Manufacturing DevBlog

Using Entitlement API for Inventor 2023

By Sajith Subramanian

As you may be already aware, If you have an app on the Autodesk App Store, then you might want to check if the user actually paid for and downloaded your app from the store, or just copied it from someone else's computer. This is what the Entitlement API can help you with.

Inventor 2023 API has introduced 3 new properties to help with checking the Entitlement:

• LoggedIn  - Read-only property that returns whether the user has logged in the online services or not.
• LoginUserId - Read-only property that returns the login user Id(this is the same as the A360 oxygen Id). This returns an empty string if user has not logged in.
• LoginUserName - Read-only property that returns the online services login user name. This returns an empty string if user has not logged in.

The Entitlement API is a simple RESTful API where you just need to send an HTTP GET request to the App Store server.

Below is the sample code that demonstrates this usage:

m_inventorApplication = addInSiteObject.Application;
   if (m_inventorApplication.LoggedIn) // check if user has logged in
      {

      //string username = m_inventorApplication.LoginUserName; //returns the logged in username
         string userId = m_inventorApplication.LoginUserId; // returns the logged in userID
         string appId = "<Enter Your APP ID here>";
                    
         string urlParameters = String.Format("?userid={0}&appid={1}", userId, appId);
         string responseBody = await httpClient.GetStringAsync(urlParameters);
         EntitlementResponse entitlementResponse = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<EntitlementResponse>(responseBody);

        if (entitlementResponse.IsValid == true)
            {
              // user validated... execute rest of the code…
             }

         }

You can find the full source code here:

https://github.com/sajith-subramanian/EntitlementAPI-Inventor

Working with PropertySets and Model States

By Sajith Subramanian

If you wish to change a Property's value on a document having Model States, the workflow via API is the similar to the Inventor UI:

• Activate the required Model State using ModelState.Activate.
• Set the MemberEditScope to either kEditActiveMember or kEditAllMembers based on whether the updated value would be applied only to the active model state or all members.
• Get the property from Factory document (and not the Model State document), and change its value.
• To confirm whether the required Property has been correctly updated, activate the respective Model State and query the property from the Factory Document.

Here is a sample VBA code that exhibits a similar workflow:

Sub ModelStateProps()

Dim oPartDoc  As PartDocument
Set oPartDoc = ThisDocument

Dim oCompDef As PartComponentDefinition
Set oCompDef = oPartDoc.ComponentDefinition

Dim oModelStates As ModelStates
Set oModelStates = oCompDef.ModelStates

‘Fetch the required Model State from the collection

Dim oModelState As ModelState
Set oModelState = oCompDef.ModelStates("Model State 1")

'Activate the model state
oModelState.Activate

' Get the design tracking property set for our model state.
Dim oSummaryInfo As Inventor.PropertySet
Set oSummaryInfo = oPartDoc.PropertySets.Item("Inventor Summary Information")

' Get the Comments property.
Dim oCommentsProperty As Property
Set oCommentsProperty = oSummaryInfo.Item("Comments")

' Set the Member Edit Scope
oModelStates.MemberEditScope = kEditActiveMember  'kEditAllMembers for all members

'Set the value
oCommentsProperty.Value = "Updating comments via API!"

End Sub

A couple of things to remember:

• It is recommended to edit in the Factory Document context and activate the Model State you wish to edit.
• It is not recommended to change the Model State Member Document directly. Also, the Member Document may not exist, if not already generated. Hence, your code would return a ‘Null’ in such cases, as shown below.

Using a Named User License with a Custom Web Application

By Sajith Subramanian

Users having a Named User license and working with a custom web application, can now login into Vault with their Named User license, with the existing Standard / Windows authentication.

With the Vault 2021.2 update onwards, the LogInWithUserLicense() method was added to support this workflow.

