Hi,
I have a need to add an event trigger, that copies the external rule into the 'Rules on Events' area, under Before save document. I'd like to incorperate this into an existing iLogic code that replaces a drawing template and few other things.
Is it possible to use iLogic to copy event triggers into Rules on events?
Hi @Kersh. Here is an example iLogic rule for a task like that. This is actually a pretty complex procedure that is accessing an area of Inventor's API that was originally 'hidden' to us 'users' by the folks at Autodesk, and it involved years of trial & error experimentation by us Inventor API users, so it can be error prone or result in problematic behavior if not done perfectly. The internal task of finding this 'hidden' PropertySet, that may not even exist yet, or creating it, can be done far more efficiently than it was done in the past, using primarily just its 'internal' name, and optionally its 'default' name, and the PropertySets.PropertySetExists method, as I am showing in my example code below.
There are several variables involved which make the overall process, and what all is requires, and what all is involved (what all needs to be known) difficult to fully explain in one place. There are special requirements about the rule's name that changes between 'internal' rules and 'external' rules, besides just the 'prefix' shown in this example, that go all the way back to how you have your 'iLogic Configuration' settings set-up. There is a requirement about whether or not this document already has an iLogic influence effecting it yet or not also. Each event you see in the dialog has a different 'internal name' than the one you see in that dialog, and has a very specific PropID range that must be used just for that one specific event, for it to work properly. That PropID range has already been known to change at least once before, for one of the known events, since we have known about this association, so it is a good idea to monitor that association for each release of Inventor. Also, special care must be taken in several areas, such as to not delete, or over-write any already existing settings (properties) in that set, when adding new rule(s) into it ; and not to add the same rule multiple times under the same event. This is done by sequentially checking any/all existing settings under the event of interest before making any changes.
Sub Main
Dim oDoc As Inventor.Document = ThisDoc.Document
'required for external rule names in these Event Triggers properties
Dim sExternalRulePrefix As String = "file://"
Dim sExtRuleName As String = sExternalRulePrefix & "Title to Drawing"
'required to prepare document (it must have DocumentInterest for iLogic add-in)
DocumentEventTriggersPreparations(oDoc, True)
'event internal name is different than what you see in Event Triggers dialog
Dim sEventInternalName As String = "BeforeDocSave"
Dim oSet As Inventor.PropertySet = Nothing
Dim sSetDefaultName As String = "_iLogicEventsRules"
'this internal name must never be different, or it will not work
Dim sSetInternalName As String = "{2C540830-0723-455E-A8E2-891722EB4C3E}"
If Not oDoc.PropertySets.PropertySetExists(sSetInternalName, oSet) Then
oSet = oDoc.PropertySets.Add(sSetDefaultName, sSetInternalName)
End If
Dim oProp As Inventor.Property = Nothing
'PropID range is unique/specific to each specific event
For iPropID As Integer = 800 To 899 'range is specific to each event
Try
oProp = oSet.ItemByPropId(iPropID)
If oProp.Value = sExtRuleName Then
'MsgBox("This rule has already been added to this event trigger. Exiting.", vbExclamation, "")
Logger.Info("This rule has already been added to this event trigger.")
Exit For 'exit this loop/iteration
End If
Continue For 'there is already an existing rule at this iPropID, so skip to next
Catch
'no property was found with that PropID, and this rule has not been found, so now create one for this rule
oProp = oSet.Add(sExtRuleName, sEventType & iPropID, iPropID)
Exit For 'exit the loop, because we have already added the rule to the event
End Try
Next
DocumentEventTriggersPreparations(oDoc, False)
End Sub
Sub DocumentEventTriggersPreparations(oDoc As Inventor.Document, bBefore As Boolean)
Dim iLogicClientId As String = "{3BDD8D79-2179-4B11-8A5A-257B1C0263AC}"
Dim sTempRuleName As String = "DeleteMe"
If bBefore Then
If oDoc.DocumentInterests.HasInterest(iLogicClientId) = False Then
iLogicVb.Automation.AddRule(oDoc, sTempRuleName, "")
End If
Else
If iLogicVb.Automation.GetRule(oDoc, sTempRuleName) IsNot Nothing Then
iLogicVb.Automation.DeleteRule(oDoc, sTempRuleName)
End If
End If
End SubIf this solved your problem, or answered your question, please click ACCEPT SOLUTION .
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Wesley Crihfield
(Not an Autodesk Employee)
This almost works. It throws an error when I have existing rules in Before Save.
If I remove the others, then run it. It works fine.
The other thing I'm trying to do is add it to an existing external txt file that runs as ilogic, via Button Constructor, but this is throwig a bunch of errors.
Any idea on this?
Original code in *.txt file (note I'm doing a few other things first, so it's down the bottom)
Weirdly this works but it's copying the external rule into 'After Save Document', not before, even tho youro code clearly seems to state 'before'
Similar to the other chaps code, If I try and add this to an existing external txt file that is run with a button, it throws a bunch of errors. Could this be because of the Sub Main grouping? The rest of the code in this text file seems to run OK without grouping.
Text file below (your code is added to the end of other functions)
Yep, that was my mistake. In my code example, I was specifying the correct event internal name, but not the correct PropID range. It should have been from 700 o 799, not from 800 to 899. Also, as I mentioned in my post above, I believe one of those events listed in that 'older' post has been moved from one PropID range to another. The 'AfterDrawingViewsUpdate' event is now between 1800 to 1899 PropID range. I do not know when that change happened though. There are also multiple more events in the Event Triggers now than there were back then.
I know this because I developed an 'inspection' routine for checking these things a couple years ago. It essentially involves creating or opening one of each of the 3 main document types, then creating a single internal iLogic rule in it (its contents do not matter), and having an external rule ready. Then placing the internal rule, and the external rule under each of the events available in the 'This Document' tab of the Event Triggers dialog. Then, using an iLogic rule to access that PropertySet, recording its settings, and iterating through every property in it, recording their settings, then writing all that data to the iLogic Log window, or out to a text file. This confirms how the individual properties get named (which includes the internal event name, and the ending index Integer), and what their PropID is, which tells us what range rules under that event must be within, and what its Value is, which sometimes includes the prefix for external rules. But that depends on if or how you have set-up your iLogic Configuration settings. If you have properly set-up those settings to include the directories where to find all of your external rules, then there is no need to specify the whole path of the external rule file, and only the external rule's name is needed. When you only specified its name, it puts that prefix in front of it. If you specified the full file path, file name, and file extension, then it might not include that prefix, but I never do it that way. Although I have not tried putting more than 100 rules under one event before, to check if the PropID range would go past that 99 mark, but I highly doubt it, since there are multiple existing events whose PropID ranges start only 100 value from each other already. I attached a PDF copy of my Excel file for those associations, but I am still using 2024.3 version, so it may have changed for 2025, not sure.
Wesley Crihfield
(Not an Autodesk Employee)
