Mod the Machine

Fusion Add-In with .NET (C++ & CLR)

I've written about using MFC from a C++ Fusion add-in. You could also use .NET from your add-in, and it's even simpler to set up.

1) Create a C++ add-in inside the "Scripts and Add-Ins" Fusion dialog:

I'm leaving "Run on Startup" option above unchecked, because it would not be a good idea to pop up a modal dialog while Fusion is starting up. That would halt the startup process.

2) Open it for edit:

3) Add "Common Language Runtime Support" in your C++ project's Properties dialog

4) Place the Fusion related code inside a #pragma unmanaged /#pragma managed block

5) Add a "Windows Form" through "PROJECT" >> "Add New Item..."

Note: You can add any of the .NET Form controls to it as in case of a C# or VB.NET project. I've just added a list box for testing and filled it with items.

6) Create a function to show this dialog

a) In "MyForm.h" declare showDialog()

b) In "MyForm.cpp" implement the function

7) Now we can call it from the startup function called run()

a) Add #include "MyForm.h" to the top of "CustomNetUi.cpp"

b) Call showDialog() from run()

extern "C" XI_EXPORT bool run(const char* context)
{
  app = Application::get();
  if (!app)
    return false;

  ui = app->userInterface();
  if (!ui)
    return false;

  showDialog();

  return true;
}

8) Test the app by running it from the "Scripts and Add-Ins" Fusion dialog:

The sample project can be found here:
https://github.com/AutodeskFusion360/NativeUI

-Adam

Attribute Helper 2.5

A problem was reported and I’ve made a fix and have created a new version of the Attribute Helper utility.  If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s a little utility that lets you create, view, and edit attributes within a document. If you’re relatively new to the Inventor API and are wondering what attributes are, here’s a post giving a quick introduction.

If you already have a version of “Attribute Helper” installed, you should first uninstall the version you have, which you can do using the standard Windows uninstall utility where you should see “Attribute Helper” listed as one of the installed programs, as shown below.

Once it’s uninstalled, you can install the 2.5 version of Attribute Helper.  There is some help documentation delivered with the utility with instructions on how to use it and you can quickly determine if it was installed correctly by checking to see if the Attribute Helper command is now available in the Tools panel when you have a document open.

And when you run the Attribute Helper command, you should see the dialog below with the version displayed being “2.5”, as shown below.

-Brian

Fusion Add-In with MFC

It is possible to use MFC functionality inside your Fusion add-in on Windows.
First I tried going down the path of creating a C++ add-in inside the "Scripts and Add-Ins" Fusion dialog and then add MFC support to the created Visual Studio C++ project. However, that proved quite difficult and I just gave up and went the other way: created an MFC DLL project and turned it into a Fusion add-in. That was much simpler. 

1) Create an MFC DLL project

2) Add a Dialog resource to it

Open CustomMfcUi.rc, right-click and choose "Add Resource..."

... then select "Dialog" and click "New"

3) Double-click the "OK" button of the newly added Dialog so that the "MFC Add Class Wizard" dialog will pop up: 

Fill it in and click "Finish"

4) Rename IDD_DIALOG1 to IDD_MYDIALOG just to keep things tidy

You can use the "Find and Replace" dialog of Visual Studio for that:

There should be 4 instances replaced at the end:

5) Add a function to show our dialog

a) Inside CustomMfcUi.cpp add this code:

void showDialog()
{  
  // Always call this macro first thing in any function that
  // will use MFC functionality
  AFX_MANAGE_STATE(AfxGetStaticModuleState());

  CMyDialog myDialog;
  myDialog.DoModal();
};

b) Inside CustomMfcUi.h add this code at the top:

#include "MyDialog.h"

void showDialog();

6) Add Fusion functionality 

Add a new C++ file to the project called FusionCode.cpp 

Fill it with this code:

#include "stdafx.h"

#include <Core/CoreAll.h>
#include <Fusion/FusionAll.h>

// XI_WIN is a macro added by Fusion headers
// to show if the project is a Windows project
#ifdef XI_WIN
  #include "CustomMfcUi.h"
#endif

using namespace adsk::core;
using namespace adsk::fusion;

Ptr<Application> app;
Ptr<UserInterface> ui;

extern "C" XI_EXPORT bool run(const char* context)
{
  app = Application::get();
  if (!app)
    return false;

  ui = app->userInterface();
  if (!ui)
    return false;

  showDialog();

  return true;
}

extern "C" XI_EXPORT bool stop(const char* context)
{
  if (ui)
  {
    ui->messageBox("in stop");
    ui = nullptr;
  }

  return true;
}

7) Make the project compile as 64 bit since Fusion 360 is 64 bit too

Inside the "Configuration Manager" dialog, under "Active solution platform" select "<New...>"