The sample code syntax for this method would be similar to:

VDF.Vault.Results.LoginResult results = VDF.Vault.Library.ConnectionManager.LogInWithUserLicense(
                 tbServerName.Text, tbVaultName.Text, tbUserName.Text, tbPassword.Text, Token, VDF.Vault.Currency.Connections.AuthenticationFlags.Standard, null);

m_conn = results.Connection;

The above method takes in an additional input parameter "Token". You can refer to the Forge documentation on how to generate this token:
https://forge.autodesk.com/en/docs/oauth/v2/tutorials/get-3-legged-token/

The Vault SDK also contains a ready to compile sample that demonstrates this workflow. On a default installation of Vault, you can find it here:
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Autodesk Vault 2022 SDK\VS19\CSharp\WebAppUserLicense
Do take a look at the included Readme.txt file that contains additional details to help build and run this sample.

Check if the File links of an Item are up-to-date

By Sajith Subramanian

If you wish to check if the file links of an item are up-to-date, using the API, then you can make use of the ItemFileLinkState property for that particular Item. So for e.g:

try
{    
  Item item = connection.WebServiceManager.ItemService.GetLatestItemByItemNumber("10001");   

  PropDef[] propDefs =
    connection.WebServiceManager.PropertyService.GetPropertyDefinitionsByEntityClassId("ITEM");  

  PropDef propdef =
  propDefs.Where(s => s.SysName == VDF.Vault.Currency.Properties.PropertyDefinitionIds.
                                                             Server.ItemFileLinkState).First();  

  PropInst prop = 
    connection.WebServiceManager.PropertyService.GetProperties("ITEM", 
                                        new long[] { item.Id }, new long[] { def.Id }).First();     

  var value = prop.Val;
}

This would return 3 possible values - 0, 10 and 20, which basically means: 0 – “Out of Date “; 10 – “Current”; 20 - "No links".

Power(Shell)ing the Inventor API!

By Sajith Subramanian

If you are more comfortable using PowerShell and have an Inventor API workflow that you want to quickly test, you can just combine both!

To help demonstrate this, below is a Inventor API sample in PowerShell that exports a drawing file as PDF.

Once you have your Windows PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE) up, the first line of code would be to add the Inventor reference DLL as below:

Add-Type -Path ("C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.Net\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Autodesk.Inventor.Interop\v4.0_25.0.0.0__d84147f8b4276564\Autodesk.Inventor.Interop.dll")

The next step would be to create an instance of Inventor (or get an existing instance if it is already open). To do so, you can add the below lines:

try
{
$m_inventorApp = [Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::GetActiveObject('Inventor.Application')
$m_quitInventor = $false
echo 'Getting existing instance...'
}
catch
{
     echo 'Creating new instance...'
     $inventorAppType = [System.Type]::GetTypeFromProgID("Inventor.Application");
     $m_inventorApp = [System.Activator]::CreateInstance($inventorAppType) 
     $m_quitInventor = $true
}

Now, we open our input drawing document with the “Open as Visible” flag set to False, and use this document object as input to the PublishPdf function.

$document = $m_inventorApp.Documents.Open("C:\TEMP\Hairdryer.idw", $false)
PublishPdf($document)

Now, in our PublishPdf function we add the below lines:

function PublishPdf {
   param ($doc)
   $PDFAddIn = $m_inventorApp.ApplicationAddIns.ItemById("{0AC6FD96-2F4D-42CE-8BE0-8AEA580399E4}")
   $oContext = $m_inventorApp.TransientObjects.CreateTranslationContext() 
   $oContext.Type = [Inventor.IOMechanismEnum]::kFileBrowseIOMechanism
   $oOptions = $m_inventorApp.TransientObjects.CreateNameValueMap()
   $oDataMedium = $m_inventorApp.TransientObjects.CreateDataMedium()
   If ($PDFAddIn.HasSaveCopyAsOptions($doc, $oContext, $oOptions)) 
    {
     
       $oOptions.Value("All_Color_AS_Black") = 0
    }
    
   $oDataMedium.FileName = "c:\temp\test.pdf"
       
   $PDFAddIn.SaveCopyAs($doc, $oContext, $oOptions, $oDataMedium)
}

And finally, close the created Inventor instance:

if ($m_inventorApp -ne $null -and $m_quitInventor -eq $true)
{
 $m_inventorApp.Quit()
 echo 'Quitting Inventor...'
} 

In the above example, while I have hard-coded the input file path, you can also choose to pass this as an input in a command line argument.

