Data.IO Support for IV_MARK_SURFACE in DXF Generation

[techP5D3Q]

The Mark Surface tool in Inventor 2023 is great. Been waiting many years for that functionality.

For our workflow I need to get iLogic control over color and line type of IV_MARK_SURFACE and IV_MARK_BACK layers when generating DXF files.

I can add and get control of visibility (on/off) of the two MARK layers in the InvisibleLayer list.

However I have not been able to find any information on how to set color or line type, as I do for IV_BEND and IV_BEND_DOWN (and other layers).

There is no layer listed nor mention of IV_MARK in the ComponentDefinition.DataIO Property:

https://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2023/ENU/?guid=GUID-29408108-C184-4FA9-88DE-3F3B54913FC6

I was able to craft a workaround by setting the AltRepFrontLayer and AltRepBackLayer to IV_MARK_SURFACE and IV_MARK_SURFACE_BACK.

Three questions about this workaround:

Does anyone know of a more official way to set IV_MARK_SURFACE color and line settings from iLogic?

Are there "secret" supported Data.IO layer names for the MARK_SURFACE layers? (I made a few guesses but none of them worked.)

Other than getting placed on the invisibility list - what kind of data are AltRepFrontLayer and AltRepBackLayer intended to hold? In other words - how risky is my workaround?

Thank you.

[JelteDeJong]

not sure if it helps you but have you seen this post?

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ilogic-and-vb-net-forum/export-new-mark-feature-rename-layer...

[techP5D3Q]

I had not seen that post. Thank you for sharing it.

From that post, Michael notes the following:

"Layer settings for MarkSurface layer is available in StylesEditor. I hope (not tested) it is modifiable using standard API for styles."

It would appear that the DataIO API interfaces for Mark Surface are missing.

For example, the following works fine for bend lines:

sOut += "&BendUpLayer=IV_BEND&BendUpLayerLineType=" + Str(kContinuousLineType) + "&BendUpLayerColor=" + dxfRED
sOut += "&BendDownLayer=IV_BEND_DOWN&BendDownLayerLineType=" + Str(kContinuousLineType) + "&BendDownLayerColor=" + dxfBLUE

This method also works for the other layers listed in the Component Definition for DataIO.

I guessed that this might work - it does not:

sOut += "&MarkSurfaceLayer=IV_MARK_SURFACE&MarkSurfaceLayerLineType=" + Str(kDashedLineType) + "&MarkSurfaceLayerColor=" + dxfRED
sOut += "&MarkSurfaceBackLayer=IV_MARK_SURFACE_BACK&MarkSurfaceBackLayerLineType=37634&MarkSurfaceBackLayerColor=" + dxfRED

If I take over an existing layer (AltRepFrontLayer in this case) correct control is established for DXF layer attributes of Mark Surface!

sOut += "&AltRepFrontLayer=IV_MARK_SURFACE&AltRepFrontLayerLineType=" + Str(kDashedLineType) + "&AltRepFrontLayerColor=" + dxfRED
sOut += "&AltRepBackLayer=IV_MARK_SURFACE_BACK&AltRepBackLayerLineType=" + Str(kContinuousLineType) +"&AltRepBackLayerColor=" + dxfORANGE

I see that the Styles workaround from the suggested link would work, but I am looking for a lower level and more direct DXF format solution. One that works from iLogic as it does for the other layers listed in DataIO.

[j.vanderstoel]

I'm looking for the same for my export tool.
Unfortunately it looks like its not part of the DataIO property. Or the documentation hasn't been updated.
Tried all sorts of names: MarkSurfaceLayer, MarkSurfaceUpLayer, MarkSurfaceFrontLayer, MarkLayer, MarkUpLayer. They must be handling this differently somehow even though the layer in the DXF is called like the other layers (IV_<name>).

[techP5D3Q]

Taking over another layer that Data.IO supports has been working for us for many months now. (See post on 21 Nov 2022.)

It is an ugly workaround - but is probably the best we can do until IV_MARK is fully integrated into Data.IO.

@j.vanderstoel  - have you tried this workaround yet?

General question - where do we post about issues like this (missing support)?

[j.vanderstoel]

@techP5D3QYeah, I've been using the old interior profiles layer that we used before mark was available, thanks for the tip.

"InteriorProfilesLayer=INTERIORPROFILE0&FeatureProfilesLayer=IV_MARK_SURFACE&FeatureProfilesUpLayerColor=255;0;255"

 This seems to work so far. Unfortunately I haven't been able to do anything with the IV_MARK_THROUGH layer though, but we're not using that type of mark too often.

[Maxim-CADman77]

Dear @MjDeck
Is it how (unobvious) it's supposed to control Mark Layers on DXF export (use "AltRepFrontLayer" and "AltRepBackLayer")?

[MjDeck]

Hi Maxim - no, AltRepFrontLayer and AltRepBackLayer are not the best way to control the DXF layer for Mark features. Instead, use the dedicated API on the MarkStyle object. See message 5 and message 6 on this thread.