Printing idw using Apprentice, no shading in output

[gavbath]

For some reason, since migrating to Inventor and Vault 2015, when printing .idws from a custom tool that we wrote, the output has no shading on the views.

So in Inventor 2014, you would select a file and hit print, the tool downloads it from vault and prints it using Inventor apprentice.

After moving to 2015, the drawings still print correctly (with shading) in Inventor and Vault, but they come out with no shading when printing using Apprentice Server.

Anyone got any idea why, or whether there is a setting to change this somewhere?

[adam.nagy]

Hi Gavin,

Hope the trip home was alright. 🙂

Would you mind pasting the code that does the actual printing?

Also, I assume you experience the same behaviour with all the drawings... ?

Do you have SP1 installed?

Cheers,

[gavbath]

Hi Adam. Sorry for the slow response. I'll post the code tomorrow.

[gavbath]

Hi Adam, here is the code I'm using for printing:

private string PrintFile(string filepath, int filesize)
        {
            Inventor.ApprenticeServerComponent oAppServ = new Inventor.ApprenticeServerComponent();

            WaitForFile(filepath, filesize);
            string retval = string.Empty;
            int loopCount = 0;
            do
            {
                loopCount++;
                //Pause for 1/2 second
                System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(500);

                try
                {
                    Inv.ApprenticeServerDrawingDocument oAppDoc = (Inv.ApprenticeServerDrawingDocument)oAppServ.Open(filepath);

                    Inventor.ApprenticeDrawingPrintManager PrintMgr = null;

                    //Dim lp As Long

                    string idwname = System.IO.Path.GetFileName(filepath);

                    PrintMgr = (Inv.ApprenticeDrawingPrintManager)oAppDoc.PrintManager;

                    string printername = this.cboPrinters.SelectedItem.ToString().Trim();

                    PrintMgr.Printer = printername;

                    //Set the paper size , scale and orientation
                    PrintMgr.ScaleMode = Inv.PrintScaleModeEnum.kPrintBestFitScale;

                    switch (cboPageSize.Text)
                    {
                        case "A4":
                            PrintMgr.PaperSize = Inv.PaperSizeEnum.kPaperSizeA4;
                            break;
                        case "A3":
                            PrintMgr.PaperSize = Inv.PaperSizeEnum.kPaperSizeA3;
                            break;
                        case "A2":
                            PrintMgr.PaperSize = Inv.PaperSizeEnum.kPaperSizeA2;
                            break;
                        case "A1":
                            PrintMgr.PaperSize = Inv.PaperSizeEnum.kPaperSizeA1;
                            break;
                        case "A0":
                            PrintMgr.PaperSize = Inv.PaperSizeEnum.kPaperSizeA0;
                            break;
                        default:
                            PrintMgr.PaperSize = Inv.PaperSizeEnum.kPaperSizeDefault;
                            break;
                    }

                    switch (optPortrait.Checked)
                    {
                        case true:
                            PrintMgr.Orientation = Inv.PrintOrientationEnum.kPortraitOrientation;
                            break;
                        case false:
                            PrintMgr.Orientation = Inv.PrintOrientationEnum.kLandscapeOrientation;
                            break;
                        default:
                            PrintMgr.Orientation = Inv.PrintOrientationEnum.kDefaultOrientation;
                            break;
                    }

                    PrintMgr.PrintRange = Inventor.PrintRangeEnum.kPrintAllSheets;

                    //Set range for print to sheet no
                    PrintMgr.SubmitPrint();
                    this.StatusBar1.Text = "Print Submitted for " + idwname;
                    PrintMgr = null;
                    oAppDoc = null;
                    oAppServ = null;
                    retval = string.Empty;
                    //Set loop count so that do will end
                    loopCount = 3;
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                {
                    retval += "Error printing Try " + loopCount + " File " + SysIO.Path.GetFileName(filepath) + "\n";
                    this.StatusBar1.Text = retval;
                    this.StatusBar1.Text = ex.ToString();

                }
                
            } while (loopCount <3);
 
            return retval;

        }

[adam.nagy · Accepted solution]

Hi Gavin,

This took quite a bit of time :-s having completely forgotten about the Apprentice 2015 issue during the holiday and that it could affect printing as well - even though Wayne did mention it in this article: http://adndevblog.typepad.com/manufacturing/2014/09/inventorviewctrlocx-2015-not-displaying-inventor...

Here is the solution:

http://adndevblog.typepad.com/manufacturing/2015/01/print-shaded-view-from-apprentice.html

Cheers,

[gavbath]

Aha! Thanks! That's what I needed. I'll do this now.

[andrewwhiteinc]

I know this thread is old, but I am having this issue and the posted solution does not appear to be working. I have Inventor 2016 and Inventor 2014 installed on my system. Would it be using the Apprentice Svr from 2014?

[adam.nagy]

It depends on which Inventor version was run last.