ETO Series Studio
Table of Contents
2ETO Series Studio 2012 Features
2Introduce Visual Studio Projects
2Templates
3Inventor Design Template
6Import Inventor Project
7Custom Host Design Template
8Inventor Add-in Template
10Move over major portions of the Inventor CAD IDE into
Developer Studio
10Design Navigator
11Function Navigator
11Model Browser
12ETO Model Properties
12ETO Console Window
12Integration of Intent V3 language into the Visual Studio
Editor
ETO Series StudioStarting with the Autodesk Inventor
Engineer-to-Order Series 2012 release we will be redesigning the
way users write Intent code. Transitioning from the in-CAD hosted
IDE to a Microsoft Visual Studio hosted development environment is
the first step. Microsoft Visual Studio will allow us to build our
development environment using state of the art technology and UI
moving forward. The complete solution may take a couple releases to
finish, however, we will introduce pieces in the interim to allow
users the opportunity to experience the new IDE and give feedback
early in the process.ETO Series Studio 2012 Features
This release marks the first step toward moving into the new
environment. Although the transition will not be completed it is
our hope that it can be used for some projects. No existing CAD IDE
functionality has been removed so you can continue developing ETO
applications just as you have done in previous releases. The focus
of this release consists of the following (each of these is
discussed in more detail below):
Introduce Visual Studio Projects.
Move over major portions of the Inventor CAD IDE into Developer
Studio. This includes Design Navigator, Function Navigator, Model
Browser, Immediate Window, and Properties Pane.
Integration of Intent V3 language into the Visual Studio
Editor.
Working with Inventor projects is the focus for this release.
Other hosts will come later.
Introduce Visual Studio Projects
Visual Studio projects are used to manage all aspects of your
ETO solution. This includes managing IKS files along with tools to
manage the UI of your application. Managing your entire ETO
application in Visual Studio will provide us the ability to have
tighter integration with all the components.
Templates
The first productivity enhancements you will notice in the new
environment are the ETO Series Studio custom templates. The
templates offered will expand over time but here are a few
examples: Inventor Design Template This template will create a base
set of Inventor Design files.
Item Template In addition to creating new Inventor Projects,
once you have a Design project you can easily add new designs using
our template for creating Design files.
Custom Host Design Template This template will create an empty
root design and custom host configuration file for use in a
services-based application.
Inventor Add-in Template This template makes creating an add-in
for Inventor and/or Inventor OEM and hooking up to Intent very easy
so you can concentrate on adding your commands.
Panel Template This template allows you to easily add all the
necessary code for an Inventor Dockable Window into your add-in
project. All you have to do is add your specific UI controls to a
form, use the custom constructor to create the form then decide
when to show and hide the form; everything else is taken care of
for you.
Inventor Design Template
The Inventor Design Template should be used when starting a
brand new Inventor Project. If you have an existing Inventor
project you will want to use the Import Inventor Project method
described below.
To get started, Launch Visual Studio and select
File->New->Project from the menu. The New Project dialog is
displayed and you should see an IntentV3 Section as shown below.
Select the Autodesk Inventor ETO Design Library template and give
the project a name.
After you are satisfied with your selections, click ok to create
the project.A new Visual Studio project is created which should
look something like this:
Refer to the numbers above in the image:
1. A Design Files folder is created. This is where all IKS files
are stored. It is important to keep this directory structure
in-tact as other features rely on it.
2. A new Inventor Project file is created. This is the project
file you should load in Inventor when you start building your
designs by adopting components.
3. The Root Assembly design is loaded. This is the starting
point for your designs.
At this point you are ready to start building your ETO Solution
as you would normally do. Many designs will be introduced by using
the Inventor Adopt feature inside of Inventor. However, there is a
template to create a new design from the IDE. To get started,
right-click on the Design Files folder then select Add->New
Item. You should see a dialog similar to this:
Simply type a name for the new Design and click the Add button.
From there you will be given the opportunity to further specify
your Design Parent and System Design.
You can leave the defaults or change the selections. When you
are finished hit OK. You should now see your new design in the
Design Files folder. The editor will also load your design so you
can begin to add Rules.
You can continue using the process above to add more design
files to your solution. In addition, if you add design files from
Inventor using Adopt or any other mechanism, they will
automatically be added to the Visual Studio project. The only
restriction on this feature is that all Designs must be stored in
the Design Files folder.
