Navisworks .NET API 2013 new feature – saved viewpoint

By Xiaodong Liang

Saved Viewpoint presets views of the model. It enables to jump to viewpoints without having to navigate each time to reach an item. The saved viewpoints could be orignized within a folder. A folder could contain sub-folder. A saved viewpoint could also be a animation clip. Each element is a saved viewpoint.

2013 .NET API provides the following objects:

Document.SavedViewpoints: the saved viewpoints collection of a document.

SavedViewpoint: The object derives from GroupItem. It could be a specific saved viewpoint, or a folder (FolderItem), or the animation clips ( SavedViewpointAnimation)

SavedViewpoints.CurrentSavedViewpoint: The object can know  which saved viewpoint is displayed currently. Any view changes manually will cause it be null- anonymous viewpoint.

The code iterates the saved view collection. The code below dumps all saved viewpoints and switch current saved viewpoint to one whose name is “mysavedviewpoint1”.

void savedVPs()    {    Document oDoc =             Autodesk.Navisworks.Api.Application.ActiveDocument;         // the saved viewpoint we will set it to current    SavedViewpoint oSVP_to_SetCurrent = null;          // iterate the collection of saved viewpoints    foreach (SavedItem oSVP in             oDoc.SavedViewpoints.Value)    {        // if it is a folder/animation              if (oSVP.IsGroup)                  recurse(oSVP);            else            {            // Access the properties of the saved             //viewpoint                            SavedViewpoint oThisSVP =                oSVP as SavedViewpoint;                     if(oThisSVP != null)                {                    Debug.Print("Display Name" +                         oThisSVP.DisplayName);                    Viewpoint oVP =                         oThisSVP.Viewpoint;                         // dump the properties of Viewpoint                    // ......                         if(oThisSVP.DisplayName ==                         "mysavedviewpoint1")                        oSVP_to_SetCurrent = oThisSVP;                }            }    }    // current selected saved viewpoint        SavedViewpoint oCurViewPt =            oDoc.SavedViewpoints.CurrentSavedViewpoint                 as SavedViewpoint;             Viewpoint oCurrentVP =                         oCurViewPt.Viewpoint;             // dump the properties of current Viewpoint        // ......             // switch the current viewpoint to "myviewpoint1"        oDoc.SavedViewpoints.CurrentSavedViewpoint =                                     oSVP_to_SetCurrent;         }         void recurse(SavedItem oFolder)    {        foreach (SavedViewpoint oSVP in ((GroupItem)                                    oFolder).Children)        {      // if it is a folder/animation                                        if (oSVP.IsGroup)                recurse(oSVP);            else            {            // Access the properties of the saved             //viewpoint                                             }        }    }

The code below creates two saved viewpooints. One is copied from current viewpoint. The other moves the current viewpoint along X axis with value 10. And the code creates one folder and adds the first saved viewpoint to the folder. The other viewpoints is added directly to the saved viewpoints collection.

void createSavedVP_Folder()    {        Document oDoc =            Autodesk.Navisworks.Api.Application.ActiveDocument;             // Create a saved viewpoint with current viewpoint        SavedViewpoint oNewViewPt1 =            new SavedViewpoint(                oDoc.CurrentViewpoint.ToViewpoint());             oNewViewPt1.DisplayName = "MySavedView1";             // Create a viewpoint for the         // second saved viewpoint             Viewpoint oNewVP = new Viewpoint();        // Based on the current viewpoint,        // move camera along X+ with value 10        oNewVP =            oDoc.CurrentViewpoint.ToViewpoint().CreateCopy();        Point3D oNewPos =            new Point3D(oNewVP.Position.X + 10,                        oNewVP.Position.Y,                        oNewVP.Position.Z);        oNewVP.Position = oNewPos;        // Create the saved viewpoint         // with the new viewpoint        SavedViewpoint oNewViewPt2 =            new SavedViewpoint(oNewVP);        oNewViewPt2.DisplayName =            "MySavedView2";        // Add the saved viewpoints to the collection         oDoc.SavedViewpoints.AddCopy(oNewViewPt1);        oDoc.SavedViewpoints.AddCopy(oNewViewPt2);             FolderItem oNewViewPtFolder1 =            new FolderItem();        oNewViewPtFolder1.DisplayName = "Group1";             // put the saved viewpoint1 to group1        oNewViewPtFolder1.Children.Add(oNewViewPt1);             // add the group        oDoc.SavedViewpoints.AddCopy(oNewViewPtFolder1);        // add saved viewpoint        oDoc.SavedViewpoints.AddCopy(oNewViewPt2);    }