By Vladimir Ananyev

Issue

I need to open an assembly and do some processing that takes some time. I need to prevent the user from accessing the document during the process. Is there a way to do this?

Solution

One way would be to open the assembly document invisibly and then make it visible. Here is a VB.NET and VBA examples that use this approach.

Note: Inventor 2009 added an application property named ScreenUpdating. To keep graphics locked set this property to True. Make sure to set it to False after the processing is finished. (Application.ScreenUpdating=False)

VB .NET:

 

Private Sub Button1_Click( _

          ByVal sender As System.Object, _

          ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _

        Handles Button1.Click

 

  Try ‘ Try to get an active instance of Inventor

    Try

      m_inventorApp = System.Runtime _

        .InteropServices.Marshal _

          .GetActiveObject("Inventor.Application")

    Catch ‘ If not active, create a new Inventor session

      Dim inventorAppType As Type _

        = System.Type.GetTypeFromProgID("Inventor.Application")

      m_inventorApp = System.Activator.CreateInstance(inventorAppType)

      ‘Must be set visible explicitly

      m_inventorApp.Visible = True

    End Try

  Catch

    System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox _

      .Show("Error: couldn’t create Inventor instance")

  End Try

  OpenInvisibleAndMakeVisible()

End Sub

 

Public Sub openInvisibleAndMakeVisible()

 

  Dim oDoc As AssemblyDocument

  ‘Open the document in the invisible mode

  oDoc = m_inventorApp.Documents _

    .Open("c:\temp\test_assly.iam", False)

 

  ‘Do some proccessing here

 

  ‘Now make the document visible

  oDoc.Views.Add()

 

End Sub

VBA:

 

Public Sub openInvisibleAndMakeVisible()

 

  Dim oDoc As AssemblyDocument

  Set oDoc = ThisApplication.Documents _

    .Open("c:\temp\test_assly.iam", False)

 

  ‘ Do some proccessing here

 

  ‘ Now make the document visible

  oDoc.Views.Add

End Sub

Another way would be to put up a model dialog that pops up in front of Inventor and shows some status so that the user cannot close the document until the processing is done.