Bi-directional properties - Any examples updating a property inside of AutoCAD?

[dlconsulting]

The application I'm creating has dozens of UDPs defined in Vault.  Many of these map to fields in AutoCAD title blocks.  Ideally, this is a bi-directional mapping so that both drafters (using AutoCAD) and project managers (using Vault Explorer) can update properties.  The article on Properties in the Vault API documentation states that "The correct thing to do is to update the property inside the local file before checking it back in to Vault.  This means that you need to use the appropriate CAD API to set the file data."

Vault does do this for you if you use the Edit Properties feature, so I know it's possible.  I'm thinking this has to be done with an API to the AutoCAD provider (vs. directly calling the AutoCAD API which I suspect would require a free AutoCAD license).  Are there any examples of this?  I can't find any information anywhere on calling the provider or the provider's interface or API.  But it must exist, because Vault does it of course.

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.

Dan

[jan.liska]

IExplorerUtil.UpdateFileProperties handles bi-directional properties. To use IExplorerUtil you need to add reference to Autodesk.Connectivity.Explorer.ExtensibilityTools.dll.

[spascual]

Hi Dan,

Nowadays I have the same problem. I have to create the item - check out the file - update properties (autocad) - check in the file - and then update the item - and then released the item.

Have you found or designed another workaround to this task ????

Is it possible me to test it ??

Could we colaborate in establishing the process???

Regards,

Tomas Pascual

[dlconsulting]

No, I haven't found a solution.

The only positive thing on this front is that I did not promise my client to support bidirectional behavior.  So the plan was to have some properties that were set in AutoCAD (in the title block), and other properties that were set in Vault and would appear in the title block.  And if the drafter changes those latter properties, they would change back to the Vault values every time he updates properties.

Unfortunately, this is a fixed fee project and I'm already way past my original estimate on hours to pull this off.  So at this point I'm not motivated to put in a lot of additional time to get this to work in a bidirectional fashion.  🙂  I started this thread in the hopes that either there was a function I was overlooking to make it easy to update the property in AutoCAD from Vault Explorer, or if someone else had figured out a way to do it.

Dan

[bjr001]

Are there any news with this issue?

Unfortunately, I've still the same problem:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Vault-Customization/Problem-with-IExplorerUtil-UpdateFileProp...

[luigi.trabacchin]

i've found this, it's only for >2015R2

http://justonesandzeros.typepad.com/blog/2015/02/another-way-to-update-properties.html