Mod the Machine

Autodesk Configurator 360 now available

Autodesk has a new cloud product called Configurator 360. (Currently available only as a 90 day free special offer)

You can upload your Inventor assemblies or parts and it will allow your customers to configure the model based on Inventor parameters, iLogic rules or ETO designs. You don’t need to work with the Inventor API to use Configurator 360 but I thought it may be of interest to explore this new cloud capability for Inventor models.

This YouTube video provides a quick high level overview.

You can get more information and sign up for a free trial here:

Autodesk Configurator 360

It is really easy to try it. Here is a screenshot where I uploaded my Inventor part. I selected the pencil icon to display a page where I could control the behavior of the parameters.

 

On this page select the Parameters Tab. (this is one thing that may not be easy to find). On the Parameters tab I set the Max and Min value of the Parameters. (If I set the parameter value to zero an error occurred so having a minimum avoids that condition)

In this screenshot you see the part file that can be modified. You can try this part from here. This is just a simple ipt I used to test. The three parameters control the size of extrude features. (limit is .25 to 3.0)

This “In the fold” blog post on has information on other Autodesk cloud products related to manufacturing that have been released recently:

http://inthefold.typepad.com/in_the_fold/2013/07/autodesk-expands-next-generation-cloud-services-for-manufacturers.html

-Wayne

Several tips for ETO

DirectoryNotFoundException using ETO Server R2

1. If you get a System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException when using  ETO Server 2013 R2. Check to see if this directory exists:

C:\Users\InventorETOServices\Documents\Inventor Server x64 Inventor ETO Server
   
Note: If the InventorETOServices user has been deleted and recreated, there may be multiple user directories for it, such as:
 
C:\users\InventorETOServices.<MachineName>.000\Doc​uments\Inventor Server x64 Inventor ETO Server
 
C:\users\InventorETOServices.<MachineName>.001\Doc​uments\Inventor Server x64 Inventor ETO Server
  
In this case, add the directory in the newest one. This issue has been reported to Autodesk Engineering.

After installing ETO 2013 Server R2 - cannot establish a client connection.

The start of the error message is:
”The message with Action 'http://www.autodesk.com/IntentServices/2012/02/IIntentServices/SetInteger' cannot be processed at the receiver, due to a ContractFilter mismatch at the EndpointDispatcher”.

This happens when there is a mismatch between the contract used by the client and the contract used by the server. In this case the server is R2 but the client is using the R1 contracts ('http://www.autodesk.com/IntentServices/2012/02/IIntentServices').

This can happen when the client project is being built with ETO Series 2013 R1 but trying to target ETO Server 2013 R2. Generally the version of Series used when building the client project should match the version of Server targeted. The solution is to update the reference to Autodesk.Intent.Services.dll in the client project so it is the same version the server is using. This can be done by installing ETO Series 2013 R2 if it’s not already installed, removing the reference, and re-adding the reference by browsing to the “<Series 2013 R2 install>\Bin\Public Assemblies” directory.
An alternative, in this case, since ETO Server is on the same machine as the client is to update the reference to the Autodesk.Intent.Services.dll to point to the one in the ETO Server Bin directory.

Quickly narrow down the location of a crash.

In one case a crash was occurring in a custom dll. It looked like it was an ETO specific problem. By using IntentTracer to determine the Part/Design and “%%iv_message()” we were able to narrow down the location of the crash which was occurring somewhere in the custom dll. The help toipic for IntentTracer is here:

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Inventor_ETO/enu/2013/Help/0001-Inventor1/0160-Inventor160/0177-Tools_fo177/0182-Intent_T182/0183-Intent_T183

After finding the design you can use a message box style technique to further narrow down the place of a crash.

