Add a new custom pane and add node from a default browser pane

By Wayne Brill

It is not possible to add a node to the default Inventor browser panes. One idea is to create a new browser pane and add a default node to the custom browser pane instead. This example adds a new browser pane and adds the top node of the active pane of the active document.

 
Download Inventor_API_Add_Pane_With_Default_Node

This project creates an AddIn. To test it follow the steps in this section of the Inventor API help.

Once the AddIn is loaded open an assembly and run the “Assembly Cmd” on the Assemble Tab. It should add a new browser node named myNewPane.

Here is the pertinent code from the project:

Sub addMyBrowserPane()
    'Get the active document
    Dim actDoc As Inventor.Document
    actDoc = m_inventorApplication.ActiveDocument
 
    'Get the top node of the active pane
    Dim actDocBrowserNode As Inventor.BrowserNode
    actDocBrowserNode = actDoc.BrowserPanes. _
                               ActivePane.TopNode
 
    ' Get a picture to use as the icon for 
    ' the new browser pane
    Dim mIPictureDisp1 As IPictureDisp = _
        PictureDispConverter.ToIPictureDisp _
      (My.Resources.Image_For_Browser_Pane)
 
    ' Create a client node resource
    Dim clientNodeRsc As ClientNodeResource = _
    actDoc.BrowserPanes.ClientNodeResources.Add _
          ("MyNodeResorce", 2211, mIPictureDisp1)
 
    ' Create a browser node definition
    Dim clientBrowserNodeDef As  _
                  ClientBrowserNodeDefinition = _
actDoc.BrowserPanes.CreateBrowserNodeDefinition _
   ("TopNodeForNewBrowser", 11344, clientNodeRsc)
 
    ' Create the new browser pane
    Dim newBrowserPane As BrowserPane = _
        actDoc.BrowserPanes.AddTreeBrowserPane _
       ("myNewPane", "InternalNameForNewPane", _
                           clientBrowserNodeDef)
 
    ' Add the existing browser node to the 
    ' new browser pane
    newBrowserPane.TopNode.AddChild _
      (actDocBrowserNode.BrowserNodeDefinition)
End Sub