topic Re: Export to PDF From API? in Vault Customization Forum

Export to PDF From API?

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 18:55:28 GMT

We are running Vault Professional 2015. Is there a way to export drawings to PDF programatically from the API? We are doing some mass updates to certain file properties that will affect some fields on our drawings, and each of those drawings then need to be published to PDF. We would like to create something that would allow us to programatically export updated PDFs so that we don't need to do so manually.

I have seen examples of creating macros to export to PDF, but I am trying to find something I can use to automate the whole process so we don't need to open each individual file.

Re: Export to PDF From API?

Balaji_07 — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 05:26:28 GMT

Hi Anthony,
Refer point no 2 in this discussion

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/vault-customization/batch-process-like-script-pro/m-p/4781407#M2064

Thanks,
Balaji A

Re: Export to PDF From API?

Anonymous — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 12:46:16 GMT

Balaji,

Thanks! I have to eat a slice of humble pie for a moment though and edit my first post a little. We are actually running Vault Basic. This is my first entry into the vault world, engineeering is looking to tap into IT to get us to automate some things for them.

From what I can see the job server is available only with Vault Professional. Since I don't have access to it I'm going to need to see if I can rig something together. I know how to find and loop through files in the vault, which I'm assuming should allow me to mimic creating a job queue, so the next thing I need to figure out is how to tap into the export / publishing funcitonality to print out certian sheets as PDF drawings.

I'm doing some research but if anyone has any good ideas on where to start I'd appreciate any guidance I can get. If I get somehting working I'll gladly write up a post on how to do it for future users in my predicament.

Regards,

Anthony

Re: Export to PDF From API?

minkd — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 13:23:48 GMT

Vault does not have any APIs for exporting CAD documents as PDF (or DWF for that matter).

When Vault generates a DWF, we use the APIs for the relevant CAD file (AutoCAD, Inventor, etc) to do it; so while DWF publishing is something that Vault does, there are no Vault APIs to do it. But since we created a job handler for the job processor (in Vault Workgroup & Vault Pro), some folks have leveraged that by submitting jobs that will get handled by it. So while that is an indirect way to get DWFs generated, you don't really have APIs that would let you influence how the DWF is generated.

For PDFs, I believe there are resellers out there who have built job handlers and/or add-ins to generate PDFs from CAD files (Autodesk Consulting may also have something like that - I'm not sure); but nothing PDF related is part of "stock" Vault.

Hope that helps,

-Dave

Re: Export to PDF From API?

iancross — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 04:34:11 GMT

Hi Anthony,

speak to the guys at cool orange www.coolorange.com they are very good at doing exactly what you are after.

Re: Export to PDF From API?

wangdu — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 08:05:05 GMT

Hey Anthony,

Ian is right, we have a product called powerJobs, which does exactly what you’re looking for. See the product information here: http://coolorange.com/en/powerJobs.php

PDF exporting is only one feature of powerJobs. Since it runs on Windows PowerShell you are able to create all kinds of useful jobs (like generated different formats, automatic triggering at lifecycle changes, email notifications, etc.) using just simple command lets.

We also have a lot of ready-made code-snippets for different purposes here on our blog: http://blog.coolorange.com/category/powerjobs/

You can download the 30-day trial here: http://coolorange.com/en/download.php?product=powerJobs

Let us know, if you have any questions!

@Ian: thanks a lot for the recommendation, we appreciate it!

Wangdu

www.coolOrange.com

Re: Export to PDF From API?

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 14:22:27 GMT

icross,

I did happen across powerJobs, but they require the Job Processor which is not available with Vault Basic.

From what I am seeing essentially this isn't possible with Vault Basic, however much to my relief I found out recently we are upgrading to Vault Workgroup which opens up the Job Processor. I emailed the contact listed on CoolOrange's website a few days ago and since we have some particularities about how our PDFs are generated, even they would need to make some customizations.

I think from where I stand, once I have access to the Vault Workgroup / the Job Processor it would make more sense for me to create a custom job like the solution in the thread Balaji_07 mentioned. I am going to do some research on creating custom jobs, specifically in regards to exporting to PDF. If anyone has any links or resources they've used in the past that would be appreciated. Once I have a solution I will publish my code here for future users to reference.

The nuance for me is that I will need to create two different PDFs for each drawing. Some sheets will go into one and some will go in another (approval drawing and a reference document). I am hoping / assuming there is some flexability to the API that will allow me to specify things like that.