VB.NET embed viewport into XAML for copy part/assembly
I'm using Autodesk Inventor Profesional 2026 with a VB.NET 4.8 project inside visual studio. The sourcecode is below and should make it clear what I am trying to do/create but is with a bit of copy paste from AI's because I was just trying to make stuff work when changing the HWND of the viewframe to the xaml window did not work.
After this I tried also making my program to be always on top but that still hides the inventor viewport/viewframe after this.
But basically I'm trying to make a preview window that I can control that will always be on top / docked to the side in inventor like my screenshot below
then while working on a assembly where I can show a changing highlightset of the part I'm copying based on the existing constraints while working in the assemblydocument to re-constraint a copy of the original based on the user input and constraints that were available on the original part. However currently after selecting anything in the assembly it puts that window on top (which is expected for any normal usecase) but I would love to be able to set that particular window to be on top within my code until I don't need it anymore.
This is to give more movability/freedom than to just create a screenshot of the part with the highlightset and display that, I prefer a seperate viewport so I can actually be able to move the part around when the highlightset is not created a clear view of what the user should try to re-constrain.
the WH_solutions.Fnc is used for the inventor connection but only has 2 references InvApp (which basically gets the running inventor application).
Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices Imports System.Windows.Forms Imports System.Windows.Forms.Integration Imports System.Windows.Interop Imports Inventor Imports WH_solutions.Fnc Imports WH_solutions.MainWindow Public Class TESTshit 'Old code Private PreviewPanel As System.Windows.Forms.Panel Private PreviewView As Inventor.View Private XamlWindowHandle As IntPtr Private UsedAssemblyDocument As Document 'latest gatgpt addition: Private DockWindow As Inventor.DockableWindow Private DockPanel As System.Windows.Forms.Panel Private PreviewHost As System.Windows.Forms.Panel 'Private PreviewRootHandle As IntPtr ' <DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError:=True)> ' Private Shared Function SetParent( ' hWndChild As IntPtr, ' hWndNewParent As IntPtr ') As IntPtr ' End Function <DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError:=True)> Private Shared Function GetWindow( hWnd As IntPtr, uCmd As UInteger ) As IntPtr End Function Private Const GW_OWNER As UInteger = 4 ' <DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError:=True)> ' Private Shared Function SetWindowPos( ' hWnd As IntPtr, ' hWndInsertAfter As IntPtr, ' X As Integer, ' Y As Integer, ' cx As Integer, ' cy As Integer, ' uFlags As UInteger ') As Boolean ' End Function <DllImport("user32.dll")> Private Shared Function GetAncestor( hWnd As IntPtr, gaFlags As UInteger ) As IntPtr End Function <DllImport("user32.dll", EntryPoint:="SetWindowLongPtrW", SetLastError:=True)> Private Shared Function SetWindowLongPtr64( hWnd As IntPtr, nIndex As Integer, dwNewLong As IntPtr ) As IntPtr End Function Private Const GA_ROOT As UInteger = 2 Private Const GWLP_HWNDPARENT As Integer = -8 Public Sub New(PreviewPanel As System.Windows.Forms.Panel, xamlWindowHandle As IntPtr) Me.PreviewPanel = PreviewPanel Me.XamlWindowHandle = xamlWindowHandle End Sub Public Sub Testing() UsedAssemblyDocument = InvApp.ActiveDocument '----------------------------------------- ' 1. Get the selected occurrence '----------------------------------------- Dim picked As Object = InvApp.CommandManager.Pick( Inventor.SelectionFilterEnum.kAssemblyOccurrenceFilter, "Select the component to preview" ) If picked Is Nothing Then Return Dim occurrence As Inventor.ComponentOccurrence = TryCast(picked, Inventor.ComponentOccurrence) If occurrence Is Nothing Then Return 'Get the source document Dim sourceDoc As Inventor.Document = occurrence.Definition.Document 'ORIGINAL CODE WORKING________________________________________________ 'Create another view of that document PreviewView = sourceDoc.Views.Add 'Prepare the view PreviewView.GoHome() PreviewView.Fit() 'Move this view into its own ViewFrame Dim viewFrame As Inventor.ViewFrame = PreviewView.ViewTab.MoveToNewViewFrame( 100, 'Left 100, 'Top 400, 'Width 300 'Height ) 'Dim viewFrameHandle As IntPtr = New IntPtr(CLng(viewFrame.HWND)) 'uncommented Dim previewHand As IntPtr = New IntPtr(CLng(PreviewView.HWND)) Dim previewRootHandle As IntPtr = GetAncestor(previewHand, GA_ROOT) Dim originalOwner As IntPtr = GetWindow(previewRootHandle, GW_OWNER) ' MsgBox( ' "Preview HWND: " & previewRootHandle.ToString() & ' vbCrLf & ' "Original Owner: " & originalOwner.ToString() & ' vbCrLf & ' "XAML HWND: " & XamlWindowHandle.ToString() ') previewRootHandle = previewRootHandle Dim result As IntPtr = SetWindowLongPtr64( previewRootHandle, GWLP_HWNDPARENT, XamlWindowHandle ) Dim newOwner As IntPtr = GetWindow(previewRootHandle, GW_OWNER) ' MsgBox( ' "New Owner: " & newOwner.ToString() & ' vbCrLf & ' "XAML HWND: " & XamlWindowHandle.ToString() ') End Sub Public Sub ClosePreview() If PreviewView Is Nothing Then Return Try UsedAssemblyDocument.Activate() PreviewView.Close() Catch ex As Exception MsgBox("Could not close preview: " & ex.Message) End Try PreviewView = Nothing End Sub End Class
@w_heuvelmanXKEG7 - this post has been edited due to Community Rules & Etiquette violation.
