C# executable freezes

[Daan_M]

Hi,

My plug-in for Inventor freezes at some point. it's a windows forms application (WFA) made in MVS. I can't minimize or close the userwindow and it said '(is not responding)'.

I can't really figure out what causes it, it seems to work fine untill a certain point, see my comments below;

    public partial class InventorInfo : Form
    {
        Inventor.Application _invApp;
        public bool LaunchedApp = false;
        public _Document oDoc;
        public String newctime;
        public String oldctime;
  
        public InventorInfo() {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void BtnClose_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
            this.Close();
        }

        void RunProgram(object sender, EventArgs e) {    //LAUNCH BUTTON press
           
            while (LaunchedApp == false) {
                if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(textBox1.Text) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(textBox2.Text) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(textBox3.Text)) {
                    MessageBox.Show("Launch aborted, Fill in the required fields");
                    break;
//works fine 
                }
                else 
                    Launch_invApp();
//launches the app just fine
                    oDoc = _invApp.Documents.Open(textBox1.Text);
//opens the document just fine
                    MessageBox.Show("Launched succesfully, configurator exe is running...");
//after this point is seems to freeze...
                    LaunchedApp = true;         
            }

            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(10000);
            oldctime = newctime;
 
            while (LaunchedApp == true) {
//strange thing is it does still run this part of the program even when it sais 'not responding'         
                FileInfo info = new FileInfo(textBox3.Text);
                DateTime ctime = info.LastWriteTime;
                newctime = ctime.ToString();
                
                if (newctime.Equals(oldctime))  {
                    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
                }
                else 
                    AddiLogic();
                    oldctime = newctime;
                    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(4000);
            }
        }

[JelteDeJong]

It seems that you made an endless loop. (I don't see how this loop will ever stop)

while (LaunchedApp == true) {
   System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
   System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(4000);
}

this loop block the thread and will make the program seem to freeze up.

[Daan_M]

Hi Jelte,

I'm no programmer but I needed the program to be running at all times, thats why i made a endless loop to repeat (as long as inventor is running) it repeats that block of code.

I need the code inside the loop to do a check every so many seconds to see if any parameters changed, if they did, it calls another sub (the AddiLogic()).

Or am i interperting it wrong? And does the loop condition conflict with the threading?

if so, how do i get it to do the same result with a different code, without freezing up?

Thanks alot

[JhoelForshav]

Hi @Daan_M 

I think you should read up on eventhandlers. What you want to do can be accomplished with ModelingEvents.OnParameterChanged.

https://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2020/ENU/?guid=GUID-73EF8AD4-6031-42EB-994E-795284DBDEB1

[Daan_M]

Hi @JhoelForshav, thanks, I read up onthe event handlers and loops inside them. Luckily I wasn't the only one who ran into this problem. I found out the application 'froze' because the infinite while loop inside the eventhandler locked the UI. I placed the loop in a thread outside of the event handler and now it runs fine.

Edit; I tried using 'ModelingEvents.OnParameterChanged.' but this seems to only work on files linked/embedded in Inventor, they also have to be actual parameters in the Inventor file, atleast, that was my conclusion. 

The Excelfile i use is quite large and contains many parameters that are not in the Inventor model itself, just a few are used to feed the inventor model. Thats why i decided to use a seperate application to trigger the events in Inventor.

[JhoelForshav]

Oh, sorry... I thought you wanted to trigger a sub on inventor parameter change. I misunderstood, my bad 🙂