Getting Thumbnail from BOM Row

[Raider_71]

Hi,

Any idea why I cant get the Thumbnail iProperty from a document object derived from a BOM row? If I do this then it does not work:

oCompDef = oRow.ComponentDefinitions.Item(1)

Dim oDoc As Inventor.Document = oCompDef.Document

Dim thumbnail As stdole.IPictureDisp

thumbnail = oDoc.Thumbnail

If I use apprentice then it works:

oCompDef = oRow.ComponentDefinitions.Item(1)

Dim oDoc As Inventor.Document = oCompDef.Document
Dim strFilename As String = oDoc.FullFileName.ToString

Dim oApprentice As New Inventor.ApprenticeServerComponent
Dim oApprDoc As ApprenticeServerDocument
oApprDoc = oApprentice.Open(strFilename)

Dim thumbnail As stdole.IPictureDisp

thumbnail  = oApprDoc.Thumbnail

Using apprentice is not a problem but I feel that it could slow my program down having to use apprentice.

Any idea why I cant use the Document object derived from a BOMRow object like I have above?

[Owner2229]

Hi, I believe you have to open the document in order to get it's thumbnail, so:

oCompDef = oRow.ComponentDefinitions.Item(1)
Dim oDoc As Inventor.Document = oCompDef.Document
Dim strFilename As String = oDoc.FullFileName
Dim oTempDoc As Inventor.Document
oTempDoc = InventorApplication.Documents.Open(strFilename, False)
Dim thumbnail As stdole.IPictureDisp
thumbnail = oTempDoc.Thumbnail
oTempDoc.Close

Anyway Apprentice does actualy work faster with documents, but it ofc. depends on what else you're doing with the documents.

There's been test for it. E.g. For reading iProperties it should work 10x faster then visible Inventor and 2x faster then invisible Inventor.

[Raider_71]

Hi thanks for the feedabck.

I was hoping to not open the document at all and just work from the component definition as I am able to extract all the other properties that way. Was hoping to extract the Thumbnail that way as well.

Its strange that the Thumbnail property is there but it does not work. Why have it there at all then...

[adam.nagy]

Hi,

1) What do you mean by "does not work"? Do you get an error? Or the returned value is simply "Nothing"?

2) Is your program an add-in or a standalone application? Because you cannot access IPictureDisp from a separate process, and it's nothing Inventor specific, it's just a limitation of IPictureDisp: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff864458.aspx

Cheers, 

[Raider_71 · Accepted solution]

Hi Adam,

Ok thats the answer then. Cant call it from another process - its a standalone application. My app is running out of process...

Thanks for getting back to me!