Get Unit Abbreviations
Are you maybe thinking of this method: UnitsOfMeasure.GetStringFromType()? There are also lots of other related methods and properties (tools) under the UnitsOfMeasure object.
Wesley Crihfield
(Not an Autodesk Employee)
For the most part, you will not find unit abbreviations available in a list for many of the units used for area, volume, & density. There may be a few, but if you need something specific, you pretty much just have to create it yourself. Most of the time its just as simple as putting a single space between the unit abbreviations to specify the units for those types of measurements. For instance, you can use "in in" or "in^2" for square inches area, and "in in in" or "in^3" for inches cubed volume, and so on.
Wesley Crihfield
(Not an Autodesk Employee)
Give this a try.
I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com
Edit to add:
Just noticed you tagged this VBA, so I figured I better check to make sure it didn't return something different in VBA for some reason, but it doesn't. Here is the same for VBA:
Dim oUOM As UnitsOfMeasure
Set oUOM = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument.UnitsOfMeasure
oLenUnits = oUOM.GetStringFromType(UnitsTypeEnum.kDefaultDisplayLengthUnits)
MsgBox (oLenUnits)
iLogic version:
Dim oUOM As UnitsOfMeasure oUOM = ThisDoc.Document.UnitsOfMeasure oLenUnits = oUOM.GetStringFromType(UnitsTypeEnum.kDefaultDisplayLengthUnits) MsgBox(oLenUnits,, "iLogic")
Good point. It seems like I've seen something like this before, but don't recall where. I do know that when checking the value of Parameter.Units property, you usually get the abbreviated version of the units string. And you usually see (and can retrieve) the Expression of a parameter, it will contain the abbreviated version of the units string. And when viewing the Physical tab of the iProperties dialog, you see the abbreviated units shown after the numerical values. The Autodesk programmers must be using some sort of behind the scenes routine to generate those abbreviated Strings for internal use. It would certainly be a pain in the @'s to have to find or create a parameter then retrieve its units string each time though.
Wesley Crihfield
(Not an Autodesk Employee)
If using the few "kDefaultDisplayLengthUnits" type specifications, you can only get the units currently set as default. What about other non-default units abbreviations. Would you then have to change your default units first, then get the abbreviated version of it using that method, then switch your units back each time? That would certainly not be ideal. I'm thinking that a custom Function is likely needed just for returning the abbreviated versions of all the various units we might be working with, because I don't know of another readily available way.
Wesley Crihfield
(Not an Autodesk Employee)
You could also just create your own alternate Enum to reference (Link1, Link2), that would return the abbreviated versions of the unit names, instead of the full unit names. You could even have it in another external iLogic rule that was set to StraightVB, then reference that rule using the AddVbFile system, if needed.
Wesley Crihfield
(Not an Autodesk Employee)
@Noah.ClarkX5FEF wrote:
wait how does that work? every time I use
GetStringFromType(UnitsTypeEnum.kDefaultDisplayLengthUnits)I only get "inch".
hmmm, I'm not sure. I did a couple quick checks to see if I could think of a setting, but didn't see anything.
I could not find a method for getting the abbreviations of units. But there is another workaround. Have a look at this:
Dim doc As PartDocument = ThisDoc.Document
Dim uom As UnitsOfMeasure = doc.UnitsOfMeasure
Dim tempString = uom.GetStringFromValue(123, UnitsTypeEnum.kKilogramMassUnits)
Dim unitAbbreviation = tempString.Split(" ")(1)
MsgBox(unitAbbreviation)
the value string uses the format "<value> <abbreviation of the units>" So if you create a "value string" and give some random number. And split on the space between the random number and the "abbreviation of the units", and you get an array. The 2e element in the array is your abbreviation.
That is the best I could think of but still a bit of a hack
Edit:
Changed code to give a full example
Jelte de Jong
Did you find this post helpful? Feel free to Like this post.
Did your question get successfully answered? Then click on the ACCEPT SOLUTION button.
Blog: hjalte.nl - github.com
Interesting issue. I too got an error with that code. I was able to get rid of that error by using a different method (GetPriciseStringFromValue vs GetStringFromValue). I don't know why that would make a difference though.
Dim oUOM As Inventor.UnitsOfMeasure = ThisDoc.Document.UnitsOfMeasure
Logger.Info("1: " & oUOM.GetPreciseStringFromValue(1, UnitsTypeEnum.kInchLengthUnits).Split()(1))
oUOM = ThisApplication.UnitsOfMeasure
Logger.Info("2: " & oUOM.GetPreciseStringFromValue(1, UnitsTypeEnum.kInchLengthUnits).Split()(1))I do see that there is a method called "GetLocaleCorrectedExpression", but the documentation for it sort of suggests that it may only correct decimal place character changes. It does not mention units string abbreviation conversion. The only 'localization' related tool I have seen within iLogic or Inventor API is a tool I found maybe a year ago, but it seems to be specific to the names of ModelStates, not just general verbiage.
Dim oMSName As String = "Master"
Dim oMSNUtils As New Autodesk.iLogic.Runtime.ModelStateNameUtils
Dim sLocalizedName As String = oMSNUtils.GetLocalizedName(oMSName)
MsgBox("The 'Localized' version of " & oMSName & " is: " & sLocalizedName, vbInformation, "iLogic")
Wesley Crihfield
(Not an Autodesk Employee)