%%iv_message("Tracing777Before", show := true)
Call to custom dll was here.
The crash occurred before this message was displayed.
%%iv_message("Tracing777After", show := true)

Note: ETO 2013 R2 allows you to debug rules in Visual Studio

Sphere Design fails after install R2 Hotfix (build 202)

To resolve this problem download this iks file and put it in this directory.  (Back up the existing xxhostSphere.iks)

“C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor ETO Components 2013\Library\Inventor\ivhostlib”

  Download XxhostSphere

-Wayne

ETO 2013 R2 – Add-In template, VS Add-Ins can impact ETO Studio & InventorApplication global rule

Here are a couple of things about ETO 2013 R2 that I have found recently. 

1. If you have used the Inventor ETO Add-In template you may find that the ribbon tab for the Add-In does not display properly when Inventor is launched through ETO Studio. When Intent is started from Visual Studio, it does extensive processing in its OnReady handler. It reads command-line arguments and they tell it to load or create a model and establish communications with VS. Because of this the event handlers in the Add-In can be called later compared to when they are called when Inventor is started normally. 

To avoid this behavior you can call the code that creates the ribbon in the IntentInitialized function. Here is a slightly modified version of the Add-In code. (In IntentModel.cs) This change fixed the problem in one case. (Keep in mind that the the Add-In template should be considered as a starting point).

// This will be called if and when Intent

//gets initialized by the host.

void IntentInitialized

    (IntentAPI intentAPI, object hostAPI)

{

 // Set up model event handlers if desired.

    IHostAPI host = (IHostAPI)hostAPI;

    ModelEvents ModelEvent =

                    intentAPI.ModelEvents;

 

    host.Events.BeforeModelLoad +=

        new EventHandler(Events_BeforeModelLoad);

    ModelEvent.BeforeRender +=

        new EventHandler<BeforeModelRenderArgs>

                       (ModelEvent_BeforeRender);

    ModelEvent.AfterRender +=

        new EventHandler<AfterModelRenderedArgs>

                       (ModelEvent_AfterRender);

 

    // Added to resolve problem with AddIn

    // ribbon when debugging

    if (intentAPI.Models.Count > 0)

    {

        m_gui.Activate();

    }

}

 

2. We have found in one case that ETO Studio is adversely effected by the Visual Studio Add-In named ReSharper. Some of the symptoms are the following:

Error Message when opening the ETO Studio project: “The parameter is incorrect”.

Edit Rule Error - “Design for selected part not loaded in Visual Studio Environment. Please make sure the project containing the design is open”

ETO Model browser sees the designs under root, but cannot open them. Clicking “Edit Design” gives the same error as above.

Design Navigator shows no User Designs

 

The behavior has been reported to Autodesk ETO engineering. For now the suggestion is to disable the Visual Studio Add-In.

 

3. There is now an InventorApplication global Rule. Before that, you had to use hidden %%InventorApplication. Here you see the ETO Console in Visual Studio using the Inventor API:

-Wayne

ETO 2013 R2 now available

The Inventor Engineer-To-Order 2013 release 2 shipped this week and I am excited to started with it. One of the main enhancements is the Visual Studio Add-In called ETO Studio. Using Visual Studio to create Inventor ETO applications will be a nice change for ETO application developers. The previous release did have a preview of ETO Studio but with this release it is ready for “prime time”. I am sure the ability to debug rules will be very welcome. The other main enhancements are quality and performance enhancements. You can download a webcast about what is new in the R2 release from this post.

-Wayne

ETO Potlatch recordings

Over the past several months there have been webcasts on Engineer-To-Order topics. I was able to get the recordings of these sessions and will post them. The focus of the first session is “Frame-Based Positioning” and includes a comparison to “Constraint-Based Positioning. At the end there is a question and answer session that should also be useful.

"Comparison of Positioning Techniques" Volume 1 - 6-Sep-2012

ETO_Potlatch_recording_FBP.zip

Here are the other Webcast recordings.

