VBA, or Visual Basic for Applications, is a programming environment that is accessed from within Inventor.
An "in-process" program will run faster than a program running out of process. For example, VBA runs in the same process as Inventor. When one box encloses another box this indicates that the enclosed box is running in the same process as the box enclosing it. All of the yellow boxes represent programs that you write. The blue cylinder at the bottom represents the Inventor data you're accessing, i.e. We'll talk about Apprentice more in a minute. These are Inventor and Apprentice Server. The white boxes represent components that provide access to Inventor's API. Detailed information about these is provided in sections devoted to each method: VBA, Add-Ins, and Apprentice Server.įirst, a quick explanation of the figure below. A brief overview of each of the methods follows. The diagram below illustrates the different ways of accessing Inventor's API.
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All of them are useful in certain cases, so it's important to have a basic understanding of the ways to connect to the API so you can make the best decision about how to write your program. Inventor exposes functionality through its API, and there are different ways to access the API. Once the general concepts of how an object-oriented API works are understood, this type of API is easier to learn and use than function-oriented APIs.
Finally, it exposes the application's functionality in an object-oriented manner. This means that if you already have experience programming a well-designed Automation interface like Word or Excel, you already understand many of the concepts that are used by the Inventor API. Second, if designed correctly, it exposes the functionality using standard concepts. First, it allows you to use almost any of the currently popular programming languages: Visual Basic, Visual C++, C#, Delphi, Python, Java, etc. There are some significant advantages to providing an API through an Automation interface. (They refer to them as ActiveX interfaces.) AutoCAD and Mechanical Desktop also expose Automation interfaces. For example, Microsoft Word and Excel expose Automation interfaces to allow you to customize them. Inventor's API is exposed using technology from Microsoft called "Automation." (This was previously referred to by Microsoft as "OLE Automation.") Automation interfaces are common among applications written for Windows. These objects have been created or maintained for Autodesk's internal use, and there is no guarantee that they will continue to exist (or to function similarly) from release to release. Please Note: Developers are strongly cautioned against using any Inventor API object, method, property, event or constant that is marked as hidden, unsupported or for internal use only. It's through the API that products for PDM, NC, and FEM are able to interact with Inventor. All of this can be done manually, but by automating it using a program you're able to significantly increase productivity and minimize errors.Īn API is also important for the reason that it allows third-party applications to integrate with Inventor. You might also write a program that extracts data from assemblies to provide MRP systems with their required information. For example, you might write a program that interfaces with your company's inventory database to obtain the current price for components so that the price shown in a part list is always up-to-date. By providing an API, Inventor allows you to add additional functionality and optimize repetitive operations to make it more productive for your individual needs.īy providing an API, Inventor also provides you the ability to better integrate Inventor into your overall Enterprise process. Inventor, by necessity, is a general CAD system, meaning that it's not aimed at any specific industry or used to model only certain types of products. Having an API is important because it allows you to add functionality to Inventor that is specific to your needs. For example, you can use Inventor's API to write a program that will perform the same types of operations you can perform when using Inventor interactively. Getting Started with Inventor's API Getting Started with Inventor's API What is an API?įor those of you who are new to customizing applications by writing programs, the first question might be: what is an API? API, or Application Programming Interface, is a term used to describe the functionality exposed by an application that allows it to be used through a program.
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