Fun With SolidWorks Equations
March 26, 2008
Disclaimer: This post isn’t directly API-related but using logic statements in SolidWorks equations is so useful that I decided to post it. Also, the syntax is in a kind of “techno-weenie-ese” so I thought I would help folks with the syntax.
The SolidWorks equation editor is a very useful, powerful and yet easy to use tool for building design intent into your SolidWorks model. However, most people don’t take full advantage of its power. In addition to support for constants, which are nice, the equation editor allows If…Then type logic statements. The idea is that you can set a dimension’s value to one of two values depending on the veracity of a logic statement pertaining to another/other dimension(s). Say what?….
Time for an example…
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Free SolidWorks Add-In To Remind You To Eat Your Custom Properties
February 23, 2008
In spite of all their positive benefits, which are many, more than a few SolidWorks users look upon custom properties with the same disdain that a pre-schooler would have for green leafy vegetables. You can explain the benefits of custom properties, how they help you find things, how they lead to healthy drawing title blocks, how they improve PDM implementations, etc… until you are blue in the face and with some individuals you still won’t make a dent. There might be a change for a few days even a few weeks but inevitably you are back to files with no custom properties filled out.
In order to increase the life-expectancy of CAD administrators everywhere, I have posted a free .NET Add-In for SolidWorks that will “remind” your users to enter certain custom properties whenever they create a new file or save an existing one (after the initial save). The list of custom properties is configurable and
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GetObject( ) or CreateObject( )? Is there a difference? - Part III
October 11, 2007
At the end of my last post on this topic, I promised you that I would share a “dirty secret” so I guess I now have to come clean. FYI - “Dirty secret” may have been a bit strong but it sounded cool (at least to me). Anyways, there is a difference between how SolidWorks handles CreateObject( ) and how MS Office products handle CreateObject( ). This is something to be aware of when automating across applications.
What is the difference? In a nutshell, calling CreateObject( ) on an MS Office application interface will always create a new instance of the application and then return a handle to that instance. Calling CreateObject( ) on the SldWorks.Application interface will only create a new instance of SolidWorks if one isn’t already running. This basically ensures that only one instance of SolidWorks at a time is ever automated by your Macro. This is a basic coding pattern called “the Singleton” and it prevents untold suffering and countless tears. SolidWorks is so kind to us and many of us didn’t even know it.
Below are two Macros Read more
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GetObject( ) or CreateObject( )? Is there a difference? - Part II
October 8, 2007
Last time I explained how the SolidWorks application object behaves differently depending on whether it is instantiated via CreateObject( ) or GetObject( ). So now you are probably thinking, “That’s it? That was too easy.” Well, I don’t want to be one to disappoint so I will let you in on the rest of the story including a dirty little secret.
So what else is there? The GetObject( ) call has another trick up its sleeve that I didn’t discuss last time. Taking a look at its Intellisense signature provides a clue as to what this is.
In the method signature you actually see two parameters, Read more
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GetObject( ) or CreateObject( )? Is there a difference? - Part I
October 4, 2007
Disclaimer: 99.9% of all the API programming I do these days is in .NET so for the times that I do answer a question incorrectly, 80% of the time it is a VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) question. Since most people start with VBA before they move on to .NET, however, I decided to cover this topic for VBA.
Set swApp = CreateObject(”SldWorks.Application”)
Almost all SolidWorks Macros start out with that same, famous line of code. In fact, whenever you record a Macro in SolidWorks, the SolidWorks Macro Recorder is kind enough to fill that line in for you. What does it really mean, though? And why do a few Macros begin instead with this line of code:
Set swApp = GetObject(,”SldWorks.Application”)
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