“Using .NET with ETO” Volume 2 - 11-Oct-2012

ETO_Potlatch_recording_dotNet.zip

“Building Regression Testing into ETO Models”  Volume 3 - 13-Nov-2012

ETO_Potlatch_recording_Regression_Test.zip

“Implementing Large Scale ETO Applications - A Case Study”  Volume 4 - 13-Dec-2012

 ETO_Potlatch_recording_Large_Apps.zip

“What's New in Inventor ETO 2013 R2” Volume 5 - 16-Jan-2013

ETO_Potlatch_recording_ETO_2013_R2.zip

“Simple Strategies for UI and Drawings” Volume 6 - 19-Feb-2013

ETO_Potlatch_Recording_Strategies_UI_Drawings

“Project Architecture Best Practices”  Volume 7 - 19-Mar-2013

ETO_Potlatch_Recording__Project_Architecture_Best_Practices

“ETO Integration with Vault”  Volume 8 - 18-Apr-2013

ETO_Potlatch_recording_Vault_Integration

“Speed Optimization with Large Models” Volume 9 - 28-May-2013

ETO_Potlatch_recording_Optimize_Large_Models

"Creating customized, branded applications with Inventor OEM" Volume 10 - 18-June-2013

ETO Potlatch recording Inventor OEM

"Entering the brave new world of cloud with Configurator 360 - Volume 11 - 16-July-2013"

ETO_Potlatch_recording_Configurator_360

"Do's and Don'ts of an ETO Server deployment setup" Volume 12 - 24-Sep-2013

ETO_Potlatch_recording_ETO_Server_deployment

“Getting the most out of UI Tools: Basic and Advanced concepts” Volume 13 - 17-Oct-2013

ETO Potlatch recording UI Tools

Demo projects shown in the UI Tools Potlatch

"Customer presentation - Anvil International"  Volume 14 - 16-Jan-2014

 ETO_Potlatch_recording_Anvil_International

"From Revit to Inventor and back with ETO" Volume 15 - 25-Feb-2014

ETO_Potlatch_recording_Revit_To_Inventor

"Digging Deeper Into .Net" Volume 16 - 25-March-2014

 ETO_Potlatch_recording_Digging_Deeper_Into_DotNet

 "ETO Actions in Configurator 360" Volume 17 - 24-April-2014

ETO_Potlatch_recording_17_ETO_Actions_in_C360

"Creating a Simple ETO App for Configurator 360" Volume 18 - 26-June-2014

 ETO_Potlatch_recording_18_Simple_ETO_App_for_C360

"Streamlining Sales and Marketing with Inventor ETO Volume 19 - 20-August-2014" 

ETO_Potlatch_recording_19_Streamlining_Sales_Marketing_ETO

"Batch Processing using Inventor ETO Volume - 20 - 21 October 2014"

ETO_Potlatch_recording_20_Batch_Processing 

"Configurator360 - iLogic - drawings of configurable assemblies Volume - 21 - 28 January 2015"

 ETO_Potlatch_recording_21_iLogic_Drawing_Dimensions

Example assembly used in ETO Potlatch 21 - Download SimpleTable

 "Configurator360 - Dynamic UI - Using ETO Rules Volume - 22 - 11 March 2015"

ETO_Potlatch_recording_22_C360_UI_ETO_Rules

"Licensing and Packaging changes Volume - 23 - 20 May 2015"

ETO_Potlatch_recording_23_Licensing_and_Packaging_Changes

 

I thought it was interesting that theses sessions were a called a potlatch. Here is the definition from Wikipedia 

“A potlatch is a gift-giving festival and primary economic system practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and United States. This includes Heiltsuk Nation, Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Makah, Tsimshian,Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw,and Coast Salish cultures. The word comes from the Chinook Jargon, meaning "to give away" or "a gift"; originally from the Nuu-chah-nulth word p̓ačiƛ, to make a ceremonial gift in a potlatch.”

For someone getting started with ETO these sessions are a nice gift. The person leading the discussion in the first recording is Jon Balgley who works for Autodesk Engineering.

