By Xiaodong Liang

This post is for Inventor 2011 only.

Issue

The thumbnail preview in Inventor 2011 has changed and is no longer accessible as it was in previous versions. The ThumbnailViewer.dll and provided SDK samples from Autodesk cannot work for the files of Inventor 2011. It failed at ImageConverter.IpictureToImage

Solution

This is a known issue. The format for thumbnails changed from bmp to png in 2011, while ThumbnailViewer does not update accordingly.We have provided the updated version in SP1 of Inventor 2011. 

Before SP1, our expert Brian has posted the updated version of ThumbnailViewer on his blog. It has the source code you can even use that to see what has changed in ThumbnailViewer.

http://modthemachine.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/06/accessing-thumbnail-images.html

and an updated version to fix the problem to enable the application that was using the component to run as an administrator.

http://modthemachine.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/06/update-to-thumbnail-component.html#tp