What are some good external code editors to use alongside Autodesk Inventor VBA development?

Yes, you absolutely can sell your Inventor add-in, and Autodesk provides a formal channel for doing so through the Autodesk App Store. Here’s what you need to know:

Selling Your Add-In via Autodesk App Store

• Eligibility
• Submission Process
• Monetization Options
• Guidelines

To avoid false positives, you can check if the link is still active before trusting the Mirror property:

Dim oDerivedPartComp As DerivedPartComponent
Set oDerivedPartComp = oCompDef.Features.DerivedPartComponents.Item(1)

If Not oDerivedPartComp.ReferencedFile Is Nothing Then
    If oDerivedPartComp.Definition.Mirror = True Then
        ' Valid mirrored derived part
    End If
Else
    ' Link is broken — don't trust Mirror property
End If

This ensures you're only evaluating the Mirror flag when the derived part is still linked to its source.

Here are the most effective options:

1. Defer Updates in Assemblies

   
   ThisApplication.AssemblyOptions.DeferUpdate = True
   ' ... your macro logic ...
   ThisApplication.AssemblyOptions.DeferUpdate = False
           

   • Prevents automatic updates while modifying constraints, components, etc.
   • Best for assembly-level operations.
2. Disable User Interaction

   
   ThisApplication.UserInterfaceManager.UserInteractionDisabled = True
   ' ... your macro logic ...
   ThisApplication.UserInterfaceManager.UserInteractionDisabled = False
           

   • Disables UI interaction and redraws.
   • May cause the Inventor window to appear frozen or disappear from the taskbar temporarily.

Here is your content converted into **HTML format** with clean structure and preserved VBA code: ```html

Setting Model State via API (for non-iAssembly documents)

Here’s how to set the active Model State for a part or assembly document:

Dim oDoc As Document
Set oDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument

Dim oModelStates As ModelStates
Set oModelStates = oDoc.ComponentDefinition.ModelStates

' Activate a specific model state by name
Dim targetState As String
targetState = "CustomState1"

If oModelStates.Item(targetState).Name <> oDoc.ComponentDefinition.ActiveModelState.Name Then
    oModelStates.Item(targetState).Activate
End If

Inventor Release 11 and later support saving PNG images using the SaveAsBitmapWithOptions method. This was not available before Release 6, but by R11, it's fully functional.

Here’s a working example adapted for R11:

Sub SaveIsometricViewAsPNG()
    Dim oView As View
    Set oView = ThisApplication.ActiveView

    ' Set camera to isometric view
    With oView.Camera
        .ViewOrientationType = kIsoTopRightViewOrientation
        .Fit
        .Apply
    End With

    ' Define PNG export options
    Dim options As NameValueMap
    Set options = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateNameValueMap
    options.Value("TransparentBackground") = True ' Optional: set to False for solid background

    ' Save as PNG
    Dim ImgFname As String
    ImgFname = "C:\Temp\MyPart.png"
    Call oView.SaveAsBitmapWithOptions(ImgFname, 400, 400, options)
End Sub