Change hatch by pick
Hi @cadman777. I doubt this will be possible for you if you are using the 2010 version of Inventor. That year we got the DrawingView.DisplayHatching property, but the DrawingView.HatchRegions property, which gives us API access to those DrawingViewHatchRegion objects, did not become available until the 2022 version of Inventor. And the DrawingDocument.DrawingHatchPatternsManager property, that gives us access to the DrawingHatchPatternsManager object, did not become available until the 2021 version of Inventor.
Wesley Crihfield
(Not an Autodesk Employee)
Hi @brianM328K. Not really. It is a relatively new area for us to explore by code, as you can see from my response in Message 3 above. I have not done an extensive search on the topic yet within this forum, but I do not recall that much activity in that area yet. I do not really have that much work related interest in that area yet either. I did create an iLogic rule once, just for research purposes into those areas. I will post that code below, just so you can continue on from there, but it does not attempt to change anything, or access any specific settings, such as angle, just collections and objects, down through the several possible levels.
Dim oDDoc As DrawingDocument = ThisDoc.Document
Dim oSheet As Inventor.Sheet = oDDoc.ActiveSheet
Dim oView As DrawingView = oSheet.DrawingViews.Item(1)
Dim oHRs As DrawingViewHatchRegions = oView.HatchRegions
Logger.Info("About to check oHRs IsNothing & oHRs.Count")
If oHRs Is Nothing OrElse oHRs.Count = 0 Then Exit Sub
Logger.Info("oHRs.Count = " & oHRs.Count)
For Each oHR As DrawingViewHatchRegion In oHRs
Logger.Info("About to get region boundary geometries to a variable.")
Dim oHRBGs As ObjectCollection = oHR.BoundaryGeometries
Logger.Info("About to check if region boundary geometries Is Nothing or Count = 0.")
If oHRBGs Is Nothing OrElse oHRBGs.Count = 0 Then
Logger.Info("Region boundary geometries Is Nothing or count = 0")
Else
Logger.Info("Region boundary geometries count = " & oHRBGs.Count)
End If
Logger.Info("About to get region hatch areas to a variable.")
Dim oHAs As DrawingViewHatchAreas = oHR.HatchAreas
Logger.Info("Got region hatch areas to a variable. Now about to check Is Nothing & Count")
If oHAs Is Nothing OrElse oHAs.Count = 0 Then
Logger.Info("Region Hatch Areas Is Nothing or count = 0")
Continue For
Else
Logger.Info("Region Hatch Areas Count = " & oHAs.Count)
For Each oHA As DrawingViewHatchArea In oHAs
Logger.Info("About to get hatch area boundary geometries to a variable.")
Dim oHABGs As ObjectCollection = oHA.BoundaryGeometries
Logger.Info("Got hatch area boundary geometries to a variable.")
If oHABGs Is Nothing OrElse oHABGs.Count = 0 Then
Logger.Info("Hatch area boundary geometries IsNothing Or Count = 0")
Else
Logger.Info("Hatch area boundary geometries Count = " & oHABGs.Count)
End If
Next
End If
Next
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Edit: Here are a few more related forum links, but maybe not what you were looking for yet:
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-programming-ilogic/hatch-scale/m-p/9797912
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-programming-ilogic/hatch-regions/m-p/11964839
Wesley Crihfield
(Not an Autodesk Employee)
I've had issues with the Hatch region property returning non-hatch regions for detail views from section views of assemblies. I had to check the HatchRegion.BoundaryGeometries, in a Try/Catch, to sift these out. I have not tried to change the hatch properties either. [this was an issue in 2023.3 build 359, but I have not tried without the Try/Catch since then]
The non-iLogic way we have been handling this is to create Hatch styles. The user can quickly select all the hatches that need to change then go to the drop down and pick with material direction they want:
With a combination of setting custom selection filters to hatch only and these styles, the changes can be very quick.
Hi @brianM328K. I am glad to see that you have something working or you. I briefly tried to create something that would allow you to manually 'pick' the individual hatch regions, but was not successful either. Even with the SelectionFilterEnum.AllEntities, it will not allow them to be 'Pick'ed. I even tried allowing for 'pre-selection' of the hatch, but it would not remain selected when manually running the rule afterwards. Here is the code I was fooling around with earlier, just for reference, even though it does not work.
Sub Main
Dim oCM As CommandManager = ThisApplication.CommandManager
Dim oSS As Inventor.SelectSet = ThisDoc.Document.SelectSet
Dim oObj As Object
Dim DVHR As DrawingViewHatchRegion
RepeatThis :
oObj = Nothing
DVHR = Nothing
oObj = oCM.Pick(SelectionFilterEnum.kAllEntitiesFilter, "Select View Hatch")
If oObj Is Nothing OrElse (TypeOf oObj Is DrawingViewHatchRegion = False) Then
If oSS.Count = 0 Then
Return
Else
For Each oEntity In oSS
Logger.Info(TypeName(oEntity))
If TypeOf oEntity Is DrawingViewHatchRegion Then
DVHR = oEntity
ChangeHatchRegion(DVHR) 'call custom Sub to run on it
End If
Next
End If
End If
DVHR = oObj
ChangeHatchRegion(DVHR) 'call custom Sub to run on it
If MsgBox("Again?", vbYesNo+vbQuestion, "Again?") = vbYes Then GoTo RepeatThis
End Sub
Sub ChangeHatchRegion(DVHR As DrawingViewHatchRegion)
Logger.Info("Angle Before Change: " & DVHR.Angle.ToString)
DVHR.Angle = (DVHR.Angle * 1.25)
Logger.Info("Angle After Change: " & DVHR.Angle.ToString)
End SubWesley Crihfield
(Not an Autodesk Employee)
How I got started is probably pretty typical. I saw that there was a tab for it in Inventor and reviewed some of its help documentation out of curiosity. Saw a few simple examples of it being used for fairly basic tasks, somewhere (I can't remember where). The more I saw and read about it, the more interested I got in it, and the more ideas came to mind about all the ways I could take advantage of it. Due to it being very interesting and exciting for me, I learned about it rapidly, and started creating a bunch of automation tools for work. After successfully creating a bunch of my own automation rules, and having a little trouble figuring some stuff out once in a while, I naturally began looking into this online forum about that topic. I also watch pretty much every webinar I see become available on the topic of Inventor automation, from our Autodesk solutions provider, from Autodesk directly, and from other similar entities/organizations. I already liked helping others out with CAD / CAM related stuff, so I naturally starting to help others out on the forum, when I believed that I could, and had the time. I really liked it when folks thanked me for helping them, and when they mentioned things like how much time a solution I provided (or helped fix) is going to save them, so I just kept doing it, as time and opportunity permitted. Probably a fairly common story.
Wesley Crihfield
(Not an Autodesk Employee)
Hello All
@cadman777 I have put together a code that will allow you to do the following.
First it asks you to select a view you would like to edit the hatching in, once you have picked a view the following pops up. (Note: this code will edit all hatches in that view)
I would like to be able to select a group of hatching to edit but am struggling to work that part out. Attached is the code if you want to use it.
I hope this is of help .
Sub Note 13/02/2024
I have attached a revised version of the code with enhanced user interface and features. You can now also adjust the hatch pattern.
Regards Brian.
