Adding Combo Boxes to Ribbon Panels

[Anonymous]

I preparing an addin written in VB.NET VS2008 which allows uses to do several different function depending on the type of document opened and the ribbon environment active.

I have add lots of different icons/buttons to execute simple runtime commands, but I wish to develop my code a little better.

I currently have code that when the button is pressed opens a form with a combo box. If the active file opened in the workspace is as Assembly Document, the combo box is populated with the colors from the Styles Library. Once the user selects a colour, the program then cycles through all of the parts in the assembly and changes the colour at the part level be that which the user has selected.

I would like to short cut around opening the form and maybe add a combo box definition directly to my custom panel that I have created in the "id_TabAssemble" Tab ribbon.

So I guess my question is does someone have a snippet of code which adds a combo box to a ribbon Tab panel and allows that combo box to populated with whatever the user desires.

People may say that this is already done with the colour combobox that is in the Quick Tool menu for assemblies, however this colour change is only at the view rep level and not at the part level, if the part is used again in a different assembly the colour will be the original colour.

Any help will be greatly appreciated

[YuhanZhang]

There is an addin sample in VB.Net in Inventor SDK(DeveloperTools\Samples\VB.NET\AddIns\SimpleAddIn), you can try it and see how to add a combobox onto ribbon. But you need to add the render styles(colors) into the combobox, and add an ComboBoxDefinition.OnSelect event to detect which item user selects.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Rocky,

Thanks for the help, I have managed to get the Combo Box into my custom ribbon with the Colours, however I am a little lost with the whole .OnSelect Event, can you point me in a direction where I can find some information on what to program to enable the user to select the colour and then the part changes.

Mark

[YuhanZhang]

Hi Mark,

Good to hear that you have got the combo box on your ribbon. For how to make it to change the color of a part I would recommend below sample from API help document:

'***********************************************
' Copy below code to a module 
Public oChangeMaterial As clsChangeMaterial

Public Sub CreateComboBox()
    ' Set a reference to the active document.
    ' This assumes that a part document is active.
    Dim oDoc As PartDocument
    Set oDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
    
    Dim oCommandMgr As CommandManager
    Set oCommandMgr = ThisApplication.CommandManager
    
    ' Set a reference to the collection of ControlDefinitions
    Dim oControlDefs As ControlDefinitions
    Set oControlDefs = oCommandMgr.ControlDefinitions
    
    On Error Resume Next
    ' Create a combobox definition
    Dim oComboBoxDef As ComboBoxDefinition
    Set oComboBoxDef = oControlDefs.Item("MaterialsComboBox")
    
    If oComboBoxDef Is Nothing Then
        Set oComboBoxDef = oControlDefs.AddComboBoxDefinition("Materials", "MaterialsComboBox", kNonShapeEditCmdType, 125, , "Materials Combo", "Materials")
        
        ' Set a reference to the materials collection.
        Dim oMaterials As Materials
        Set oMaterials = oDoc.Materials
        
        Dim oMaterial As Material
        
        For Each oMaterial In oMaterials
            ' Add material names to the combo box definition
            oComboBoxDef.AddItem (oMaterial.Name)
        Next
        
        ' Set a reference to the Part Standard toolbar
        Dim oPartFeatureToolbar As CommandBar
        Set oPartFeatureToolbar = ThisApplication.UserInterfaceManager.CommandBars.Item("PMxPartFeatureCmdBar")
        
        ' Add a combo box control to the toolbar
        Dim oComboBoxControl As CommandBarControl
        Set oComboBoxControl = oPartFeatureToolbar.Controls.AddComboBox(oComboBoxDef,1)
        
        oPartFeatureToolbar.Visible = True    
    End If
    
    ' Clear current selection
    oComboBoxDef.ListIndex = 0
  
    Set oChangeMaterial = New clsChangeMaterial
    oChangeMaterial.Initialize
End Sub


'*************************************************************
' The declarations and functions below need to be copied into
' a class module whose name is "clsChangeMaterial".  The name 
' can be changed but you'll need to change the declaration in
' the calling function "CreateComboBox" to use the new name.

Option Explicit
Private WithEvents oComboBoxDef As ComboBoxDefinition


Public Sub Initialize()

    Dim oCommandMgr As CommandManager
    Set oCommandMgr = ThisApplication.CommandManager
   
    ' Set a reference to the collection of ControlDefinitions
    Dim oControlDefs As ControlDefinitions
    Set oControlDefs = oCommandMgr.ControlDefinitions
    
    ' Set a reference to the "MaterialsComboBox" combo box definition
    Set oComboBoxDef = oControlDefs.Item("MaterialsComboBox")
        
End Sub

Private Sub oComboBoxDef_OnSelect(ByVal Context As NameValueMap)
    
    If oComboBoxDef.ListIndex = 0 Then
        Exit Sub
    End If
    
    ' Get the selected item
    Dim oMaterialName As String
    oMaterialName = oComboBoxDef.ListItem(oComboBoxDef.ListIndex)
    
    ' Set a reference to the active part document
    Dim oDoc As PartDocument
    Set oDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
    
    Dim oPartCompDef As PartComponentDefinition
    Set oPartCompDef = oDoc.ComponentDefinition
    
    ' Get the selected material
    Dim oMaterial As Material
    Set oMaterial = oDoc.Materials.Item(oMaterialName)
    
    ' Change the part material
    oPartCompDef.Material = oMaterial
End Sub

The sample is a VBA code sample, so you can easily try it and see how it(OnSelect) works. As the sample was designed for classic UI, I modified it a bit so you can also use it in ribbon UI, after you run the macro CreateComboBox, then a toolbar would display and the first combo box is the one added, and you can choose a Material in it to see the change. What you need to do is to change the Material to RenderStyle for your case.

Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

Rocky,

Thanks for the information, however this is for VBA, I am writting my code in VB.NET. I have managed to create an _OnSelect Event for the Combobox. While testing I have enter a simple Msgbox to appear once the combo box is used while I debug the program.

However something weird is happening. When I load inventor, the msgbox is activating. This is telling me that the combo box OnSelect event is being activated when the Addin is being initialised. If I was able to send my VB.NET project code to you would be kind enough to have a look for me and see what I am doing wrong.

Mark

[YuhanZhang]

Hi Mark,

The OnSelect event could also be fired if you set the ComboBoxDefinition.ListIndex via API, so could you check your code if you have it to set a value?

[amitnkukanur]

But any ideas on how to create New Ribbon Tabs.

[shashankagam]

hello, i am new on inventor API, so can you share your code that when the button is pressed opens a form with a combo box. If the active file opened in the workspace is as Assembly Document, the combo box is populated with the colors from the Styles Library. Once the user selects a colour, the program then cycles through all of the parts in the assembly and changes the colour at the part level be that which the user has selected.