Manufacturing DevBlog

Connecting Microsoft Access via Inventor iLogic

by Chandra shekar Gopal

If you want to connect Microsoft Access Database through Inventor iLogic, a data connectivity driver called “2007 Office System Driver : Data Connectivity Components” is required to install in system. It can be downloaded from this link(Download Employeeinfo)

After successful installation of driver,the following iLogic code can be used to access Microsoft Access database in Inventor 2017

AddReference "System.Data"
AddReference "System.Core"
AddReference "System.Xml"

Imports System.Data.OleDb
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Xml


Sub Main()

	Dim Table_ As String = "EmployeeInfo"
	Dim query As String = "SELECT * FROM " & Table_
	Dim MDBConnString_ As String = "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=C:\Temp\EmployeeInfo.accdb;Persist Security Info=False;"
	Dim ds As New DataSet
	Dim cnn As OleDbConnection = New OleDbConnection(MDBConnString_)
	cnn.Open()
	Dim cmd As New OleDbCommand(query, cnn)
	Dim da As New OleDbDataAdapter(cmd)
	da.Fill(ds, Table_)
	cnn.Close()
	Dim t1 As DataTable = ds.Tables(Table_)
	Dim row As DataRow
	Dim Item(2) As String
	For Each row In t1.Rows
		MessageBox.Show("EID : " & row(0) & " and Employee Name : " & row(1)
	Next
End Sub

To demonstrate code, a sample database (EmployeeInfo.accdb) is created and that would like as shown below.

Sample database can be downloaded from here. After downloading database to desire location, path of database should be updated in the above iLogic code.

Result:

Fusion 360 API: Transform Component

By Xiaodong Liang

There are some posts on Autodesk forum about translating or rotating component in the assembly. This blog is mainly for sort them out. 

The object Occurrence.transform manages the transformation this component locates relatively to the space of assembly. It is  Matrix3D which is a standard math object. you could either make static method to build the translation, transformBy a matrix (Matrix3D.transformBy, or edit the cells (Matrix3D.setCell). Calling the transform property of the Occurrence object creates a new matrix that contains the current transform information of the occurrence and returns this matrix.  The matrix doesn't have any relationship back to the occurrence so changing information in the matrix has not affect on the occurrence.  So, the correct way to update the transformation is to get the existing transform as a matrix, change data within the matrix and then assign it back to the occurrence.  The matrix being assigned back to the occurrence can come from anywhere.  The assignment then update the internal transform of the occurrence.

The following is a code snippet on translating one component, and rotate another component. It shows a couple ways to update transformation. The comments enclosed explain the corresponding methods. 

Another trick in this demo is: to make an animation of the transforming, you will need to call doEvents after each transformation updates.  doEvents function temporarily halts the execution of the add-in or script and gives Fusion 360 a chance to handle any queued up messages.  

 

 

#Author-
#Description-


import adsk.core, adsk.fusion, adsk.cam, traceback,threading
import math
import time



times = 0


def eachMove():
    ui = None
    try:
        app = adsk.core.Application.get()
        ui  = app.userInterface


        #get product        
        product = app.activeProduct
        design = adsk.fusion.Design.cast(product)
        if not design:
            ui.messageBox('No active Fusion design', 'No Design')
            return


        # Get the root component of the active design.
        rootComp = design.rootComponent
        #get array of occurrences
        occurrences = rootComp.occurrences.asList
        
        #get first component
        occurrence_first = occurrences.item(0)
        
         #get second component
        occurrence_second= occurrences.item(1)
        
        #get thrid component
        occurrence_third= occurrences.item(2)
        
       
        while (times < 20):           
            
            #translate the first component by updating [translation] property

            #wrong way: occurrence.transform will clone and return a matrix
            #so any change on this cloned matrix does not take effect on the 
            #update of component
            #offsetVector = adsk.core.Vector3D.create(5.0, 0, 0)
            #occurrence.transform.translation.add( offsetVector )
        
            # Get the current transform of the first occurrence
            transform = occurrence_first.transform
            
            if times <10:
                # Change the transform data by moving 5.0cm on X+ axis
                transform.translation = adsk.core.Vector3D.create( transform.translation.x +  5.0, 0, 0)
            else:
                # Change the transform data by moving 5.0cm on X- axis
                transform.translation = adsk.core.Vector3D.create( transform.translation.x -  5.0, 0, 0)
                
