Manufacturing DevBlog

Learn about the Forge Design Automation API for Inventor

By Sajith Subramanian

Join in for a webinar on the Forge Design Automation for Inventor on the 7th of May at 8 AM PDT. For more details on the webinar and registration, please navigate to the below page:

https://forge.autodesk.com/blog/design-automation-api-inventor-webinar

Connecting vault and accessing vault file status through Inventor iLogic

By Chandra shekar Gopal

 

Inventor iLoigc is very useful to Inventor developers due to easy development and easy deployment with in built editor. As iLogic rules can be attached or incorporated with Inventor documents, it encourages reusability of iLogic rules.

iLogic rules can be triggered an automatic update of a whole host of parameters, feature/component suppression and iProperty values based on a variety of actions like below.

• Parameter value change
• Model geometry or drawing view changes
• Software Events
• When a document is created
• Right before a document is saved
• On demand by the user

Inventor iLogic can also be used to establish vault connection and access vault file status. To demonstrate the same, below iLogic can be used to connect vault and access vault file status of current document.

AddReference "Autodesk.Connectivity.WebServices.dll"
Imports AWS = Autodesk.Connectivity.WebServices
AddReference "Autodesk.DataManagement.Client.Framework.Vault.dll"
Imports VDF = Autodesk.DataManagement.Client.Framework
AddReference "Connectivity.Application.VaultBase.dll"
Imports VB = Connectivity.Application.VaultBase

Dim mVltCon As VDF.Vault.Currency.Connections.Connection
mVltCon = VB.ConnectionManager.Instance.Connection
 
If  mVltCon Is Nothing Then
     Messagebox.Show("Not Logged In to Vault! - Login first and repeat executing this rule.")
     Exit Sub
End If

Dim VaultPath As String = ThisDoc.PathAndFileName(True)
VaultPath = VaultPath.Replace("C:\$WorkingFolder\", "$/")
'flip the slashes
VaultPath = VaultPath.Replace("\", "/")

Dim VaultPaths() As String = New String() {VaultPath}
 
Dim wsFiels() As AWS.File = mVltCon.WebServiceManager.DocumentService.FindLatestFilesByPaths(VaultPaths)
 
Dim mFileIt As VDF.Vault.Currency.Entities.FileIteration = New VDF.Vault.Currency.Entities.FileIteration(conn,wsFiels(0))
Dim lifeCycleInfo As VDF.Vault.Currency.Entities.FileLifecycleInfo = mFileIt.LifecycleInfo

Messagebox.Show(lifeCycleInfo.Statename)

Note: Before using above iLogic rule, make sure that local working folder of vault is updated (VaultPath = VaultPath.Replace("C:\$WorkingFolder\", "$/")). Because, it is system specific. In my system, “C:\$WorkingFolder\” is the local working folder of Vault.

Identification of Cosmetic weld via Inventor 2020 API

by Chandra shekar Gopal

In Inventor 2019 and lower versions,  Cosmetic welds were unable to recognize via Inventor API. Now, Inventor 2020 API is able to identify Cosmetic weld in weldment assembly.

Try below VBA code to know length of Cosmetic weld which is tested with attached weldment assembly (I109269.iam)

Sub Cosmetic_weld()

    Dim oDoc As AssemblyDocument
     Set oDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument

    Dim oDef As WeldmentComponentDefinition
     Set oDef = oDoc.ComponentDefinition

    Dim oWeld As Weld
     For Each oWeld In oDef.Welds

        Dim TotalLength As Double
         TotalLength = 0
         Dim oEdge As Edge
         For Each oEdge In oWeld.Edges

            Dim oCurveEval As CurveEvaluator
             Set oCurveEval = oEdge.Evaluator

            Dim MinParam As Double
             Dim MaxParam As Double
             Dim Length As Double
            
             Call oCurveEval.GetParamExtents(MinParam, MaxParam)
             Call oCurveEval.GetLengthAtParam(MinParam, MaxParam, Length)
             TotalLength = TotalLength + Length

        Next

        Debug.Print "Length of " & oWeld.Name & " is " & ThisApplication.UnitsOfMeasure.GetStringFromValue(TotalLength, kMillimeterLengthUnits)

    Next
End Sub

Output of VBA code for attached weldment assembly would look like below.

Length of Cosmetic Weld 1 is 189.699 mm
Length of Cosmetic Weld 2 is 229.323 mm
Length of Cosmetic Weld 3 is 229.323 mm
Length of Cosmetic Weld 4 is 189.699 mm
Length of Cosmetic Weld 5 is 189.699 mm
Length of Cosmetic Weld 6 is 229.323 mm
Length of Cosmetic Weld 7 is 229.323 mm
Length of Cosmetic Weld 8 is 189.699 mm

Download WeldmentAssembly