intension

in the previous post i showed how to create own ribbons, tabs, and buttons with the inventor api. In this post i will show you how you can define a button and automate the creation.

A lot of the code was taken from the Autodesk examples and from other websites. All my code can be found on github

create/define a button

the api needs a button description so that it can add something to a ribbon tab. Inventor has a command manager which holds all different commands.

• Clientid –> AddinId
• ButtonDisplayType
  • NoTextWithIcon
  • AlwaysDisplayText
  • DisplayTextInLearningMode
• CommandTypes
  • ShapeEditCmdType
  • QueryOnlyCmdType
  • FileOperationsCmdType
  • FilePropertyEditCmdType
  • UpdateWithReferencesCmdType
  • NonShapeEditCmdType
  • EditMaskCmdType
  • ReferencesChangeCmdType
  • SchemaChangeCmdType

The following code sample was modified from the ‚SimpleAddin‘ Autodesk Inventor example.

buttonDefinition = app.CommandManager.ControlDefinitions.AddButtonDefinition(
	ibdc.DisplayName,
	ibdc.InternalName,
	ibdc.CommandType,
	ibdc.ClientId,
	ibdc.Description,
	ibdc.Tooltip,
	PictureDispConverter.ToIPictureDisp(ibdc.StandardIcon),
	PictureDispConverter.ToIPictureDisp(ibdc.LargeIcon),
	ibdc.ButtonDisplayType);

buttonDefinition.Enabled = true;
buttonDefinition.OnExecute += ButtonDefinition_OnExecute;

I modified the example so that it fits to my needs. I wanted a reusable, clean and easy to use button description.

How to create/define a button :

public class TestButton : Button
{
    private readonly string addinId;
    public TestButton([NotNull] Application application, string addinId) : base(application)
    {
        this.addinId = addinId;
    }

    protected override ButtonDescriptionContainer GetButtonDescription()
    {
        return new ButtonDescriptionContainer()
        {
            ButtonDisplayType = ButtonDisplayEnum.kNoTextWithIcon,
            CommandType = CommandTypesEnum.kShapeEditCmdType,
            Description = "Description",
            InternalName = "InternalName",
            DisplayName = "MyCreatedButton",
            ClientId = addinId,
            Tooltip = "this should be a ToolTip"       
        };
    }

    protected override void ButtonDefinition_OnExecute(NameValueMap context)
    {
        var frm = new ShowTextFrm();
        frm.ShowDialog();
    }
}

usage :

.
..

var buttonDescription = GetShowTextButton(addinId, application);
panel.CommandControls.AddButton(buttonDescription);

..................

private ButtonDefinition GetShowTextButton(string addinId, Application application)
{
    CommandCategory slotCmdCategory = application.CommandManager.CommandCategories.Add("Slot", "Autodesk:YourAddIn:ShowTextCmd", addinId);

    var btn = new TestButton(application, addinId);
    slotCmdCategory.Add(btn.ButtonDefinition);

    return btn.ButtonDefinition;
}

 /// <summary>
/// taken from the inventor 'SimpleAddIn' Sample
/// </summary>
public abstract class Button
{
    private ButtonDefinition buttonDefinition;
    protected abstract ButtonDescriptionContainer GetButtonDescription();
    public ButtonDefinition ButtonDefinition => buttonDefinition;

    protected Button([NotNull] Application application)
    {
        Initialize(application);
    }

    private void Initialize([NotNull] Application app)
    {
        if (app == null) throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(app));

        var descriptionContainer = GetButtonDescription();

        if (descriptionContainer is IconButtonDescriptorContainer ibdc && ibdc.StandardIcon != null && ibdc.LargeIcon != null)
        {
            buttonDefinition = app.CommandManager.ControlDefinitions.AddButtonDefinition(
                ibdc.DisplayName,
                ibdc.InternalName,
                ibdc.CommandType,
                ibdc.ClientId,
                ibdc.Description,
                ibdc.Tooltip,
                PictureDispConverter.ToIPictureDisp(ibdc.StandardIcon),
                PictureDispConverter.ToIPictureDisp(ibdc.LargeIcon),
                ibdc.ButtonDisplayType);
        }
        else
        {
            buttonDefinition = app.CommandManager.ControlDefinitions.AddButtonDefinition(
                descriptionContainer.DisplayName,
                descriptionContainer.InternalName,
                descriptionContainer.CommandType,
                descriptionContainer.ClientId,
                descriptionContainer.Description,
                descriptionContainer.Tooltip,
                Type.Missing,
                Type.Missing,
                descriptionContainer.ButtonDisplayType);
        }

        buttonDefinition.Enabled = true;
        buttonDefinition.OnExecute += ButtonDefinition_OnExecute;
    }

    protected abstract void ButtonDefinition_OnExecute(NameValueMap context);
}

If you run this example your button should look like this