Createimage giving error while saveasbitmap works

[Anonymous]

Hello.
I'm trying to create an app and I am using inventor 2017 window hidden, so to show the view of what the user is working on I find the methods "createimage" and "saveasbitmap", the best to use is createimage because it doesn't stores the image in a file, making it more eficiant, but i cann't get it to work.
I tried:

Camera cam = _inv.ActiveView.Camera;
cam.CreateImage(500,500);

But this creates an exception when running (catastrophic failure (exception from HRESULT: 0x800FFFF (E_UNEXPECTED)))
When I trie with saveasbitmap it works:
Camera cam = inv.ActiveView.Camera;
String file = "C:\\Users\\User\\Desktop\\test.jpg" ;
cam.SaveAaBitmap(file, 500,500);
Bitmap img = new Bitmap(file) ;
pictureBox1.Image = (Image)img;


Am I doing something wrong here? I have tried to find the answer by myself, but without success.
If there is another method of doing what I want using Inventor window as hide I also would like to hear

[bradeneuropeArthur]

Hi,

Could you please try to explain a little more what you are trying to achieve.

Regards,

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to show the view from inventor in another interface, but I can seem to find a way to use the createimage method from inventor api, because it keeps getting a (catastrophic failure (exception from HRESULT: 0x800FFFF (E_UNEXPECTED))). Because of that I'm using the SaveAsBitmap method to store a view image and the show it to the user, this second option works, but it isn't the best way to do it because it most do much more tasks. So I would like to know how to use the createimage method insted of the saveasbitmap. The code I use is in the first comment.

Thanks and best regards

[bradeneuropeArthur]

use the thumbnail property.....

[Anonymous]

But does the thumbnail property get the view image of and assembly?
If yes, how can I use it in C#?

[bradeneuropeArthur]

Yes.

Convert it to I picture

[Anonymous]

IPictureDisp? Like this?

Document doc = doc.PropertySets["Inventor Summary Information"] ["Thumbnail"] ;
stdole.IPictureDisp pic = val as stdole.IPictureDisp;

[bradeneuropeArthur]

Like that...

[bradeneuropeArthur]

modthemachine.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/06/accessing-thumbnail-images.html

[Anonymous]

That's the code I'm trying to follow, but it's in VBA and I am working with C# and the Compatibility.VB6.IPictureDispToImage(thumbnail) doesn't seem to exist in C#

[bradeneuropeArthur]

You can use this object also from inventor. I mean IPictureDisp""

[bradeneuropeArthur]

Module mdlViewtumbnail

Friend Sub Viewtumbnail()

' Get the Summary Information property set.
Dim summaryInfo As PropertySet
summaryInfo = UfrmStart.oInvApp.ActiveDocument.PropertySets.Item("Inventor Summary Information")

' Get the thumbnail property.
Dim thumbProp As Inventor.Property
thumbProp = summaryInfo.Item("Thumbnail")

' Get the thumbnail image.
Dim thumbnail As stdole.IPictureDisp
thumbnail = thumbProp.Value

' Convert the IPictureDisp object to an Image.
'Dim img As Image = Compatibility.VB6.IPictureDispToImage(thumbnail)

' Display the image in the picture box.
' UfrmStart.PictureBox1.Image = img



End Sub
End Module

[Anonymous]

Ok, I can now get the thumbnail and convert the IPictureDisp to Image and display it in a picturebox, it doesn't give any any error, but it also doesn't show any image because the thumbnail handle is null, why is this appening?

[bradeneuropeArthur]

Maybe you create no thumbnail with the save....
Go to document settings an change to create thumbnail...

if you need assistance please let me know.

[Anonymous]

I don't know how to do that

[bradeneuropeArthur]

I will take a look this evening... Ok..

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much

[bradeneuropeArthur]

The following works for me:

            Dim apprentice As New ApprenticeServerComponent

            ' Open a document.  
            Dim doc As ApprenticeServerDocument

            doc = apprentice.Open("C:\Vault\Projects\Part1.ipt")'YOUR FILE FULL NAME HERE
            
            ' Get the thumbnail image.  
            Dim thumbnail As stdole.IPictureDisp
            thumbnail = doc.Thumbnail

            ' Convert the IPictureDisp object to an Image.  
            Dim img As Image = Compatibility.VB6.IPictureDispToImage(thumbnail)

            ' Display the image in the picture box. PICTUREBOX OF YOUR FORM  
            PictureBox1.Image = img

[bradeneuropeArthur]

Also this will help you:

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 20##\SDK\DeveloperTools\Tools\ThumbnailView\ThumbnailView Samples\VB.Net

[Anonymous]

Wow, so much text and „advice“ for a simple question: „Why the function CreateImage doesn’t work“. It doesn’t work here neither and “solution” over thumbnail is NO SOLUTION. So anyone from Autodesk here who can provide .NET example of the function or tell us why it doesn’t work the way it should?