... and add the "x64" platform

8) Add references to Fusion headers and libraries so that our project will compile

a) Inside the project settings, under "C/C++" >> "Additional Include Directories" add "$(APPDATA)/Autodesk/Autodesk Fusion 360/API/CPP/include" 

b) Under "Linker" >> "Additional Library Directories" add "$(APPDATA)/Autodesk/Autodesk Fusion 360/API/CPP/lib"

c) Under "Linker" >> "Additional Dependencies" add "core.lib;fusion.lib;"

9) Let Fusion find our project

a) Under "$(APPDATA)\Autodesk\Autodesk Fusion 360\API\AddIns" create a folder named the same as our dll "CustomMfcUi" 

Add to that folder a manifest file with the same name, i.e. "CustomMfcUi.manifest" and add the following content to it in any text editor:

{
"autodeskProduct":"Fusion360",
"type":"addin",
"author":"",
"description":{"":""},
"supportedOS":"windows",
"editEnabled":false,
"id":"38EE9339-591A-4F72-AFFF-7B20111CC10C",
"version":"1.0.0",
"runOnStartup":false
}

The "id" part in the above text needs to be unique. You could use e.g. Visual Studio's "Create GUID" dialog for that. Just remove the curly braces from the generated string

I'm setting the "runOnStartup" option above to false because it would not be a good idea to pop up a modal dialog while Fusion is starting up. That would halt the startup process.

b) Make our project output the created dll into the Add-In folder we just created. Inside the project settings under "General" >> "Output Directory" add the path of our folder "$(APPDATA)\Autodesk\Autodesk Fusion 360\API\AddIns\CustomMfcUi"   

10) Test it

Compile the project and inside the "Scripts and Add-Ins" dialog of Fusion, select our add-in and click "Run"

Our dialog should pop up

The sample project can be found here:
https://github.com/AutodeskFusion360/NativeUI

-Adam 

Creating a Button for a VBA Macro

I had written a post many years ago describing the process to do this but it was before the existence of the ribbon user interface and a few things have changed so I thought I would create a new post.

It’s fairly easy to create a button within the ribbon that will execute an existing VBA macro.  In Inventor, have the ribbon that you want to insert your button displayed, right-click on the ribbon, and choose the “Customize User Commands…”. This will display the Customize dialog shown below. Choose “Macros” from the drop-down at the top of the command list. This will display all of your macros. Pick your macro and then click the “>>” button in the middle of the dialog. This will move that macro over to the right-hand side of the dialog. You can then choose if text should be displayed and if a large or small icon should be used. A new panel called “User Commands” will be added to the ribbon and it will contain buttons for the macros you’ve selected to give you one-click easy access to your program.

When you do this a default icon is used. If you want a custom icon you need to create a 16x16 image for a small icon or a 32x32 image for a large icon. This currently must be a bmp type of image. The name of the image is important. In this example, my macro is called “TitleBlock”  and the images for it are:

    Module1.TitleBlock.Small.bmp

    Module1.TitleBlock.Large.bmp

Where the name is “ModuleName.MacroName.IconSize.bmp” where IconSize can be “Small” or “Large”. The files need to be in the same directory as the VBA project file. You can find out that location on your system by looking at the “File” tab of the “Application Options” dialog, as shown below. On my computer this is “C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2016”.

The other option to making your program easily accessible is to convert it to an add-in. This makes it very easy to share your program. You can deliver a set of files, or even an installer, and the receiver either copies the files to a specified location or just runs the installer. The next time they start Inventor they’ll see the new commands. If you get serious about writing programs you’ll want to start writing add-ins.

-Brian

Fusion 360 Meetups

Later this month I’ll be attending and presenting the Fusion 360 API at several Fusion 360 Meetups along the west coast. The list below contains links to the Meetup site where you can get more information about times and specific locations.

Tuesday Feb. 16th – San Francisco

Thursday Feb. 18th – Seattle

Tuesday Feb. 23rd – Portland

At the Meetup here in Portland last month they had a couple of modeling challenges. One of them was a butter dish.  As a teaser for this upcoming Meetup I created the animation below using my butter dish and the API. If you’re curious how this was done, I’ll discuss it at the Meetup.  And for those that can’t attend, I’ll post something here at the end of the month.

-Brian