Interrupting component placement after first occurrence is placed

[j.haggenjos]

Hello all,

I'm developing an Add-In and I am facing an issue.

At some point in the process, I am placing a part with user interaction. The component placement is working correctly.

However, until the user hits the escape key or "right-click -> Done", each click will place a new occurrence of the component. I would like to prevent the user of placing multiple component.

In my main routine, I am using the command manager to place a component:

CommandManager.PostPrivateEvent(PrivateEventTypeEnum.kFileNameEvent, FilePath)
CommandManager.ControlDefinitions.Item("AssemblyPlaceComponentCmd").Execute()

And using the OnNewOccurrence event handler I am trying to stop the command after the first item is placed.

I have tried the following:

Private Sub AssemblyEvents_OnNewOccurrence(...) Handles AssemblyEvents.OnNewOccurrence
    If BeforeOrAfter = EventTimingEnum.kAfter Then

        CommandManager.StopActiveCommand()
        'This will throw an exception 

        CommandManager.ControlDefinitions.Item("AppContextual_DoneCmd").Execute()
        CommandManager.ControlDefinitions.Item("AppContextual_CancelCmd").Execute()
        CommandManager.ControlDefinitions.Item("AppContextual_OKCmd").Execute()
        'Those three command seem to have no effect

    End If
End Sub

Is there any way to stop the AssemblyPlaceComponentCmd with the API?

[WCrihfield]

Here are a couple more commands you can try:

"Done"

"AppNGX_CancelCmd" (cancels the command)

"AppNGX_OKCmd"  (commits the command)

Other than that, all I can think of is either using the SendKeys.SendWait("{ESC}") technique (which you may need to make sure you have the 'focus' of that dialog before using), or not using the command to invoke the built-in tool for adding components, and attempt to do it in a different way.

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[j.haggenjos · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the answer.

I tried the commands. They had no effect unfortunately.

I had tried simulating the escape key before. Following your post, I tried to make sure the inventor window was in focus. I stumbled upon this post and tried using postmessage. It didn't work either. However, the post also suggest to use:

CommandManager.ControlDefinitions.Item("AppSelectNorthwestArrowCmd").Execute

Which finaly had the result I was looking for. Interestingly, searching for "AppSelectNorthwestArrowCmd" lead me to this post from 2008 with the exact same issue and solution.

Thanks @WCrihfield for pushing me in the right direction with your post.

A special thanks to @ekinsb for his suggestion in the other post and for all the great content available here and elsewhere online.