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By Adam Nagy
You might have heard of Forge which was announced during AU. As part of that we'll also organize a cloud accelerator March 14th to 18th inclusive in our San Francisco office that you can already apply for at http://autodeskcloudaccelerator.com/apply/.
You can find more info about the event here:
http://adndevblog.typepad.com/cloud_and_mobile/2015/12/apply-to-attend-the-forge-accelerator.html
See you there :)
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By Adam Nagy
When you create a new document then a new GUID will be assigned to its InternalName property. This will stay the same for the lifetime of the document no matter what modifications have been done in the document geometry or file properties. This property also remains the same when the file gets copied or renamed. So how to tell the difference between two copied documents once they got modified?
You can use the RevisionId and DatabaseRevisionId property for that depending on what kind of differences you are interested in:
RevisionId
Gets the GUID that represents the last saved revision of this file. Works as a stamp of the contents of this file.
DatabaseRevisionId
Gets the GUID that represents the last saved revision of database contained in this document. This revision id tracks modifications to the database (such as reference changes, geometry changes, etc.) but does not track file property changes.
If two documents have the same InternalName, then they were originally the same file but could have been modified in the meantime.
If their DatabaseRevisionId is the same, then their geometry and references are the same.
If their RevisionId is the same, then everything in the two files are the same.
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By Adam Nagy
There is already an article on changing the file reference to another file using the Inventor API:
http://adndevblog.typepad.com/manufacturing/2012/08/replace-the-file-reference-by-inventor-api.html
If you want to combine this with the renaming of a referenced file then you can do it like so. It might be a good idea to keep the original file until the reference has been replaced:
Sub ChangeFileNameReferencedFromAssembly()
Dim asmDoc As AssemblyDocument
Set asmDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
Dim asmCompDef As AssemblyComponentDefinition
Set asmCompDef = asmDoc.ComponentDefinition
Dim asmOcc As ComponentOccurrence
Set asmOcc = asmCompDef.Occurrences(1)
Dim partDoc As PartDocument
Set partDoc = asmOcc.Definition.Document
Dim fileMgr As FileManager
Set fileMgr = ThisApplication.FileManager
Dim oldFileName As String
oldFileName = partDoc.FullFileName
' Create new file with new file name
Dim newFileName As String
newFileName = oldFileName + "_new.ipt"
Call fileMgr.CopyFile(oldFileName, newFileName)
' Change reference
' The file you replace the reference to needs
' to be the same file or one derived from the
' original file
Call asmOcc.ReferencedDocumentDescriptor. _
ReferencedFileDescriptor.ReplaceReference(newFileName)
' Delete the original file (if you want)
Call fileMgr.DeleteFile(oldFileName)
End Sub
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By Adam Nagy
If you have issues with loading or reloading your add-in these might be the most likely issues.
1) Issues with loading the add-in
This is the scenario when your add-in never gets loaded.
Is your add-in found by Inventor?
- if your add-in is not listed in the Add-In Manager dialog then Inventor cannot even find your add-in. You should check that you placed your *.addin file in the right folder and that all the information in it is correct: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=20143212
Does your add-in have a unique id?
- maybe your add-in was based on an existing add-in and so is using the same GUID as another one which gets loaded into Inventor. You can always list all the add-in GUIDs which are being loaded into Inventor and compare that to your add-in's GUID.
Is the bitness of your add-in the same as Inventor's?
- check the project setting that it's 32 bit on a 32 bit OS and 64 bit on a 64 bit OS. In case of a .NET add-in the easiest is to use the "Any CPU" setting
Is your add-in COM Visible?
- make sure that "Make assembly COM-Visible" setting is checked. Note: do not confuse it with the "Register for COM interop" setting which should be switched off as that would make the add-in use the old registration mechanism.
Still cannot load it?
- if you still cannot even step into the code inside the Activate() method then you might have some unresolved dependencies or you might have some issues inside the constructor of your ApplicationAddInServer implementation or maybe some global variables that error out. If there are any issues before reaching the Activate() method or inside that, your add-in will not get loaded.
2) Issues with reloading add-in
This is the scenario when you could already load your add-in successfully, but within the same Inventor session, once you unloaded your add-in you could not get it loaded again.
Are you removing the controls you are creating?
- the most likely problem is that you are creating some control definitions and UI components, but you do not remove them inside the Deactivate() method when your add-in gets unloaded. So when you try to load your add-in again, since those components already exist, your code will error out and the loading of the add-in will be cancelled.
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let’s consider the part that consists of two equal overlapped bodies:
| + | = | |||
| Volume=2cm3 |
| Volume=2cm3 |
| Expected: |
Expected volume is 3 cm3. But on the Physical property tab I see unexpected values:
It looks like UI ignores bodies overlapping. So the question is how can we calculate the correct values in case of bodies overlapping?