            # Set the tranform data back to the occurrence
            occurrence_first.transform = transform
            
            # Get the current transform of the second occurrence
            transform = occurrence_second.transform
            
            
            rotX = adsk.core.Matrix3D.create()
            # Change the transform data by rotating around Z+ axis

            rotX.setToRotation(math.pi/4, adsk.core.Vector3D.create(0,0,1), adsk.core.Point3D.create(0,0,0))
            transform.transformBy(rotX)
            
             # Set the tranform data back to the occurrence
            occurrence_second.transform = transform
            
             # Get the current transform of the third occurrence
            transform = occurrence_third.transform
            
            if times <10:
                # Change the transform data by moving 5.0cm on Y+ axis
                transform.setCell(1,3,transform.getCell(1,3) + 5.0)
            else:
                # Change the transform data by moving 5.0cm on Y- axis
                transform.setCell(1,3,transform.getCell(1,3) - 5.0)
                 

            #rotate around Z+ axis
            rotZSin = math.sin(math.pi/4 * times)
            rotZCos = math.cos(math.pi/4 * times)
            
            #change the cells value 
            transform.setCell(0,0,rotZCos)
            transform.setCell(0,1,rotZSin)
            transform.setCell(1,0,-rotZSin)
            transform.setCell(1,1,rotZCos) 
            
             # Set the tranform data back to the occurrence
            occurrence_third.transform = transform
            
            
            global times
            times =times +1 
            time.sleep( 0.1 )

            #Calling doEvents gives it a chance to catch up each time the components are transformed. 
            adsk.doEvents() 

       
        
       
    except:
        if ui:
            ui.messageBox('Failed:\n{}'.format(traceback.format_exc()))


def run(context): 
    global times
    times = 0
    eachMove() 
   

click the picture to see the gif.

Fusion 360 API: Customized Export Dialog

By Xiaodong Liang

This is a solution described in the forum post. The blog is basically for making the related codes be more searchable. 

The built-in dialog of [Export] is not customizable currently. While the API provides an object FileDialog that can be a workaround. i.e. make your own Export dialog and specify the parameters you would like to have such as file path and file type. This dialog is still a traditional type. I will write another blog on how to make an HTML dialog like the same style of built-in Export dialog.

 

 

 

import adsk.core, adsk.fusion, traceback

def run(context):
    ui = None
    try:
        app = adsk.core.Application.get()
        ui = app.userInterface
        filedlg = ui.createFileDialog()
        filedlg.initialDirectory = '/Users'
        filedlg.filter = '*.f3d'
        if filedlg.showSave() == adsk.core.DialogResults.DialogOK:
            design = adsk.fusion.Design.cast(app.activeProduct)
            option = design.exportManager.createFusionArchiveExportOptions(filedlg.filename, design.rootComponent)
            design.exportManager.execute(option)
    except:
      if ui:
          ui.messageBox('Failed:\n{}'.format(traceback.format_exc()))

Entitlement API in Inventor 2018

By Chandra shekar Gopal

Entitlement API are used in getting Autodesk 360 users account information. It also helps in determining genuinely of users. Whether the user is downloaded from App Store or copied from somewhere else.

In previous version of Inventor (2016 & 2017), Entitlement API is provided by AdWebServices.dll and is in C++. It is explained in this post.

In Inventor 2018, Entitlement API is provided by a .net Wrapper called "AddinNETFramework.AdWebServicesWrapper.dll"

The .net Wrapper is available at installed location (C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 2018\Bin)

So, in order to access Entitlement API, AddReference "AddinNETFramework.AdWebServicesWrapper.dll" from installed location to the application.

Sample C# code.

using Autodesk.WebServices;

CWebServicesManager mgr = new CWebServicesManager();

bool isInitialize = mgr.Initialize();

if (isInitialize == true)
{

   string userId = "";

   mgr.GetUserId(ref userId);

   string username = "";

   mgr.GetLoginUserName(ref username);

}

Sample VB.net code.

Imports Autodesk.WebServices

Dim webServiceMgr As CWebServicesManager

webServiceMgr = New CWebServicesManager()

Dim isWebServiceInitialized As Boolean

isWebServiceInitialized = webServiceMgr.Initialize()

If isWebServiceInitialized = True Then

    Dim userId As String = "" webService

    Mgr.GetUserId(userId)

    Dim userName As String = "" webService

    Mgr.GetLoginUserName(userName)

End If

Note: Changes in entitlement API for Inventor 2020 is blogged in this post.