Creating Drawing Views via the Inventor API

By Xiaodong Liang

Issue

I need to automate the creation of drawing views of parts/assemblies via the Inventor API. How do I do this?

Solution

The following VB.NET code illustrates how to create a drawing document, then add drawing views to the document.

Public Sub CreateViews()            ' assume we have had inventor application             ' Create a new drawing document via a         ' standard drawing template file        Dim sTemplateFile As String        sTemplateFile =             _InvApplication.FileManager. _            GetTemplateFile( _                DocumentTypeEnum.kDrawingDocumentObject)             Dim oDrawDoc As DrawingDocument        oDrawDoc = _            _InvApplication.Documents.Add( _                    DocumentTypeEnum.kDrawingDocumentObject, _                    sTemplateFile)             ' The drawing is created with a single sheet,         ' so we'll add our views to it.        Dim oSheet As Sheet = oDrawDoc.Sheets.Item(1)             ' Now we define the placement points for         ' the two drawing views we shall be adding to the sheet        Dim oPlacementPoint1 As Point2d        Dim oPlacementPoint2 As Point2d        oPlacementPoint1 =  _                _InvApplication.TransientGeometry. _                    CreatePoint2d(10.0, 10.0)        oPlacementPoint2 = _                _InvApplication.TransientGeometry. _                    CreatePoint2d(10.0, 30.0)             ' Define the view scales that we need.        Dim ViewScale1 As Double        Dim ViewScale2 As Double        ViewScale1 = 1.0        ViewScale2 = 5.0             ' define the view orientation for each view        Dim ViewOrientation1 As ViewOrientationTypeEnum =  _        &#1
60;       ViewOrientationTypeEnum.kBottomViewOrientation        Dim ViewOrientation2 As ViewOrientationTypeEnum =  _                ViewOrientationTypeEnum.kRightViewOrientation             ' define the view style for each view        Dim ViewStyle1 As DrawingViewStyleEnum = _                DrawingViewStyleEnum.kHiddenLineDrawingViewStyle        Dim ViewStyle2 As DrawingViewStyleEnum = _                DrawingViewStyleEnum.kShadedDrawingViewStyle             ' we assume there is a part called 'Part.ipt'        ' in the project workspace, which we want to create views for        Dim sPartPath As String = _                _InvApplication.FileLocations.Workspace _                    & "Part1.ipt"        Dim oPartDoc As PartDocument =  _                _InvApplication.Documents.Open(sPartPath, False)             ' now create our two views        Dim oView As DrawingView        oView = oSheet.DrawingViews.AddBaseView( _                oPartDoc, oPlacementPoint1,  _                    ViewScale1, ViewOrientation1, _                        ViewStyle1)        oView = oSheet.DrawingViews.AddBaseView( _                oPartDoc, oPlacementPoint2,  _                    ViewScale2, ViewOrientation2,  _                        ViewStyle2)             Call oPartDoc.Close(True)             ' drawing document isn't saved         End Sub