Esc button in add-in

[GeorgK]

Hello together,

I have an add-in in which I would like to add an ESC-button. The button should be activated when the button from the program is clicked and should appear when the user clicks the right mouse button (OnContextMenu). Otherwise the button should be hidden.

If occurrenceList.Count < 1 Then

                While True
                    entity = m_inventorApplication.CommandManager.Pick(SelectionFilterEnum.kAssemblyOccurrenceFilter, "Select a component" & "  " & "Hit Esc to cancel selection")

                    ' If nothing gets selected then we're done
                    If IsNothing(entity) Then Exit While

                    occurrenceList.Add(entity)

                End While

               
            End If

Thank you very much

Georg

[GeorgK]

I got the button to the OnContextMenu. But how could I filter it that it shows only the button when the program runs?

Dim ESC_Button As String = "ESC_Button"
                    Try
                     
                        oButtonDefinition169_ESC_Menue = DirectCast(oControlDefinitions(ESC_Button), Inventor.ButtonDefinition)
                    Catch
                        oButtonDefinition169_ESC_Menue = oControlDefinitions.AddButtonDefinition("ESC", ESC_Button, Inventor.CommandTypesEnum.kQueryOnlyCmdType, m_ClientID, "ESC", "ESC", _
                         Nothing, Nothing, Inventor.ButtonDisplayEnum.kAlwaysDisplayText)
                    End Try
                   
                    Try
                         Dim oCtrl As Inventor.CommandBarControl = CommandBar.Controls(ESC_Button)
                    Catch

                        CommandBar.Controls.AddButton(oButtonDefinition169_ESC_Menue, 1)
                        CommandBar.Controls(2).GroupBegins = True
                        oButtonDefinition169_ESC_Menue.Enabled = True
                    End Try

[GeorgK]

Does nobody know a solution for the problem? Please could someone provide an example. Thanks

[Vladimir.Ananyev]

AddButton(...) method returns CommandControl object. 
You may control its visibility via Visible property.

[GeorgK]

Hello Vladimir,

thanks for your answer. But I could not show or hide the button. Either the button is displayed or not. Do you have any working example?

Georg

[Richard.MM]

I do not know if it helps, but I use this method:

  Private Sub Form_KeyDown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As KeyEventArgs) Handles MyBase.KeyDown
        Me.KeyPreview = True
    
        If (e.KeyCode = Keys.Enter) Then
    
            MessageBox.Show("Enter key pressed")
            e.SuppressKeyPress = True

        ElseIf (e.KeyCode = Keys.Escape) Then

            MessageBox.Show("Escape key pressed")
            e.SuppressKeyPress = True
        End If

    End Sub

[GeorgK]

Hello Richard,

this works in a form very well. But how could I get it running in an add-in?

Georg

[Richard.MM]

I do it through the Form, where I use BackgroundWorker.

"Add-in" then I call through bw_DoWork().

[Vladimir.Ananyev]

You may add the button oButtonDefinition169_ESC_Menue to the linear marking menu only if some conditions are satisfied. 

In the code sample published in the blog “Entity specific context menu“ http://adndevblog.typepad.com/manufacturing/2015/03/entity-specific-context-menu.html  the button is added only if the selected entities are all ordinate dimensions:

Private Sub uie_OnLinearMarkingMenu( _
                ByVal SelectedEntities As ObjectsEnumerator, _
                ByVal SelectionDevice As SelectionDeviceEnum, _
                ByVal LinearMenu As CommandControls, _
                ByVal AdditionalInfo As NameValueMap)
    ' We only add our context menu item if the
    ' selected entities are all ordinate dimensions
    If AreAllOrdinate(SelectedEntities) Then
        Call LinearMenu.AddButton(buttondefinition1)
    End If
End Sub

Is this approach applicable in your workflow?

[GeorgK]

Hello Vladimir,

this works. But how could I add the button when the user clicks a button on the ribbon bar? I could not use the filter version because I select parts and assemblies in an assembly or subassembly.

Georg

[Vladimir.Ananyev]

Hi Georg,

do you mean that the user clicks your button or any button available in the ribbon?

If this is your own button then its handler may set some global variable/parameter that could be checked when you populate the context menu.

Cheers,

[GeorgK]

Hello Vladimir,

I tried that but it does not work. The user should click on the button from the add-in. Either the button appears every time or not. Do you have a sample for it?

Thanks

Georg

[GeorgK]

Does nobody knows a solution?

[ekinsb]

Hi Georg,

I read back through this thread but it's still unclear to me what exactly it is that you want to accomplish.  Can you list step-by-step what the user action is and what you would like the behavior to be?

[GeorgK]

Hello Brian,

in part, drawing or assembly environment I would like to add an escape button to my addin. The escape button should only appear in the contextmenu when the user starts the program.  The escape button should be only visible when the program is running. Otherwise the button should be hidden.

User clicks the button on the ribbon bar (program is executed) and escape button is actived on right mouse button. When the program is finished the escape button does not appear any more on the rigt mouse click.

I hope it is much clearer now what I tried to get.

Thanks

Georg

[ekinsb]

Hi Georg,

Thank you for this latest description, I believe I understand what you want to do and it should be possible.  There's one thing that needs to be defined that will affect how you do this.  That is, what is the lifetime of your "command".  The typical Inventor command has a short lifetime and only one command can run at a time.  Completing a command will go back to the default state of Inventor or running another command will terminate the current command.  You can get this kind of behavior by using the CommandManager.CreateInteractionEvents method.

Using an InteractionEvents will be the simplest approach.  When the user runs your command you'll get notified through the OnExecute event of the ButtonDefinition and can create and start an InteractionEvents object.  When you start the InteractionEvents object you can also connect to the OnLinearMarkingMenu or OnRadialMarkingMenu events to be able to edit the context menu when it appears.  You can also listen for the OnTerminate event associated with the InteractionEvents object.  This event is fired when your InteractionEvents object is stopped, which means your command is no longer running.  In this even you can disconnect from the OnLinearMarkingMenu or OnRadialMarkingMenu events.

If your command isn't a standard command and the user starts it and while it's running they can go back to Inventor and continue to do other work, then you can't use an InteractionEvents object.  In this case the lifetime of your "command" is defined by something else; probably until a dialog is dismissed.  In this case you can still do something similar.  When you display the dialog you can connect to the OnLinearMarkingMenu or OnRadialMarkingMenu events and when the dialog is dismissed you can disconnect from the OnLinearMarkingMenu or OnRadialMarkingMenu events.

Hopefully this helps.

[GeorgK]

Hello Brian,

Thank you very much for your explanation. Do you have a working example with the CommandManager.CreateInteractionEvents and a OnLinearMarkingMenu or OnRadialMarkingMenu?  The menu entry is showing always or never.

I tried that but could not get it running. Maybe I missed something.

Georg

[ekinsb · Accepted solution]

Hi Georg,

Attached is a sample add-in that demonstrates what I described.  It creates a new command in the Tools menu and when the command is run it displays a custom dialog.  While the command is running the context menu is completely altered.  It removes the radial menu completely and removes all of the commands from the linear menu and adds one custom command.  Of course you don't have to go to the extents this command does but this demonstrates that it's possible.  While the command is running you'll have this modified context menu.  When the command is terminated, either by clicking the Cancel button on the dialog, pressing the Esc button, or running another command, the context menu will go back to normal.