Hi everyone,
I have a bit of a loaded question here and I realize that I will likely get a lot of folks pointing me to already existing posts and that's all good 😊.
Here goes. I'm trying to understand the best approach to creating a custom Inventor environment that can be deployed via an installer to different users. Here's the scenario.
Assume I can create the installer myself. The goal is to have a brand-new user who just installed Inventor version 20xx (assume no older than 2022) run an installer that sets up their Inventor with all of the customization tools that my team and I have developed.
I'm currently struggling with understanding the differences between macros, addins and plugins. I understand how to properly use iLogic rules, specifically we use external rules because it's easier to deliver updated resources via an update script to user's computers. Assume that our application options paths stay with the directories that Inventor recommends when you first install it except that we convert the paths to variable types (%path%).
Below are screenshots of part of our application options and iLogic configuration. This currently allows us to have different iLogic rules that me and one other person can update. Using a resource delivery script that we've written the update iLogic rules can be delivered to users from our network. The goal is that users work primarily local and then push completed work up to a server. I realize that vault can do this but this is not the setup that we have.
So now that part that I'm fuzzy on. We want to develop more robust tools than what can be handled in iLogic. I've done this in the past with a previous employer and we opted to do almost all of the automation with addins (.dll's) and iLogic rules. We essentially created a custom Frame Generator tool (back in the day when frame generator was quite finicky) and we developed BOM automation tools for exporting to ERP systems, drawing automation that created IDW's from scratch and placed multiple views of parts (sheet metal, extrusion, structural steel, etc) on sheets and drafted them out, ballooned assembly views, configuration tools that allowed customization of products, etc.
That being said, is the best approach to code our complex customizations (drawing automation, complex configurators, BOM output automation) in Addins (.addin) or Plugins (.addin/.dll) or Macros (.ivb)? I understand that we will also always have iLogic rules and that part I'm comfortable with. I'm not sure I understand when it's appropriate to create an Addin (using VB.NET) or a plugin (also using VB.NET).
