ETO – Use Inventor API to create a rendered image from a design

Here is another suggestion for Inventor Engineer-To-Order. In some cases using Inventor Studio from Intent (IvStudioRenderedImage) to create an image is not working correctly. A solution is to use the Inventor API. Here is a method that shows how this can be done using SaveAsBitmap() of the active view.

Method createReportImage(outputFile As String) As String
  Dim view = %%inventorApplication.ActiveView
 
  Dim hasGnomon As Boolean = _
  %%inventorApplication.DisplayOptions.Show3DIndicator
  Dim displayMode = view.DisplayMode
  Dim hasGroundShadow As Boolean = _
                                view.ShowGroundShadows
  Dim hasAmbientShadow As Boolean = _
                               view.ShowAmbientShadows
  Dim hasObjectShadows As Boolean = _
                                view.ShowObjectShadows
  Dim hasShowGroundReflections As Boolean = _
                            view.ShowGroundReflections
' 
  %%inventorApplication.DisplayOptions. _
                                Show3DIndicator = False
  view.ShowGroundReflections = True
  view.ShowGroundShadows = True
  view.ShowAmbientShadows = True
  view.ShowObjectShadows = True
  view.DisplayMode = _
  Inventor.DisplayModeEnum.kRealisticRendering
  view.RayTracingQuality= _
   Inventor.RayTracingQualityEnum. _
                          kInteractiveRayTracingQuality 
 
  Try
   view.SaveAsBitmap(outputFile, 1200, 800)
  Finally
   %%inventorApplication.DisplayOptions. _
                           Show3DIndicator = hasGnomon
   view.DisplayMode = displayMode
   view.ShowGroundShadows = hasGroundShadow
   view.ShowAmbientShadows = hasAmbientShadow
   view.ShowObjectShadows = hasObjectShadows
   view.ShowGroundReflections = hasShowGroundReflections
  End Try
 
  Return outputFile
End Method

-Wayne