See the latest update for this posted on March 20, 2015.
Several years ago I wrote an add-in that creates parameters and iProperties whose values are the length and width of the sheet metal flat pattern. If the model is updated, the values are also automatically updated to reflect the change. I haven’t touched the add-in for a few years but a problem was recently reported that was the result of a change in the API to handle the new Text and Yes/No types of parameters. Since the source code was delivered with the add-in, several of you had already found the problem and fixed it. I’ve made the change now to fix this and have also updated it to take advantage of some new add-in functionality.
This version of the add-in is specific to Inventor 2013 and later because I’m taking advantage of a feature that was introduced with Inventor 2013. I’ve also upgraded the project to Visual Studio 2010 and .Net 4, which is what is recommended for Inventor 2013. One of the biggest changes was to change this from a registered add-in to registry-free. This makes it simpler to deploy and is the recommended way of deploying an add-in since Inventor 2012.
Below are three different zips. The first two contain the runtime for the add-in but provide two different ways of deploying it. You can pick whichever will work the best in your situation. The third zip is the source code for the add-in.
Installer – This zip file contains an installer that when run will install the add-in. You can uninstall the add-in using the Windows Control Panel. Installation of the add-in no longer requires Administrator rights.
SheetMetalExtentsInstall.zip (433 Kb)
Drag & Drop Deployment – This zip file contains a directory containing the add-in dll, a .addin file and the readme file. Because the add-in is now registry-free, you can install the add-in by simply copying these files into the correct location on your computer (Drag & Drop Deployment). Uninstall is just a matter of deleting the directory. To “install” the add-in using these files copy the “SheetMetalExtents” directory from the zip file into:
%APPDATA%\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins
The “%APPDATA%” portion of the path uses an environment variable that will resolve to your Roaming directory. On my machine it ends up using the path of:
C:\Users\ekinsb\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins
SheetMetalExtents.zip (8 Kb)
Source Code – This zip file contains the source code for the add-in.
SheetMetalExtentsSource.zip (9 Kb)
Please let me know if you find any issues with the program or have suggestions to improve it.
-Brian
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