SolidWorks 2008 API - Programming and Automation (2011)

268 Pages·2016·4.51 MB·English

by  Malpass Luke.

SolidWorks API Series 1
Programming & Automation

Written by Luke Malpass
AngelSix.com

Published by AngelSix
©2011 Luke Malpass [email protected]

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any
information storage or retrieval system, without prior written
permission of the publisher.

Published by AngelSix – AngelSix.com
Second Edition
Trademark Information
SolidWorks and PDMWorks are registered
trademarks of SolidWorks Corporation.

Excel is a registered trademark of Microsoft
Corporation.

Other brand or product names are
trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective holders.
Contributors
Throughout this project I have received many enthusiastic responses
and people contributing their own ideas and knowledge to areas of
this book. It has been a great experience and an eye opening one.
Their enthusiasm towards this project has been a key driving factor
in pushing me to do this. I just hope that I do not let any of them
down.
Introduction
When I was first introduced to computers at the tender age of 9, I
have always been intrigued how things worked. Not on a basic level
of being told that if you write this portion of code, this will happen,
but to know the reason for every line of code and its purpose. To
know the reason why X comes before Y, and to analyse it and find its
extremes, where it fails and to know its limitations.
It is this drive for deeper understanding that has pushed me in every
aspect of my life, to fully understand computers, electronics, people,
and ultimately the universe. Whenever I come across something I do
not understand, I take it upon myself to learn; learn through
observation, through trial-and-error, through others, through
experience. So far I would like to think I have succeeded in all that
which I set out to understand.
I have always had a unique way of thinking when it comes to
computers and logic; I find most people learn programming through
the process of finding a solution and remembering the answer, such
as knowing that COS(1) = 0.5403, yet they do not know that
.
Whereas I feel most people simply remember coding, I like to fully
understand it, to the point where I could tell you what would happen
with code before even compiling it; I often write 1000’s lines of code
before even compiling and testing it, as I already have in my head the
architecture and theory of what is going to be output, and I simply
translate my thoughts into writing.
By writing this book I hope to pass on my understanding of
computers and programming to the next generation.
I would like to thank my parents for making me the person I am
today, for giving me my morals and personality, and the drive in life
that has lead me to this point.

This book will be my first, aimed at sharing with people my ways of
thinking and programming and hopefully to enlighten at least one
person’s day. All feedback is greatly appreciated, please send
comments to [email protected].
This book presumes the reader has a basic understanding of
computer programming on some level, such as the knowledge of if,
else, for, while statements, conditional statements and general
computer skills, and is savvy with SolidWorks.
I have tried to give the best explanation of all code provided on its
purpose, and what the point of every line of code is. I hope you enjoy
reading this book as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

CD CONTENT (case-sensitive link):
http://www.angelsix.com/CODE/SW2008.zip

Table of Contents
The Basics ....................................................................... 11
Recording your first macro ................................ 12
Writing a macro from scratch ............................ 19
Connecting with Visual Studio Express ........................ 29
Download and Install Visual Studio Express ...... 30
Connect to SolidWorks in C#..............................31
Connect to SolidWorks in VB.Net ...................... 52
Starting SolidWorks Programming .............................. 59
Saving Drawing Sheets as DXF .......................... 60
Get Document Information ............................... 68
Displaying Document Information ..................... 77
Working with Selected Objects..................................... 89
Identifying Selected Objects ............................. 90
Mating Selected Objects ................................... 94
Setting Material of Selected Objects ................. 98
Manipulating Dimensions ................................. 101
Selecting Objects ............................................. 107
Setting a Selection Filter .................................. 112
Property Manager Pages .............................................. 113
Deriving the base class ..................................... 114
Adding items to the Page ................................ 128
Responding to events ...................................... 144
Traversing ..................................................................... 153
Traversing through an Assembly ..................... 154
Traversing through a Component.................... 159
Displaying the results ...................................... 164
Playing with Components and Features ........... 171
Custom Property Manager ........................................... 181
Acquiring a Custom Property Manager ........... 182
Adding Custom Properties .............................. 185
Deleting Custom Properties ............................ 188
Table of Contents
Check Custom Property Existence ................... 190
Updating Custom Properties ............................ 194
The ConfigSearcher program .......................... 196
Working with Drawings ............................................... 207
Automatically create Drawing Sheet............... 208
Counting Views ................................................ 219
Printing Drawing Sheets ................................. 230
Add-ins ........................................................................ 249
The basics of an Add-in ....................................250
Removing Add-in entries ................................ 268

10