Using Microsoft Edge WebView2 in a DetailPaneTab

By Sajith Subramanian

Previously, in order to have a Chromium based browser control, you probably would have used CefSharp. Now there is an alternative which is also Chromium based, i.e. the WebView2.

One of the quicker and easier ways to test this, would be using the HelloWorld sample that comes along with the Vault SDK.

The first step in our HelloWorld sample would be to add the WebView2 SDK. To do so, navigate to Tools –> NuGet Package Manager –> Manage NuGet Packages for Solution, and install the WebView2 as shown below.

Next, open the UserControl file as Designer and add the WebView2 control as shown below:

For a complete step by step guide on using WebView2 with Windows forms, do take a look at the below article:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/webview2/gettingstarted/winforms

Now, in our Command Extension class, i.e. the HelloWorldCommandExtension.cs in the HelloWorld sample, add the below lines of code in the DetailTabs() function.

public IEnumerable<DetailPaneTab> DetailTabs()
   {
     // Create a DetailPaneTab list to return from method
     List<DetailPaneTab> fileTabs = new List<DetailPaneTab>();
      // Create Selection Info tab for Files
       DetailPaneTab filePropertyTab = new DetailPaneTab("File.Tab.browsertab",
                                                   "Browser Tab",
                                                   SelectionTypeId.File,
                                                   typeof(BrowserControl)); //type of our UserControl
   //The propertyTab_SelectionChanged is called whenever our tab is active and the selection    
     //changes in the main grid 

    filePropertyTab.SelectionChanged += propertyTab_SelectionChanged;
    fileTabs.Add(filePropertyTab);

Next add the below code in the Selection Changed event of our custom tab.

void propertyTab_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
                // The event args has our custom tab object.  We need to cast it to our type.
                BrowserControl tabControl = e.Context.UserControl as BrowserControl;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
              // If something goes wrong, we don't want the exception to bubble up to Vault Explorer.
                MessageBox.Show("Error: " + ex.Message);
            }
        }

Lastly, to get this up and running, you would need the WebView2 runtime. You can download it here.

You should now have the browser control show up in your custom tab!

Fusion 360: JavaScript API is being fully retired

By Sajith Subramanian

The end of support for the JavaScript API was announced a couple of years ago.

However, so far any scripts or add-ins that were written using the JavaScript API have continued to run.

Please note that this is set to change, and as of the December release of Fusion 360 they will no longer run at all.

Any script or add-in using the JavaScript API will need to be migrated to either Python or C++.

Please find the official announcement here:

Notice: JavaScript API is being fully retired

Using Entitlement API from Fusion 360

By Sajith Subramanian

If you have an app on the Autodesk App Store then you might want to check if the user actually paid for and downloaded your app from the store or just copied it from someone else's computer. This what the Entitlement API can help you with.

This article will focus on the Windows OS. If you wish to achieve this on a MacOS, please navigate to the below link:

https://modthemachine.typepad.com/my_weblog/2015/10/use-entitlement-api-from-fusion.html

The Entitlement API is a simple RESTful API where you just need to send an HTTP GET request to the App Store server.

Since the Fusion API supports both C++ and Python, this article shall be covering both, should the need arise.

1. C++:

There are many library options that you could choose to make an HTTP request using C++. For this example, I installed this RestClient (which is a wrapper for the cURL library) and installed it using vcpkg.

Tip: When using vcpkg, it usually defaults to 32-bit platform. To set it to a 64-bit platform, you can set the environment variable as below:

VCPKG_DEFAULT_TRIPLET=x64-windows

I have also used this JsonCPP library to help parse the HTTP response.

Below are the steps that I needed to follow for implementation:

> Create a C++ Fusion add-in and edit it so it opens in Visual Studio. For detailed steps on how to create an add-in please refer: Creating a Script or Add-In.

> In Visual Studio, navigate to Project –> Properties -> Configuration Properties -> VC++ Directories -> Include directories.

Here add the full path to the Include directories where you have installed the libraries. For e.g.

