topic Re: Export Face As DXF in Inventor Programming Forum

Export Face As DXF

mitchELAHB — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 07:40:39 GMT

Hi,

I'm trying to export a face from a solid using iLogic. I have made the face a named entity and have been trying to export the face using the GeomToDXFCommand API, but have had no luck in being able to pass the face to the API. I can't export the flat pattern as I only want the face in its folded form. Is there a way to get the functionality of 'Right Click' > 'Export Face As' using iLogic?

Thanks

Re: Export Face As DXF

gerrardhickson — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 10:53:07 GMT

Try this:

It requires you to have a face selected before running. You could select this face programmatically or manually.

Sub Main() Dim oCtrlDef As ButtonDefinition oCtrlDef = ThisApplication.CommandManager.ControlDefinitions.Item("GeomToDXFCommand") Dim oDXFFullFileName As String oDXFFullFileName = "C:\Temp\Face.dxf" ThisApplication.CommandManager.PostPrivateEvent( PrivateEventTypeEnum.kFileNameEvent, oDXFFullFileName) oCtrlDef.Execute End Sub

Borrowed from here:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ilogic-and-vb-net-forum/api-quot-export-face-as-dxf-quot-in-previous-version/m-p/9060984#M101769

Re: Export Face As DXF

mitchELAHB — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 11:45:19 GMT

Thanks, I've implemented something similar with a try/catch statement when setting the face name.

Function SaveFace(FaceName As String, SavePath As String) 'finding entity called 'FaceName', providing error if can't find Dim oNamedEntities = iLogicVb.Automation.GetNamedEntities(ThisDoc.Document) Try oFace = oNamedEntities.FindEntity(FaceName) Catch MessageBox.Show("Cannot find face called '" & FaceName & "'! DXF not saved.", "Error saving file") Exit Function End Try 'selecting entity called 'FaceName' ThisDoc.Document.SelectSet.Select(oFace) 'Export selected face to 'SavePath' Dim oCmdMgr As CommandManager = ThisApplication.CommandManager Dim oCtrlDef As ButtonDefinition = oCmdMgr.ControlDefinitions.Item("GeomToDXFCommand") oCmdMgr.PostPrivateEvent(PrivateEventTypeEnum.kFileNameEvent, SavePath) oCtrlDef.Execute End Function

This works well for my needs, but I did wonder if there was a more elegant solution than selecting the face programmatically.

Cheers

Re: Export Face As DXF

gerrardhickson — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 12:01:45 GMT

Do you mean you would like to export the face directly? E.g. oFace.exporttodxf?

If that's what you were hoping for, then it seems that you're out of luck. I think the exit face as DXF was introduced to inventor relatively recently, so it hasn't been included in the API yet.

Re: Export Face As DXF

mitchELAHB — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 12:07:37 GMT

Thanks for that. Yeah, I was hoping to be able to do some a bit more eloquently, but what I have works.

Cheers

Re: Export Face As DXF

MSt-Louis — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 12:15:53 GMT

Thanks for sharing this code.
Very helpful for me.
🙂

Re: Export Face As DXF

MSt-Louis — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 11:23:46 GMT

@mitchELAHB , it works great.

Instead of exporting a face from "ThisDoc", I would like to export a face from a known file, because I want to run this rule in a DWG file to export faces from multiple .ipt files that are there.

Eg.

'selecting entity called 'FaceName'
ThisDoc.Document.SelectSet.Select(oFace)

How can I change this line to select oFace from a specific known file?

Thank you.

Re: Export Face As DXF

mitchELAHB — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 05:13:25 GMT

Hi,

Would something like this do?

Sub main() Dim sFilePath As String = "C:\TEST\Test.ipt" Dim oDoc As Document = ThisApplication.Documents.Open(sFilePath, True) 'False = open invisible, True = open visible. invisible is much faster. Dim oFaceName As String = "Test" Dim oSavePath As String = "C:\TEST\Test.dxf" SaveFace(oDoc, oFaceName, oSavePath) oDoc.Close End Sub Function SaveFace(oDoc As Document, FaceName As String, SavePath As String) 'finding entity called 'FaceName', providing error if can't find Dim oNamedEntities = iLogicVb.Automation.GetNamedEntities(oDoc) Try oFace = oNamedEntities.FindEntity(FaceName) Catch MessageBox.Show("Cannot find face called '" & FaceName & "'! DXF not saved.", "Error saving file") Exit Function End Try Dim oFolder As String = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(SavePath) 'creating folder if not exist If Not System.IO.Directory.Exists(oFolder) Then System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(oFolder) End If 'selecting entity called 'FaceName' oDoc.SelectSet.Select(oFace) 'Export selected face to 'SavePath' Dim oCmdMgr As CommandManager = ThisApplication.CommandManager Dim oCtrlDef As ButtonDefinition = oCmdMgr.ControlDefinitions.Item("GeomToDXFCommand") oCmdMgr.PostPrivateEvent(PrivateEventTypeEnum.kFileNameEvent, SavePath) oCtrlDef.Execute 'deselecting entity called 'FaceName' oDoc.SelectSet.Clear End Function

Unfourtnately I think you'll need to open the files visibly to get the GeomToDXFCommand to work, which slows things down a little. I haven't tested this code much so you might need to add a few tweeks.

Re: Export Face As DXF

MSt-Louis — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 14:33:26 GMT

Hi,

Thank you for the code. Yes it works !

The only issue is here:

Dim oDoc As Document = ThisApplication.Documents.Open(sFilePath, True) 	'False = open invisible, True = open visible. invisible is much faster.

If I set the boolean to False (wich I think is a good idea to open invisible), the export does not take place. But I think you already knew this.

If I have no choice, I'll add oDoc.Close at the end of your code.

Re: Export Face As DXF

mitchELAHB — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 05:11:26 GMT

Yes, as far as I know the document will need to be opened. Good point on closing the file, that slipped my mind, I'll update my code for any future searches that find this topic.