Import Inventor Project
If you already have an Inventor Project with Designs and you
want to make that available as a Visual Studio project you can
easily import using the File->Import Inventor Project menu
option. The workflow for this command is very simple:
1. Select File->Import Inventor Project menu.
2. Select the Inventor Project file you wish to import.
3. A new Visual Studio project is created and all the Design
Files of the existing project are now displayed in the project. As
mentioned previously, a current limitation of this functionality is
that the existing files must be in a Design Files folder relative
to the Inventor Project file location.Custom Host Design
Template
New in this release of Inventor ETO Server 2012 is support for
hosting your Intent-based application on one or more remote servers
and using the remote API to interact with it. Inventor-based Intent
applications are supported in this environment. However, in some
cases you may want to create a web-based Intent application with no
CAD host or with a custom host that you supply.To get started,
Launch Visual Studio and select File->New->Project from the
menu. The New Project dialog is displayed and you should see an
IntentV3 Section as shown below. Select the Autodesk ETO Series
Custom Host Design Library template and give the project a
name.
After you are satisfied with your selections, click ok to create
the project. A new Visual Studio project is created. The project
will have an empty root design and a file called
IntentHost.config.The format of this configuration file in this
first release is quite simple; it is XML with only a few elements,
which are optional. Follow the instructions in the comments within
the file to understand it. Heres an example of the file including
all possible elements:
CustomHostLib.HostApi
SearchPath elements provide the location of your design
libraries relative to the config file. HostLib, if present, defines
your CLR-based (.Net) custom host if needed.Inventor Add-in
Template
Another set of templates provided are ones for creating the
application UI. In this case, we have provided a template that
creates all the necessary code for an Inventor Add-in using either
Inventor and/or Inventor OEM. To use this template, select
File->New->Project. We have both VB.net and C# templates to
choose from. Select the language of your choice then find the
Inventor ETO Addin template; it also appears in a sub-category
called InventorETO, which makes it a little easier to find if you
have a lot of project templates. Note that Autodesk Inventor 2012
supports add-ins targeting .NET Framework 3.5 (not 4.0) so you must
select 3.5 as the target before the template will show up. You can
add this project to your existing solution or create a new
solution. ETO Series Studio allows all your related projects to be
in the same solution. You may also select a name for the project.
When you are satisfied with your selections, click ok.
You should now have a new Project in your solution. To
understand more about the template and how to work with it, view
the readme.txt file created with the project. The readme will
contain instructions for how to debug the project, manually
register the add-in and other useful information. If you are
familiar with all of those actions, you can remove the readme.txt
from your project. The image below shows what a user might
typically see after creating the Inventor Add-in project.
To run (and debug) the project from Developer Studio you can
follow these steps:
1. Set the project to launch Inventor (or Inventor OEM) on
start-up.
a) Open project properties.
b) Select the "Debug" tab.
c) Set the "Start Action" to "Start external program".
d) Select \Inventor.exe (or InventorOEM.exe) as the start-up
program.2. Build the Project.
3. Start debugging.From there, if you build the add-in project
and run Inventor, you should see your add-in loaded, along with
some sample ribbon bar items. The image below shows the results of
running the sample project above.
Move over major portions of the Inventor CAD IDE into Developer
Studio
Many of the existing windows that are included in the existing
CAD IDEs have been moved into Developer Studio. While this doesnt
give you any more functionality, it is a necessary step in getting
switched over to the new platform. To access these windows, select
from the menu View->Autodesk ETO Series Studio Windows.Design
Navigator The Design Navigator exists in the IDE in pretty much the
same form with some exceptions. The biggest difference is that the
User Designs will reflect the Project File loaded in the Visual
Studio Project. One exception to that workflow is that Inventor has
support for including other Inventor Projects as valid locations to
find Designs. In this case, you will see the referenced Designs in
User Designs, but you wont see those in your project.
Most features should work as you expect, for example, as you
add/remove Designs the Design Navigator will update accordingly.
The context menu has commands for opening the design, inserting the
design, etc.
Function Navigator
As with the Design Navigator, the Function Navigator should work
as you expect. The exceptions and details of how it works are
similar to the Design Navigator.
Model Browser
This window is different that the Design/Function Navigator in
that a running host is required. In this release, that running host
must be Inventor. If you are not running Inventor, this window will
not display anything. If Inventor is running, and has an Intent
Model available, this window will display the Model. This window
will display the same Model as what you see in the Inventor Model
Browser. However, for this release the browser is primarily
read-only.ETO Model Properties
ETO Model Properties displays information from an Intent Model.
As such requires a running host just like the Model Browser. If
Inventor is running, and has an Intent Model available, this window
will display the properties for the object selected in the Model
Browser. You are able to Evaluate and Unbind individual properties
from this window. ETO Console Window
This window has the same restrictions as the Model Browser,
which means it connects to the running version of Inventor. This
window is similar to the Immediate Window in Inventor.Integration
of Intent V3 language into the Visual Studio EditorThe editor in
Visual Studio developer is used to edit Intent Design files. The
features of the editor will expand over time but you can expect
most standard Visual Studio editing functionality to work: All
standard Developer Studio functionality like search, replace,
bookmarks, etc. should work as expected.
Syntax coloring of the Intent Language. Simple Code Snippets
ETO Series Studio
2012
Autodesk, Inc
1/1/2012