The easiest way is to use TransientBRep API. The following code sample calculates volume and surface area of the transient body that is the result of the Boolean union of the two “real” bodies.
Sub TransientBRep_DoBoolean_Multibody()
'uses TransientBRep to calculate area and volume
'of the two overlapped bodies in the multibody part
Dim oPartDoc As PartDocument
Set oPartDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
Dim oPartDef As PartComponentDefinition
Set oPartDef = oPartDoc.ComponentDefinition
Dim oRealBody1 As SurfaceBody
Set oRealBody1 = oPartDef.SurfaceBodies.Item(1)
Dim oRealBody2 As SurfaceBody
Set oRealBody2 = oPartDef.SurfaceBodies.Item(2)
Dim oTransientBRep As TransientBRep
Set oTransientBRep = ThisApplication.TransientBRep
Dim oBody1 As SurfaceBody
Set oBody1 = oTransientBRep.Copy(oRealBody1)
Dim oBody2 As SurfaceBody
Set oBody2 = oTransientBRep.Copy(oRealBody2)
'do Boolean operation on the two bodies
'only oBody1 has to be transient
Call oTransientBRep.DoBoolean( _
oBody1, oBody2, BooleanTypeEnum.kBooleanTypeUnion)
'' Call oTransientBRep.DoBoolean( _
'' oBody1, oBody2, BooleanTypeEnum.kBooleanTypeIntersect)
Debug.Print "Volume = " & oBody1.volume(0.001)
Debug.Print "Area = " & GetBodyArea(oBody1)
End Sub
Private Function GetBodyArea(ByRef oBody As SurfaceBody) As Double
Dim area As Double
area = 0
Dim oFace As Face
For Each oFace In oBody.faces
Dim oEval As SurfaceEvaluator
Set oEval = oFace.Evaluator
area = area + oEval.area
Next
GetBodyArea = area
End Function
Results:
Volume = 3
Area = 14
If you need to know the volume of the intersections then you should change the type of the Boolean operation to BooleanTypeEnum.kBooleanTypeIntersect.
Results:
Volume = 1
Area = 6
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By Adam Nagy
If you have an iLogic rule then you can hook it up to various events - one of those is iProperty Change:
Though ideally this event should fire even when the iProperty changes as a result of an iPart factory row change, it does not. It's a limitation in the Inventor API.
However, the following workaround is available.
First of all, you might have to add a new user parameter to the part just for this purpose:
Add this parameter to the iPart table and make sure its value changes whenever the iProperty (in this case Title) changes - i.e. it needs to have different values in each row.
Then add a line like this to the rule:
trigger = UserParameter
Even though the purpose of the rule is to work with the iProperty, you can use the parameter change to trigger it.
Attached is the sample part file: Download IPartTest
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Texture Image of Asset
Question:
I have made simple part and assign to one face "Norman - One-Third Running" material from "Autodesk Material Library" . Then I have run VBA sample code "Write out all document appearances API Sample" of API help. The code result does not retrieve texture image. How it can be done ?
Solution:
The texture may be connected to the ColorAssetValue and FloatAssetValue, you can find the two asset values have HasConnectedTexture, but also a texture might also be in the TextureAssetValue. So now there are three asset value object can contain texture info.
In another word, the texture can be in different levels in the asset values, it depends on the type of the asset, like below asset type is Masonry, it has two textures:
Textures are at different locations in different types of asset, however there is not API that tells the type(Note, this is not Asset.AssetType), so we can only iterate all levels of the asset values to get the texture info.
