Is documentation available for Inventor's APIs?

[Anonymous]

I am investigating using Inventor for generating designs based on various parameters. I'm trying to get a handle what APIs are available and what they can do, but the extremely limited documentation I've found is very confusing. Here are my main questions:

1) What is the difference between an "addon", an "addin", a "plugin", and an "extension"?

2) Is documentation available for them? I found a guide saying some docs are in the "?" menu of Inventor 2018, but I can't find this menu in Inventor 2021.

3) I have found a single working example of using an Inventor API (https://www.autodesk.com/developer-network/platform-technologies/inventor/overview) but it is very limited. Are there other examples with code that works in the current version?

4) Does anyone know if the API can be used for adding parts to an assembly, moving them, and resizing them?

[Frederick_Law · Accepted solution]

There are 4 ways to "code" in Inventor: VBA macro, ilogic, addin and standalone.

VBA and ilogic use editor in Inventor.  You can't choice language .

Addin and standalone require Visual Studio or similar.  You can use VB.net or C++.net.  Or other.

There is an API help: http://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2019/ENU/?guid=GUID-5901102A-F148-4CD4-AF50-26E2AFDEE6A7

You might need to install the SDK.

It is a simple document of function list with simple code example.

Lots of the learning is from other's code and trial.

Adding parts to an assembly, moving them, and resizing should be in API.

Also look into iPart, iAssembly.  Inventor can do quite a lot without code.

[Frederick_Law · Accepted solution]

https://modthemachine.typepad.com/my_weblog/

https://ekinssolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/CreatingInventorAddIns-AU2018.pdf

[Anonymous]

Thank you, this is much more helpful.

For some reason, the other post was accepted as the solution. Not sure why.

[Frederick_Law]

Also try the customization forum:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-customization/bd-p/120

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Please feel free to ask questions on Inventor Customization forum. We have quite a few Inventor API experts on the forum.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-customization/bd-p/120

Many thanks!