beginners-guide-to-the-api

Also, the SolidWorks Autonumbering Macro (w/ MS Access Database) that I usually show has been written up for ConnectPress with a link to download the Macro and Database.  You can view that article here:

http://www.solidworkscommunity.com/feature_full.php?cpfeatureid=32314

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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…

 Let’s say I have dimensions A, B and C.  I want to set C = 4 if A+B<5.  If however, A+B>=5 then I want to set C=8.  This is relatively easy to do using the the IIF statement (if statement to lay people).  The syntax is like this:  IIF([test statement],[value if true],[value if false]).  In our example above, the statement would look like this:  IIF(A+B<5, 4, 8).  Pretty simple, right?  I thought so.  In SolidWorks, it would look like this:  d2@extrude1=IIF(“d1@sketch4″+”d2@sketch4″<5, 4, 8). 

 As the example video below shows, IIF statements can be extremely powerful in conjunction with the Instant3D functionality that was added in SolidWorks 2008.  Notice how the hub diameter and number of spokes is updated real-time as I drag the ID  accross the 3.00in threshhold.

You may download the example file show from here.

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 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

the user cannot proceed with their file until they enter the custom properties.  I am sure the program can be improved upon but for those without SolidWorks API skills of their own this should be a nice little app.  Also, for those who do have SolidWorks API skills using Visual Basic.NET, I am more than happy to share the code if you request it.

 The Add-In, called “Big Brother” is written for SolidWorks 2008 and targets the 2.0 .NET Framework, which means if you have SolidWorks 2008 installed on your machine then you can use it.

 To get started,

1.  Download the installer package for Big Brother from here.

2.  Run the installer, agreeing to the overly wordy license agreement on the way.

3.  After installing the software, run the “Register Big Brother.bat” file in the installation directory.  Running this batch file will register Big Brother with COM and add the appropriate registry entries for SolidWorks to load Big Brother when SolidWorks is run.

4. This is an optional step but if you don’t already have a decent XML editor, then I recommend you download XML Notepad which is a free XML editor from Microsoft.

5.  Use XML Notepad to edit the XML configuration files in the installation directory.  The installation has three XML files which are used to configure which custom properties are managed by Big Brother for each of the three main part types in SolidWorks.

• AssemblyPropertiesToManage.XML – Represents custom properties for assemblies.
• DrawingPropertiesToManage.XML – Represents custom properties for drawings.
• PartPropertiesToManage.XML – Represents custom properties for parts.

Edit the list of custom properties to manage for each document type using XML Notepad.  Each “ExtProperty” node represents a custom property.  PropName represents the name of the custom property to be managed.  PropValue and PropType should not be touched.  Leave those alone.  Save the file(s) when finished.

6.  Open SolidWorks and create a new part.  After selecting your template, you should be prompted to verify or fill in the values for the custom properties in your PartPropertiesToManage.XML file.  The same thing should happen for subsequent file saves.  The original Save (for new documents) doessnot trigger the FileSaveNotify event.  I suspect that it is triggered by the FileSaveAsNotify event.  If anyone tries that and gets the answer then please let me know.

7.   Additional configuration of the Add-In may be performed by editing the “ExtensibleEventManager.dll.config” file, which you should also use XML Notepad to edit. 

• If BigBrotherMode=True then it is mandatory that users enter values for all custom properties.  If BigBrotherMode=False then the dialog pops up as an FYI.
• If CatchFileNewEvent=True then files are managed on FileNew in addition to FileSave.

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Copyright 2007 Extensible By Design. All rights reserved.

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 to illustrate the difference between SolidWorks and MS Office applications with regard to CreateObject( ). The first is an Excel Macro that automates SolidWorks and the second is a SolidWorks Macro that automates Excel. If you copy/paste the code, be sure you add references in each Macro project to the object library of the application you are automating. If you don’t know what the heck I am talking about, then just download the complete files from here.

• Excel Macro to automate SolidWorks:

‘Copyright 2007 by Extensible CAD Technologies, LLC – All rights reserved
‘Written 10/10/2007 by Jeff Cope
‘User assumes all risk for using the code below.

