Manufacturing DevBlog

Exception when logging into Vault using Microsoft Office

By Sajith Subramanian

Issue: It was recently reported, that when logging into Vault using a Microsoft Office product (e.g. MS Word), the login will fail with the below error.

Cause: This seems to be caused when deploying a WebServiceExtension Add-in. This issue can be seen, even when using the RestrictOperations sample that comes along with the SDK.

Resolution: This issue appears when there is a mismatch between the bit-ness of Office (x64 vs x86) and that of the RestrictOperations extension. E.g. I have Office x86 installed and can see the issue if RestrictOperations is built for x64 -  but when RestrictOperations is built for x86 then it runs correctly. 

Until this is fixed, the simplest solution to this, is to change the Platform Target of the extension project to AnyCPU (see below). When this is done, the extension will subsequently run correctly in both Word (x86) and Vault Explorer (x64) without change.

Getting ModelFeatureControlFrames in PartDocument via VBA code

By Chandra shekar Gopal

In a PartDocument, hoping that ModelFeatureControlFrames can be retrieved from “ModelFeatureControlFrames” Inventor API. Instead of this, ModelFeatureControlFrames are encapsulated in “ModelCompositeAnnotations”.

Annotations in ModelCompositeAnnotations doesn’t count only the number of ModelFeatureControlFrames. It also includes variety of annotations.

To demonstrate this, a sample part can be downloaded from this Link which looks as shown below. In this part, there are 9 FeatureControlFrames and 8 FeatureControlFrames as base in composite.

VBA code:

Sub Main()

    Dim oDoc As PartDocument
     Set oDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
    
     Dim compDef As PartComponentDefinition
     Set compDef = oDoc.ComponentDefinition
    
     Dim cnt As Integer
     cnt = compDef.ModelAnnotations.ModelFeatureControlFrames.Count
    
     Dim compositeCnt As Integer
     compositeCnt = compDef.ModelAnnotations.ModelCompositeAnnotations.Count
    
     Dim fcfCnt As Integer
     fcfCnt = 0
     Dim fcfBaseCnt As Integer
     fcfBaseCnt = 0
        
     For Each CompositeAnnotation In compDef.ModelAnnotations.ModelCompositeAnnotations
         For Each childAnno In CompositeAnnotation.Definition.Annotations
             If childAnno.Type = kModelFeatureControlFrameObject Then
                 fcfCnt = fcfCnt + 1
                
                 Dim fcf As ModelFeatureControlFrame
                 Set fcf = childAnno
                 fcf.Definition.FeatureControlFrameRows.Item(1).DisplayFreeStateModifier = True
             End If
         Next
        
         If CompositeAnnotation.Definition.BaseAnnotation.Type = kModelFeatureControlFrameObject Then
             fcfBaseCnt = fcfBaseCnt + 1
                
             Dim fcfBase As ModelFeatureControlFrame
             Set fcfBase = CompositeAnnotation.Definition.BaseAnnotation
             fcfBase.Definition.FeatureControlFrameRows.Item(1).DisplayTangentPlaneModifier = True
         End If
     Next
       
    
     Debug.Print "standalone FCFs"; cnt
     Debug.Print "Copmosite annotations"; compositeCnt
     Debug.Print "FCFs in Composite"; fcfCnt
     Debug.Print "FCFs as Base in Composite"; fcfBaseCnt
End Sub

Result for sample part:

standalone FCFs 0
Copmosite annotations 9

FCFs in Composite 9
FCFs as Base in Composite 8