Hide component in DrawingView using ControlDefinition

By Adam Nagy

Sometimes if the API is not working, one workaround could be selecting the component in the BrowserPane and executing the relevant ControlDefinition on it: http://adndevblog.typepad.com/manufacturing/2012/09/parse-browsernodes-for-a-specified-node-and-perform-userinterface-commands.html

Some components are not hooked up to the browser so you cannot get to the associated node using GetBrowserNodeFromObject, or it selects the wrong object: http://adndevblog.typepad.com/manufacturing/2013/04/get-browsernode-of-an-occurrence.html

Here is a VBA solution that shows how you might get to the object you need and then execute a command on it:

Function GetOccurrenceNode( _
name As String, nodes As BrowserNodesEnumerator) _
As BrowserNode
  Dim node As BrowserNode
  For Each node In nodes
    If node.BrowserNodeDefinition.Label = name Then
      Set GetOccurrenceNode = node
      Exit Function
    End If
        
    Set GetOccurrenceNode = _
      GetOccurrenceNode(name, node.BrowserNodes)
    If Not GetOccurrenceNode Is Nothing Then
      Exit Function
    End If
  Next
End Function

Function GetNode( _
obj As Object, nodes As BrowserNodesEnumerator) As BrowserNode
  Dim node As BrowserNode
  For Each node In nodes
    If node.NativeObject Is obj Then
      Set GetNode = node
      Exit Function
    End If
        
    Set GetNode = GetNode(obj, node.BrowserNodes)
    If Not GetNode Is Nothing Then
      Exit Function
    End If
  Next
End Function

Sub HideSubComponent()
  Dim dwg As DrawingDocument
  Set dwg = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
    
  Dim dv As DrawingView
  ' Get "B:MainAsm.iam" Detail View
  Set dv = dwg.ActiveSheet.DrawingViews(2)
    
  Dim bp As BrowserPane
  Set bp = dwg.BrowserPanes("DlHierarchy")
        
  Dim asm As AssemblyDocument
  Set asm = dv.ReferencedDocumentDescriptor.ReferencedDocument
    
  Dim occ As ComponentOccurrence
  Set occ = asm.ComponentDefinition.Occurrences(1)
    
  ' This throws an error in Inventor 2012,
  ' that's the reason for the below workaround
  'Call dv.SetVisibility(occ, False)
    
  ' If it's hidden already then we're done
  If Not dv.GetVisibility(occ) Then Exit Sub
    
  ' We have to find the BrowserNode of the
  ' occurrence under the DrawingView
  Dim node As BrowserNode
  ' This does not work well for dv.ParentView,
  ' and does not work at all for dv:
  'Set node = bp.GetBrowserNodeFromObject(dv.parent)
  ' So we use this instead
  Set node = GetNode(dv, bp.TopNode.BrowserNodes)
    
  ' Then select the occurrence under the view node
  Set node = GetOccurrenceNode(occ.name, node.BrowserNodes)
  Call node.DoSelect
    
  ' Then run the command on it
  Dim cm As CommandManager
  Set cm = ThisApplication.CommandManager
    
  Dim cd As ControlDefinition
  Set cd = cm.ControlDefinitions("DrawingEntityVisibilityCtxCmd")
    
  Call cd.Execute
End Sub