-Wayne

Using Inventor ETO Server Configurator –ensure the Design name is correct

In this post you can find a discussion on using the ETO server configurator. Recently I had a case where ETO server was being used and an error “No Such Design” was occurring when  AddDynamicChildRule() was called. (One of the parameters is the name of a design). The design was available in the application and the code worked on my system. After looking at the behavior on the developer’s system we found that the design set in the ETO server configurator was not a name of an available design. In this screenshot the Design is set to FloorSystem and the problem occurred because the actual name of the design was FloorSystems.

I have logged a wish list with engineering to have the configurator pop up a warning if the design set for the application is not available.

-Wayne 

Inventor Engineer-To-Order using frame based positioning - rotation example

The most common way used to control the position of parts in ETO is the use of constraints. In some cases however it can be more advantageous to use frame based positioning to control the position. When using frame based positioning the trickiest thing is controlling the rotation. This example can be used to help you understand how to get the rotation you need.

The design below creates three parts:

Design Assembly1_1 : ETO_WB_TestingRoot _
                       IvAssemblyDocument
   
   'Used to set the angle for myPart1_test
    ' and myPart1_test2
    Parameter Rule angleToRotate = 0
  
    'Create a vector that is the X axis
    ' Rotated around Z Axis by the angle
    ' set in angleToRotate
    Rule myRotatedVecX_z As Vector = _
                 RotateVector(UnitX, _
                      angleToRotate, _
                                 UnitZ)
    'Use the cross product to get a
    ' a vector for the Y direction
    Rule myRotatedVecY_z As Vector = _
               UnitZ * MyRotatedVecX_z
   
   ' Create the part that will rotate
    'around the Z Axis
    Child myPart1_test As :Part1_Test
       
        xDirection = myRotatedVecX_z
        yDirection = myRotatedVecY_z

        ignorePosition? = False
   
    End Child
   
     'Create a vector that is the X axis
    ' Rotated around Y Axis by the angle
    ' set in angleToRotate
    Rule myRotatedVecX_y As Vector = _
                 RotateVector(UnitX, _
                      angleToRotate, _
                                UnitY)
    'Use the cross product to get a
    ' a vector for the Y direction
    Rule myRotatedVecY_y As Vector = _
               UnitY * MyRotatedVecX_y
   
   ' Create the part that will rotate
    'around the Y Axis
    Child myPart1_test2 As :Part1_Test
      
        xDirection = myRotatedVecX_y
        yDirection = myRotatedVecY_y
       
        origin=Point(4,0,0)
        ignorePosition? = False
   
    End Child
   

    ‘Parameters to control the rotation of the third part using frames

    Parameter Rule primaryRotationAngle = 0
    Parameter Rule secondaryRotationAngle = 0
       
    ' This Frame is the world frame rotated
    ' by the parameter primaryRotationAngle
    ' around the Z Axis
    ' localFrame is the frame that was used
    ' to position the parent. In this simple
    ' example, worldframe = localFrame
    Rule myFrame_1 As Frame = RotateFrame _
                             (localFrame, _
                    primaryRotationAngle, _
                                  Origin, _
                                      UnitZ)
   
    'This Frame is myFrame_1 rotated around
    ' the X axis in myFrame_1
    ' “vector_” creates a vector relative to
    ' a given Frame
    Rule myFrame_2 As Frame = RotateFrame _
                              (myFrame_1, _
                  secondaryRotationAngle, _
                                  Origin, _
               vector_(1, 0, 0, myFrame_1))

 
   'Create a part that will rotate around
    ' two axes by using the Frame created by
    ' using RotateFrame
    Child myPart1_test3 As :Part1_Test
        ReferenceFrame = myFrame_2
        ignorePosition? = False
        origin = Point(0,4,0)
    End Child

End Design

Here is the Edit Parameters dialog and the parts in the Inventor Model. Here all of the parameters are zero.

After changing the angleToRotate to 90 notice the change in rotation for the parts in the lower area. The part on the left rotates around the Z axis. The part on the right rotates around the Y axis. The part on the top is not effected by a change to angleToRotate.

