Text specified parts

[tonry]

Is there any way to build a part via an external text specification? For example, suppose I wrote down every mouse click and function I use to create a part -- I could describe it well enough to a friend that he could reproduce the part. I'd like to be able to codify this well enough to feed it to Inventor and have it build the part for me.

The reason I want to do this is partially for archival purposes, but mainly I would like to build complicated, mathematically described parts -- for example a 3D surface obtained from data, or a 3D model of the nearest 100 galaxies, or mathematically derived function such as the real part of a cosine in complex space.

I suspect the answer is "yes, use visual basic and the Inventor API", so my next question is whether anyone has done such a thing and if not, how do I learn visual basic and where do I obtain the Inventor API?

[Anonymous]

Actually transcript files do exactly what you ask. Turn them on using
iTweak from my site...

--
Sean Dotson, PE
RND Automation & Engineering
www.RNDautomation.com
www.mcadforums.com



wrote in message news:5115167@discussion.autodesk.com...
Is there any way to build a part via an external text specification? For
example, suppose I wrote down every mouse click and function I use to create
a part -- I could describe it well enough to a friend that he could
reproduce the part. I'd like to be able to codify this well enough to feed
it to Inventor and have it build the part for me.

The reason I want to do this is partially for archival purposes, but mainly
I would like to build complicated, mathematically described parts -- for
example a 3D surface obtained from data, or a 3D model of the nearest 100
galaxies, or mathematically derived function such as the real part of a
cosine in complex space.

I suspect the answer is "yes, use visual basic and the Inventor API", so my
next question is whether anyone has done such a thing and if not, how do I
learn visual basic and where do I obtain the Inventor API?

[Josh_Petitt]

a little more about transcript files

http://filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=TF

Sean, does the Tools=>Macro...=>Record New Macro function become available after you turn on the transcript files?

tonry, look at Microsoft Excel or Word under Tools=>Macro...=>Record New Macro to see how another program has implemented what you are talking about.

>how do I learn visual basic

analyzing the auto generated macros is a good way for a beginner to learn the ropes. but the VBA help (online and offline) is the best way to learn VBA.

>where do I obtain the Inventor API

It is distributed with IV. Look in

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 10\SDK\

[Anonymous]

>>Sean, does the Tools=>Macro...=>Record New Macro function become available
>>after you turn on the transcript files?

No, transcript files are a bit different from Macros.

--
Sean Dotson, PE
RND Automation & Engineering
www.RNDautomation.com
www.mcadforums.com



wrote in message news:5115591@discussion.autodesk.com...
a little more about transcript files

http://filext.com/detaillist.php?extdetail=TF

Sean, does the Tools=>Macro...=>Record New Macro function become available
after you turn on the transcript files?

tonry, look at Microsoft Excel or Word under Tools=>Macro...=>Record New
Macro to see how another program has implemented what you are talking about.

>how do I learn visual basic

analyzing the auto generated macros is a good way for a beginner to learn
the ropes. but the VBA help (online and offline) is the best way to learn
VBA.

>where do I obtain the Inventor API

It is distributed with IV. Look in

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor 10\SDK\

[tonry]

Gentlemen,

Thank you very much for your help. I'll digest what you've told me and get back if I have questions.

- John