C:\vcpkg\packages\restclient-cpp_x64-windows\include
C:\vcpkg\packages\jsoncpp_x64-windows\include

Next, in the same window, navigate to Library directories.

Here, add the full path to the Lib folder. For e.g.

C:\vcpkg\packages\restclient-cpp_x64-windows\lib

C:\vcpkg\packages\jsoncpp_x64-windows\lib

> Now navigate to Linker > Input > Additional Dependencies, and add the full path to the required lib files:

C:\vcpkg\packages\restclient-cpp_x64-windows\lib\restclient-cpp.lib
C:\vcpkg\packages\jsoncpp_x64-windows\lib\jsoncpp.lib

> Now add the following statements at the top of the CPP file.

#include <restclient-cpp/restclient.h>
#include <json/json.h>

using namespace std;

      Followed by:

extern "C" XI_EXPORT bool run(const char* context)
{
   try
    {
     app = Application::get();
     if (!app)
         return false;

    ui = app->userInterface();
     if (!ui)
         return false;

    string userId = app->userId();
     string appId = "1006119760063675415";  // App ID
     string url =   

    "https://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/webservices/checkentitlement"
            + string("?userid=") + userId + string("&appid=") + appId;
    

     RestClient::Response response = RestClient::get(url);
        
      Json::Reader reader;
      Json::Value root;

     bool isparseSuccessful = reader.parse(response.body, root);
      if (!isparseSuccessful)
         {
             ui->messageBox("Error parsing the string");
         }
    
      if ((root["IsValid"].asString()) == "true")
         {
             ui->messageBox("IsValid is True");
         }
      else
         {
             ui->messageBox("IsValid is False");
         }

   catch (exception ex)
     {
     }
    return true;
}

> You can easily figure out the id of your app by finding it on the App Store and then checking the URL in the browser. That will contain an id parameter which is what you need in the appId variable used in the above code.

Now based on whether the app has been downloaded or not, you should either see:

                                  or          

2. Python:

To achieve the same using Python, download the Requests module. I have also used the built-in JSON package to help parse the HTTP response.

Add the below lines to import the packages at the top of your .py file.

from .modules import requests

import json

Followed by:

def run(context):

    ui = None

try:

        app = adsk.core.Application.get()

        ui  = app.userInterface

        userId = app.userId

        appId ="1006119760063675415"

        url  = "https://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/webservices/checkentitlement" +

       "?userid=" + userId + "&appid=" + appId

        r = requests.get(url)

        resp_dict = json.loads(r.text)

        val = resp_dict.get('IsValid')

if val:

            ui.messageBox("IsValid is True")

else:

            ui.messageBox("IsValid is False")

except:

if ui:

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

       You can find the full source code here: 

        https://github.com/sajith-subramanian/EntitlementAPI-for-Fusion-360

What’s new in the Vault 2021 API

By Sajith Subramanian

Vault 2021 was released worldwide in March 2020. This blog post will highlight the major API updates for this release.

In case you prefer to watch, rather than read, please feel free to skip to the below video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtWpkKAAnzM

New Web Service: Analytics Service

The Analytics Service collects and reports information back to users for Duplicate Search functionality, which finds geometrically identical shapes inside a Vault.

New Supporting Classes:

1. DuplicateSearchSnapshot

•  CandidateFileCount (long)
• Total files that are within the indexing scope for determining duplicates.
•  DuplicateFileCount (long)
• The number of files determined as duplicates.
• DuplicateFileGroupsCount (long)
• The number of files determined as having unique shapes (group).
• Extension (string)
• The file extension.
• IndexedFileCount (long)
• The number of files currently indexed for determining duplicates.
• VaultedFileCount (long)
• The total number of files that are in the current Vault.

2. DuplicateSearchStatus

• AnyFailedIndexedJobs (bool)
• Did any jobs fail for indexing the file data?
• IsEnabled (bool)
• Is the Duplicate Search functionality enabled?
• IsFoldersConfigured (bool)
• Are there any folders configured for file indexing?
• Snapshot (DuplicateSearchSnapshot)
• A snapshot of the duplicate search results.