Sub AssetTextureSample()
Dim oDoc As PartDocument
Set oDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
Dim oAppearance As Asset
For Each oAppearance In oDoc.AppearanceAssets
Dim oColor As ColorAssetValue, oFloat As FloatAssetValue, oTypeTexture As TextureAssetValue
Dim oValue As AssetValue
If oAppearance.HasTexture Then
For Each oValue In oAppearance
'TextureAssetValue
If oValue.ValueType = kAssetValueTextureType Then
Set oTypeTexture = oValue
Dim textureSubValue As AssetValue
For Each textureSubValue In oTypeTexture.value
Select Case textureSubValue.ValueType
Case kAssetValueTypeFilename
Dim filenameValue As FilenameAssetValue
Set filenameValue = textureSubValue
Debug.Print "kAssetValueTextureType " & filenameValue.value
End Select
Next
End If
'ColorAssetValue
If oValue.ValueType = kAssetValueTypeColor Then
Set oColor = oValue
If Not (oColor.ConnectedTexture Is Nothing) Then
Debug.Print "---------------------------"
Debug.Print oAppearance.DisplayName
Dim oTexture As AssetTexture
Set oTexture = oColor.ConnectedTexture
Dim oTextureValue As AssetValue
For Each oTextureValue In oTexture
If oTextureValue.ValueType = kAssetValueTypeFilename Then
Dim oFilename As FilenameAssetValue
Set oFilename = oTextureValue
If oFilename.HasMultipleValues Then
Dim sFiles() As String
sFiles = oFilename.Values
Dim i As Long
For i = 0 To UBound(sFiles)
Debug.Print "kAssetValueTypeColor " & sFiles(i)
Next
Else
Debug.Print "kAssetValueTypeColor " & oFilename.value
End If
End If
Next
End If
End If
' FloatAssetValue
If oValue.ValueType = kAssetValueTypeFloat Then
Set oFloat = oValue
If Not (oFloat.ConnectedTexture Is Nothing) Then
Debug.Print "---------------------------"
Debug.Print oAppearance.DisplayName
Set oTexture = oFloat.ConnectedTexture
For Each oTextureValue In oTexture
If oTextureValue.ValueType = kAssetValueTypeFilename Then
Set oFilename = oTextureValue
If oFilename.HasMultipleValues Then
sFiles = oFilename.Values
For i = 0 To UBound(sFiles)
Debug.Print "kAssetValueTypeFloat " & sFiles(i)
Next
Else
Debug.Print "kAssetValueTypeFloat " & oFilename.value
End If
End If
Next
End If
End If
Next
End If
Next
End Sub
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In Inventor UI, we can edit cell, add new columns to the family table. In API, there are equivalent objects and methods.
The presumption is the family has been copied to your custom library which is read-write enabled.
The demo below dumps gets the specific family, dumps all columns name, adds one new column whose value is string type. Finally it fills in the column with the value ‘dummy’ for all rows. It also intentionally modifies the value of column ‘Grip Len’ of all rows.
Do not forget to save the family after any modification.
Sub ModifyFamilyTable()
Dim oContentCenter As ContentCenter
Set oContentCenter = ThisApplication.ContentCenter
Dim hexHeadNode As ContentTreeViewNode
Set hexHeadNode = ThisApplication.ContentCenter.TreeViewTopNode.ChildNodes.Item("Fasteners").ChildNodes.Item("Bolts").ChildNodes.Item("Hex Head")
Dim family As ContentFamily
Dim checkFamily As ContentFamily
For Each checkFamily In hexHeadNode.Families
If checkFamily.DisplayName = "DIN EN 24016" Then
Set family = checkFamily
Exit For
End If
Next
Dim oContentTableColumns As ContentTableColumns
Set oContentTableColumns = family.TableColumns
'dump all columns
Dim oContentTableColumn As ContentTableColumn
For Each oContentTableColumn In oContentTableColumns
Debug.Print "internal name:" & oContentTableColumn.InternalName & "<<<<>>>>display heading:" & oContentTableColumn.DisplayHeading
Next
'add one column
Dim oNewCol As ContentTableColumn
Set oNewCol = oContentTableColumns.Add("myHexHeadNewCol", "My Hex Head New Property", kStringType)
'modify cell
Dim oRow As ContentTableRow
For Each oRow In family.TableRows
'cell value of new column
oRow.Item("myHexHeadNewCol").Value = "dummy"
'cell value of a built-in column named 'GD1', display name: "Pitch Diameter"
'e.g. double it
'use internal name of the column
oRow.Item("KLG").Value = oRow.Item("KLG").Value * 2
Next
'save change
Call family.Save
End Sub
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By Adam Nagy
Built-in Inventor commands in general are expected to fire the OnActivateCommand event of the UserInputEvents object and set the ActiveCommand property of the CommandManager object.
However, some of them do not for the following reason (which is the same reason your command might not fire it either): no interaction has been started.
To start an interaction you need to create an InteractionEvents object and call its Start function at the beginning of your command and its Stop function at the end.
You should also name the interaction, which then will show up as the CommandName parameter in the OnActivateCommand / OnTerminateCommand events, and as the ActiveCommand property of the CommandManager object.
// My command's OnExecute handler
void m_btnDef_OnExecute(NameValueMap Context)
{
// Start interaction
CommandManager cmdMgr = m_inventorApplication.CommandManager;
InteractionEvents intEvents = cmdMgr.CreateInteractionEvents();
intEvents.Name = m_btnDef.InternalName;
intEvents.Start(); // OnActivateCommand fires
// My command's implementation goes here
// If during this time the CommandManager.ActiveCommand is accessed
// it will retrieve the value we set to intEvents.Name
// Stop interaction
intEvents.Stop();
}
// OnTerminateCommand fires once interaction is stopped and
// control got back to Inventor
Example:
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