Sub AutomateSolidWorks()

‘Declare three handles to SolidWorks instances.
Dim swx1 As SldWorks.SldWorks
Dim swx2 As SldWorks.SldWorks
Dim swx3 As SldWorks.SldWorks

‘Use CreateObject( ) for the first instance. A new instance of SolidWorks IS NOT created.
‘Note: As we showed previously, using GetObject( ) without a filepath argument here would
‘return an error since no instances of SolidWorks are available to attach to yet.
Set swx1 = CreateObject(“SldWorks.Application”)
‘Use CreateObject( ) for the first instance. A new instance of SolidWorks IS NOT created.
Set swx2 = CreateObject(“SldWorks.Application”)
‘Use GetObject( ) for the first instance. A new instance of SolidWorks IS NOT created.
Set swx3 = GetObject(, ”SldWorks.Application”)
‘At this point, we should only have one SolidWorks window open and one SolidWorks process running.
‘Add new parts using each of the three handles

swx1.NewPart
swx2.NewPart
swx3.NewPart
‘We should now have one SolidWorks window open with three new SolidWorks parts loaded.

End Sub

• SolidWorks Macro to automate Excel:

‘Copyright 2007 by Extensible CAD Technologies, LLC – All rights reserved
‘Written 10/10/2007 by Jeff Cope
‘User assumes all risk for using the code below.

‘Declare three instances of the Excel.Application interface
Dim xl1 As Excel.Application
Dim xl2 As Excel.Application
Dim xl3 As Excel.Application

Sub main()

‘Use CreateObject( ) for the first instance. A new instance of Excel is created.
Set xl1 = CreateObject(“Excel.Application”)
‘A new Workbook gets added to this instance
xl1.Workbooks.Add
‘Make the instance visible so we can see what is happening
xl1.Visible = True

‘Use CreateObject( )for the first instance. A new instance of Excel is created.
Set xl2 = CreateObject(“Excel.Application”)
‘A new Workbook gets added to this instance
xl2.Workbooks.Add
‘Make the instance visible so we can see what is happening
xl2.Visible = True
‘At this point, we should be able to see two Excel windows running and each should have a
‘new Workbook added.

‘Use GetObject( ) for the first instance. A new instance of Excel IS NOT created. A handle
‘is simply returned to one of the existing instances (usually xl1).
Set xl3 = GetObject(, “Excel.Application”)
‘A new Workbook gets added to this instance
xl3.Workbooks.Add
‘Make the instance visible so we can see what is happening
xl3.Visible = True
‘At this point in the Macro’s execution, we should see two Excel windows (and two Excel processes)
‘running. However, we have three handles to Excel instances so two of the handles are pointing
‘to the same Excel instance.

‘Release handles to COM objects
Set xl1 = Nothing
Set xl2 = Nothing
Set xl3 = Nothing

‘One of the Excel windows will have two Workbooks in it instead of one. Note: If you
‘want to know which one, then just leave one of the instances invisible.
End Sub

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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, PathName and Class. We know the Class is “SldWorks.SldWorks” but what is this PathName and to where does this path lead? Well, it turns out that this is the path to a SolidWorks file and that GetObject is so cool that not only can it return a reference to a SolidWorks application interface (e.g. SldWorks.SldWorks), it can also return a reference to a SolidWorks file as well.

Below are some examples on how you can use GetObject( ).

• Example 1 – The first example is basically review from the last post.  This code will usually get you a handle to an already running session of SolidWorks (i.e. a handle to an instance of the SldWorks.SldWorks class)

Dim swapp As SldWorks.ModelDoc2
Set swapp = GetObject(, “SldWorks.Application”)

• Example 2 – Iff (if and only if) you have “SLDPRT” associated with SolidWorks on your machine, then the code below will usually get you a handle to a SolidWorks document (i.e. a handle to an instance of the ModelDoc2 class) that resides at the address of “C:\myFiles\myPart.SLDPRT.” Note: In this particular case, an instance of SolidWorks will be created even if one doesn’t already exist. This was glossed over last time.

Dim swDoc As SldWorks.SldWorks
Set swDoc = GetObject(“C:\MyFiles\myPart.SLDPRT”)

• Example 3 – The code below will usually get you a handle to a SolidWorks document (i.e. a handle to an instance of the ModelDoc2 class) that resides at the address of “C:\myFiles\myPart.SLDPRT.” This is irregardless of whether or not you have “SLDPRT” associated with SolidWorks on your machine. Again, in this particular case, an instance of SolidWorks will be created even if one doesn’t already exist.

Dim swDoc As SldWorks.SldWorks
Set swDoc = GetObject(“C:\MyFiles\myPart.SLDPRT”, _ “SldWorks.Application”)

In a nutshell, GetObject can also be used to return a handle to a specific file.  To do this you simply include the path to the file as the first argument.  If you do this, then the second argument becomes optional unless you don’t have the particular file’s extension associated to the application in which you desire to open it.

“Ok Jeff. That’s pretty cool but what about that dirty little secret you promised us?”

We’ll have to save that for Part III and the final installment. I’ll give you a little hint, though. SolidWorks and Microsoft don’t make ALL of the same mistakes. Some but not ALL.

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