3. DuplicateSearchFolderConfiguration

• FolderId (long)
• The folder ID in duplicate search’s scope.

4. DuplicateSearchConfiguration

• DuplicateSearchFolderConfigurationArray (DuplicateSearchFolderConfiguration[])
• A collection of duplicate search folder configurations, which defines the scope of folders to use in indexing.
• Enabled (bool)
• Is duplicate search enabled for the current Vault?

New Methods:

• DuplicateSearchConfiguration GetDuplicateSearchConfiguration()
• Gets the current Vault’s duplicate search configuration.
• void SetDuplicateSearchConfiguration(DuplicateSearchConfiguration config)
• Sets the duplicate search configuration for the current Vault.
• DuplicateSearchStatus GetDuplicateSearchStatus()
• Gets the Vault’s duplicate search status, which contains snapshot data.

Updated Web Service: Change Order Service

New Supporting Classes:

1. ChangeOrderEmailTemplate

• Body (string)
• The template for the email’s body.
• COPropDefIdArray (long[])
• A collection of which change order property definitions to include in the e-mail, selected by property definition ID.
• FilePropDefIdArray (long[])
• A collection of which controlled files’ property definitions to include in the e-mail, selected by property definition ID.
• ItemPropDefIdArray (long[])
• A collection of which controlled items’ property definitions to include in the e-mail, selected by property definition ID.
• Subject (string)
• The template for the email’s subject

2. EmailMsg

• Body (string)
• The e-mail’s body
• Subject (string)
• The e-mail’s subject

New Methods:

• ChangeOrderEmailTemplate GetDefaultEmailTemplate()
• Gets the current Vault’s system-generated (default) e-mail template for change order notifications.
• ChangeOrderEmailTemplate GetEmailTemplate()
• Gets the customized email template for change order notifications.
• void SaveEmailTemplate(string subject, string body, long[] coPropDefIds, long[] itemPropDefIds, long[] filePropDefIds)
• Saves the customized e-mail template to a ChangeOrderEmailTemplate object, for use in change order notifications.
• EmailMsg GetEmailMessageByChangeOrderId(long changeOrderId, string changeOrderNumber, string stateName, bool excludeRelatedObjects)
• Gets an e-mail message for a given Change order ID.

Removed Methods:

• string GetEmailBodyByChangeOrderId(long changeOrderId, string changeOrderNumber, string stateName, bool excludeRelatedObjects)
• This method has been replaced with GetEmailMessageByChangeOrderId()

Miscellaneous Changes

New Property:

• Role.SysName (string)
• Exposes the Role’s internal system name.
• This value is immutable and cannot be user set.

New Method:

• Job JobService.ResubmitJob(long jobId)
• You can now resubmit jobs from Vaults other than where they were originally submitted from.

Updated Enumerations:

• FileClassification.DesignPresentation
• With this new classification, we can identify Inventor Presentation (.IPN) files more accurately within Vault

Highlighted Feature Updates

1. Download Permisisons

• Updated Property:
• AccessPermis.Id (long)
• There’s a new Id value added to accommodate for setting or denying Download Permissions:
• 4, AllowDownload
• New Exception Class:
• VaultDownloadDeniedException

2. Purge Enhancements

New Method:

• void LifeCycleService.ApplyPurgeRestrictOptionToHistory(long lcStateId)

INumberProvider–Error 4112 ’NumberingSchemeProviderCouldNotBeLoaded’ when using VB

By Sajith Subramanian

When converting the sample code for Custom Numbering that comes along with the SDK from C# to VB, one of our users reported that he was now facing the error 4112, i.e. NumberingSchemeProviderCouldNotBeLoaded.

Solution:

In case of VB, it seems that there is a Root Namespace that is added before every Namespace, which should also be included in the 'type' attribute in web.config. If you add that, it should be able to initialize correctly. So the following should get it to work:

<numberproviders>
<numberprovider name="CustomProvider" type="CustomNumberingProvider.CustomNumberingProvider.CustomNumberingProvider, CustomNumberingProvider" cancache="false">
<!-- <initializationParm value="somethingImportant" /> -–>
</numberprovider>
</numberproviders>