Autodesk Robot Structural Analysis

[#1]

Hi,

During the last months of year 2011 I had a few discussions with Marcin Rakus and Marek Wiecek about how to manage with the load on claddings through the Robot Open Source API.

The conclusion was that the API of RSA 2011 did not cover 100% of program functionality, making it impossible to manipulate such data. Typically, when accessing the load type I_LRT_UNIFORM associated to claddings in my RSA models, I get not only the loads on the cladding itself but also the ones generated automatically on the bars being in the influence area of the cladding. The API seemed to work fine with panels, unfortunately I do not use such objects. We also tried to write some code to convert claddings into panels, and the opposite, but it did not lead to something satisfying.

Has the API of RSA 2012 been updated to allow an efficient management of claddings ?...

[#2]

I have not checked yet in code but according to documentation this flag is available from v.2012

If IsAutoGenerated = true (1) such records can be skipped during ....

[#3]

Hi,

Ok I'll try to check in code, but how do you get access to this parameter ?

For example, working with a RobApp object initialized with Set RobApp = New RobotApplication : RobApp.Project.Structure... ???

Thanks

[#4]

Sample Excel VBA code:

records with TRUE below displayed = generated automaticaly from cladding

Sub Button1_Click()
Dim RobApp As IRobotApplication
Set RobApp = New RobotApplication

Dim iscsel As IRobotSelection
Dim RLCom As IRobotLoadRecordCommon

Set iscsel = RobApp.Project.Structure.Selections.CreatePredefined(I_PS_CASE_SIMPLE_CASES)

Dim col As IRobotCaseCollection
Set col = RobApp.Project.Structure.Cases.GetMany(iscsel)
Dim isc As IRobotSimpleCase
Row = 10

For c = 1 To col.Count
    Range("B9").Value = Format(c) & " / " & Format(ccount)
    Dim icase As IRobotCase
    Set icase = col.Get(c)
    If icase.Type = I_CT_SIMPLE Then
        
        Set isc = icase
        Dim r As Long, i As Long, rcount As Long
        rcount = isc.Records.Count
        r = 1
        While r > 0 And r <= isc.Records.Count
            Rr = "B" + Trim(Str(Row))
            Range(Rr).Value = icase.Number & " / " & Format(isc.Records.Count)
            DoEvents
            Dim irec As IRobotLoadRecord
            Set irec = isc.Records.Get(r)
            Set RLCom = isc.Records.Get(r)
            
            Cells(Row, 3) = Str(RLCom.IsAutoGenerated)
            Cells(Row, 4) = irec.Objects.ToText

 
            Set irec = isc.Records.Get(r)
            For iic = 0 To 14
                Cells(Row, 5 + iic) = irec.GetValue(iic)
            Next iic
            Row = Row + 1
            r = r + 1
        Wend
        Set isc = Nothing
        
    End If

    Set icase = Nothing
Next c

Set col = Nothing
Set iscsel = Nothing
RobApp.Interactive = 1
Set RobApp = Nothing
End Sub

[#5]

OK, this flag is doing well.

It solves the question of accessing to a uniform load on a cladding.

Now a last one : I wanted to extend this to a load defined by three points (IRobotLoadRecordIn3Points). The flag is efficient as well but I have some trouble with the VBA code to get the coordinates of the points. The documentation suggests to use this method :

Public Function GetPoint(_which_point As int, ByRef _x As double*, ByRef _y As double*, ByRef _z As double*) As Boolean

First remark : when writing the code in the VBA Excel interface the type of the function is told to be a "long". It's not necessary a problem because the result of the function is no matter of interest.

But there is also a compilation error : even declaring explicitely the type of the three arguments x, y and z (Dim testX, testY, testZ As Double), an error message tells that the type of the ByRef arguments is incorrect when calling the function (after initializing an object as usual I just wrote : LoadRec3p.GetPoint 1, testX, testY, testZ guessing it would assign the coordinate values of point A to the last three arguments).

Do you have some example of a code properly writed in VBA ?...

Thanks for your help

[#6]

First remark : when writing the code in the VBA Excel interface the type of the function is told to be a "long". It's not necessary a problem because the result of the function is no matter of interest.

"Get coordinates of given point of load. Return false when given point has not " 

In fact if false it returns 0, if true   -1. They can be long or bool.

Do you have some example of a code properly writed in VBA ?...

Sub AAAA()
Dim RobApp As IRobotApplication
Set RobApp = New RobotApplication

Dim iscsel As IRobotSelection
Dim RLCom As IRobotLoadRecordCommon

Set iscsel = RobApp.Project.Structure.Selections.CreatePredefined(I_PS_CASE_SIMPLE_CASES)

Dim col As IRobotCaseCollection
Set col = RobApp.Project.Structure.Cases.GetMany(iscsel)
Dim isc As IRobotSimpleCase
Row = 10

For c = 1 To col.Count
    Set isc = col.Get(c)
   
        Dim r As Long, i As Long, rcount As Long
        rcount = isc.Records.Count
        For r = 1 To rcount
        
            Dim irec As IRobotLoadRecord
            Set irec = isc.Records.Get(r)
            
            If (irec.Type = I_LRT_IN_3_POINTS) Then
                Dim Cr As RobotLoadRecordIn3Points
                Set Cr = isc.Records.Get(r)
                Dim X As Double
                Dim Y As Double
                Dim Z As Double
                
                For i = 1 To 3
                    Cr.GetPoint i, X, Y, Z
                    Cells(Row, 3) = "Point " & Str(i)
                    Cells(Row, 4) = X
                    Cells(Row, 5) = Y
                    Cells(Row, 6) = Z
                    Cells(Row, 7) = "Value"
                    Cells(Row, 8) = Cr.GetValue(i * 3 - 3)
                    Cells(Row, 9) = Cr.GetValue(i * 3 - 2)
                    Cells(Row, 10) = Cr.GetValue(i * 3 - 1)
                    Row = Row + 1
                Next i
            End If
            
            Row = Row + 1
        Next r
      
        Set isc = Nothing

    Set icase = Nothing
Next c

Set col = Nothing
Set iscsel = Nothing
RobApp.Interactive = 1
Set RobApp = Nothing
End Sub

[#7 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the example

After looking for a long time for errors in the objects syntax (unsuccessfully), I found out quite by chance why the compilation failed :

when declaring variables I often use such a syntax to save time :

Dim X, Y, Z as Double

in Excel VBA this should not be different from :

Dim X as Double

Dim Y as Double

Dim Z as Double

but here the code does not run when using the first method... don't understand why

Anyway, this answers the whole question.

[#8]

 We also tried to write some code to convert claddings into panels, and the opposite, but it did not lead to something satisfying.

        Dim r As New RobotOM.RobotApplication
        Dim o As RobotOM.RobotObjObject
        o = r.Project.Structure.Objects.Get(1)
        o.SetLabel(RobotOM.IRobotLabelType.I_LT_CLADDING, "Two-way")
        o.Update()

 Most important  o.Update() at the end