Autodesk Inventor Questions & Answers

Step-by-Step Strategy

1. Capture the Click

   Use MouseEvents.OnMouseClick or a custom command to detect the click location on the sheet.

2. Use HitTest

   Perform a hit test on the drawing view to get the selected geometry:

    

    
   vbnet 
   Dim oView As DrawingView = ' your selected view 
   Dim oPoint As Point2d = ThisApplication.TransientGeometry.CreatePoint2d(x, y) 
   Dim oHitResults As ObjectsEnumerator = oView.HitTest(oPoint, SelectionFilterEnum.kAllEntitiesFilter) 
   For Each oObj In oHitResults 
       If TypeOf oObj Is DrawingCurveSegment Then 
           Dim oCurve As DrawingCurveSegment = oObj 
           Dim oProxy As Object = oCurve.Parent.Geometry 
           ' Now try to resolve the proxy to a ComponentOccurrence 
       End If 
   Next 

    

3. Resolve to Occurrence

   Use GeometryProxy.ContainingOccurrence to get the ComponentOccurrence:

    

   vbnet 
   Dim oOcc As ComponentOccurrence = oProxy.ContainingOccurrence 

    

   This gives you the actual part or subassembly occurrence in the assembly model.

Here’s the move:

• Fire up the Coincident Constraint tool (or hit G because why not).
• Click the endpoint of your line.
• Carefully-I mean carefully- clickthe ellipse curve, not the centre point. Boom. Snapped. Locked to the ellipse perimeter.

Yes, you can add centerlines and centermarks to a drawing using VBA in Inventor. While the API doesn’t expose every annotation tool directly, it does provide enough access to programmatically create these features.

Here’s why XP edged ahead:

• Improved memory management
• 3 GB switch support
• Driver and hardware support
• onger support lifecycle

Not true - both Inventor and SolidWorks are compatible with Microsoft .NET languages like C# and VB.NET, and both offer robust APIs for integration and automation.

Yes, it is possible to preview a drawing in Autodesk Inventor using specific printer settings-but with a few caveats.

Import AutoCAD Blocks into Inventor Drawing Templates

• You can import your standard AutoCAD blocks (with attributes, if needed) directly into an Inventor .dwg or .idw drawing template:
• Open your Inventor drawing template.
• Use Insert > AutoCAD Block to bring in your .dwg blocks.
• Once inserted, they’re saved in the template and can be reused across drawings.
• Even if you delete them from the sheet, they remain available in the block list for future use.

In the context of Autodesk Inventor (and many CAD systems), the 'reference vector' for an arc typically refers to the direction vector used to define the orientation of the arc's plane or its sweep direction-especially when the arc is created in 3D space.

Totally okay-and encouraged! Autodesk provides the Inventor SDK specifically so developers like you can build custom applications and add-ins. But yeah, DLL deployment can be a bit of a minefield if you're not careful with how Inventor expects things to be wired up.

Here’s How to Ship the Required DLLs

• Best Practice: Rely on Inventor’s Installed COM Interfaces
• Don’t Copy Inventor’s Native DLLs

As of now, the Inventor API does not provide write access to sheet formats. You can read the title block definition associated with a sheet format, but you cannot modify or replace it directly via the API.