Best place to reference the Inventor api from vb.net

[J_Dumont]

I'm writing my first vb.net program for Inventor and I would appreciate any advice on placing my reference to the Inventor api.

For example, I created a form and I placed the code as shown below when the Form loads.

I also capture some properties and display one value in a label and another in a text box.

' Get the Inventor Application object.
Dim invApp As Inventor.Application
invApp = GetObject(, "Inventor.Application")

' Get the active document.
Dim odoc As Inventor.Document
odoc = invApp.ActiveDocument
Dim oDocName As String
oDocName = odoc.DisplayName

'Display the Assembly Name in Form
lblAssyName.Text = oDocName

' Get the "Design Tracking Properties" property set.
Dim designTrackPropSet As Inventor.PropertySet
designTrackPropSet = odoc.PropertySets.Item("Design Tracking Properties")

' Get the "Project" property from the property set.
Dim descAssyProject As Inventor.Property
descAssyProject = designTrackPropSet.Item("Project")

' Display Project Number on Form
TxtProjectNumber.Text = descAssyProject.Value

However, Visual Studio shows the variable is not declared in the following sub program.

Private Sub BtnOK_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles BtnOK.Click
If TxtProjectNumber.Text = "" Then
MsgBox("Assembly Project Number cannot be blank")
TxtProjectNumber.Focus()
Else
AssyProjectNumber = TxtProjectNumber.Text
' Set the value of the property using the current value of the text box.
descAssyProject.value = TxtProjectNumber.Text

End If

End Sub

[bradeneuropeArthur]

Hi.

Create a module main

Put your code in it and a

Dim f as forms

F.show

In your project start with the module main. Found in the properties.

[J_Dumont]

Thank you for the quick response.

I'm having some issues with creating the Module.

I started my project using the Windows Forms Application.

Do I need to switch the Application type?

[J_Dumont]

I forgot to mention that creating an add-in is my goal for this program.

I also need to add the libraries from PDFSharp that will help me process the pdf files I will be creating.

[J_Dumont]

I'm testing the code to display a form and accept user input.

This code seems to briefly display the form.

How do I keep the form displayed to accept input?

Module Module1

Sub Main()
Dim oForm As FormXYZ
oForm = New FormXYZ()
oForm.Visible = True
oForm.Show()

End Sub

End Module

[_dscholtes_]

However, Visual Studio shows the variable is not declared in the following sub program.

Private Sub BtnOK_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles BtnOK.Click
If TxtProjectNumber.Text = "" Then
MsgBox("Assembly Project Number cannot be blank")
TxtProjectNumber.Focus()
Else
AssyProjectNumber = TxtProjectNumber.Text
' Set the value of the property using the current value of the text box.
descAssyProject.value = TxtProjectNumber.Text

End If

End Sub

That's probably because you did not put dim AssyProjectNumber as String in your sub BtnOk_Click before assigning it a value (txtProjectNumber.Text)

Regarding your first attempt at a plugin, did you notice the top post check-out-the-self-paced-guide-my-first-plug-in? This plug-in contains a form and you can even download the code being discussed in each of the lessons.

[J_Dumont]

Thank you for your advice. It really helped me move forward.

I found the issue that was halting my code.

I am working with vault and if the files were checked in the code was unable to update the properties. Once I checked the files out the Custom iProperties updated properly.

I first developed this code using iLogic and I was prompted to check the files out and the code updated files.

However, with VB.Net, this is not the case.

Below is an excerpt from Autodesk Knowledge Network.

Inventor 2018 and later no longer allow write-protected files, such as content center parts, to be modified by the API or iLogic rules to maintain consistency with the UI behavior.

Here's a URL for the workaround.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/iLogi...

[dgreatice]

Hi, did you know about this lessons?

Inventor Addin (Plug-In) and Windows application is difference method. 

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/simplecontent/content/my-first-inventor-plug-overv...

[J_Dumont]

Thank you for the URL. I have not seen this before. I have gone through other tutorials but I look forward to studying these lessons.