The top part is changed by the parameters primaryRotationAngle and  secondaryRotationAngle. Notice that the Z rotation is similar to the part below it, but the secondaryRotationAngle has rotated the part in in the Y direction as well. (Y direction in the part)

Using a design like this you can experiment with different values in the parameters and see the results the rotation angle has on the parts.

-Wayne

Inventor ETO Server with Sub projects – “No Such design”

Here is a solution for a problem that can occur with ETO Server with a project that has sub projects. You can get a “No such design” error just using the “Test Application Services" button in the Inventor ETO Server Configurator. When the designs are in one project with no sub projects the error does not occur.

To use the IPJ with subprojects from ETO Server, the following two things need to be done:

1. Ensure that the Main.IPJ contains the valid paths. It can be achieved with the XML editor (or notepad)

a. Find this node in the ipj file:

InventorProject\AddInConfigs\AutodeskIntent\Dependents

b. Update the paths in the <string> sub-nodes to point to existing IPJ files on the server.

c. Save Main.IPJ

2. Ensure that shortcuts to these IPJ files are created

    a. You have to do that on behalf of InventorETOServices user

b. In the DOS window, enter the command:

RunAS /user:InventorETOServices cmd

c. You will need to enter the valid password for the InventorETOServices user

[default is:  "ETOServices123!@#" with no quotes, see the wiki help for more info]

d. The new DOS window will appear

e. Change directory to c:\Program Files\Autodesk\Inventor ETO Server 2013\Bin

f. For each dependent IPJ, enter the command, similar to the following:

InventorETOServer.exe -p "c:\_someDir\xxxx\DataFiles\Directory of ipj files\some-name.ipj"

That will create a shortcut in the Inventor Server Documents folder for the InventorETOServices user.

 

This issue is under review by engineering and the problem should be handled in a more graceful manner in one of the future releases.

-Wayne

Inventor ETO with Vault - set “Embed Interop Types” to False for Autodesk.Inventor.Interop

Recently I had a case where using the Vault Designs in Inventor Engineer-To-Order would cause this error and fail:

"The invoked member is not supported in a dynamic assembly"

I was unable to recreate the problem on my machine. By the process of elimination we found that it was an custom AddIn that was related to the error occurring. The solution was to simply change the setting in Visual Studio for “Embed Interop Types” to False. This screenshot shows the setting that needed to be changed in the AddIn:

-Wayne

Using Inventor ETO Server Configurator

One of the tools you use when setting up an ETO application to use with ETO server is the “Inventor ETO Server Configurator”. The user interface for this utility is under review by engineering. One thing that may not be obvious is that you need to hit Enter after filling out the four fields required to add the application.

If you don’t Enter and click on “Test Application Services” you will probably get this error:

You can get more information by following the directions in the error: 

“turn on IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults from the <serviceDebug> configuration behavior on the server in order to send the exception information back to the client”

To do this, see line 125 in {install location}\Inventor ETO Server 2013\Bin\IntentSessionManager.exe.config.

From the config file:

<!-- To receive exception details in faults for debugging purposes, set the value below to true. Set to false before deployment to avoid disclosing exception information –>

<serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="False"/>

You will have to restart the service for the change to take effect. Either reboot the machine or restart the service from the Services control panel.

After making this change, the error when clicking “Test Application Services” will change to this error:

This error occurs because even though you have added the four required fields for the application, the configuration doesn’t actually get committed to the configuration file unless you select the row in the grid and hit the “Enter” key. You can check this config file to see if the application was committed.

%ProgramData%\Autodesk\Inventor ETO Server 2013 R1\IntentServices.config

This was a problem I recently worked on. In the end the solution was so simple – “just hit enter”!

Here is the link to the help topic on the Inventor ETO Server Configurator:

http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Inventor_ETO/enu/2013/Help/1240-Inventor1240/1253-Configur1253

-Wayne