hello all ... new as a poster, but have been browsing the forum for awhile ... lots of good stuff here (and really smart people)
i am sure i have come to the right place for my questions

i have (unfortunately) been tasked to create a GUI to work with an Excel spreadsheet driven conveyor assembly that i created (using tutorials provide here)

the hope is to be able to use the GUI instead of editing the spreadsheet ... i have tried to figure this out on my own, but i am getting overwhelmed

i have vb express 2010 and iv 2011

i want to start over, using ilogic and rules, and vb.net to make a GUI (i assume as an add-in) so the user can pick available options, such as length, width, product weights and speeds, etc.

can the proper sequence to accomplish this be explained here, or has this subject been broached before?

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"Artificial Intelligence is NO MATCH for Natural Stupidity" ... (my brother)
BTW, that is NOT my picture

Using iLogic with a WinForms UI would definitely be the way to go to replace your Excel driven models.

There's a great example of this workflow that comes with Inventor 2011. Switch your project file to the "iLogic 2011 Samples" and look in the project root for the assembly file named "Railing iLogic Sample Advanced.iam". When you open that up you will find a rule named "Form" (should be the first in the list). Double click on that to see how they directly inserted the VB code into the rule and referenced in an external DLL assembly. If you poke around there a bit it could get you going in the right direction for now. Post back with any other questions.

_________________
Brian Hall
"Good enough" isn't good enough for me.
Follow me on Twitter @Hallmanac

using Vb express 2008,2010 along with ilogic
it is easy to create custom forms
and it is powerfull
there are lot of tutorilas available at Autodesk Unviersity on ilogic
http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=class&session_id=5037
http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=class&session_id=4976

"there are lot of tutorilas available at Autodesk Unviersity on ilogic"


i have taken classes on ilogic and rules ... my problem is using vb.net and iv2010 together

_________________
"Artificial Intelligence is NO MATCH for Natural Stupidity" ... (my brother)
BTW, that is NOT my picture

... i found it ... just had to look in a different area ... diving in now ... thanks

_________________
"Artificial Intelligence is NO MATCH for Natural Stupidity" ... (my brother)
BTW, that is NOT my picture

Thanks Qube-It ... i can certainly use this for internal ilogic designs ... if i wanted non-inventor users to be able to configure a product (conveyor, lift, transfer, etc) through our server, from our website, could an interface be designed in vb.net to generate a basic design to describe footprint, price estimate, power reqs, etc ?

i know i have to learn to crawl first, but my end goal is to allow potential customers to be able to input basic design criteria on our web site, and then see a simple drawing describing the results of the input.

_________________
"Artificial Intelligence is NO MATCH for Natural Stupidity" ... (my brother)
BTW, that is NOT my picture

Well, if what you're ultimately after is more of an "Engineer-to-Order" system then you might want to investigate Autodesk Intent (a.k.a. Autodesk Inventor Automation). It's a powerful set of tools (much more so than iLogic is currently) that sits on top of Inventor as well as a stand alone product. The caveat is the expense. But that can be justified by the ROI. I've seen a conveyor company use it. George Williams can speak to that story better than I can.

With that said, if you don't want to go down that road, it's definitely possible to do what you're looking for with straight .NET, Inventor API, and iLogic. There's a few ways to get to that point, but I would start by automating the designs with the engineers and designers first, then extend the functionaility to be tied to a front end web portal. The underlying iLogic rules/API integration would still be the same. Just the way the input information gets there would be different. That's a project whose scope is too big to be completely hashed out here. There's a lot of questions that would need to be asked. I would reccomend getting a consultant to come in and do a Discovery. Could I be any more vague?

_________________
Brian Hall
"Good enough" isn't good enough for me.
Follow me on Twitter @Hallmanac

"Well, if what you're ultimately after is more of an "Engineer-to-Order" system then you might want to investigate Autodesk Intent (a.k.a. Autodesk Inventor Automation)."

not exactlly what i want ... more of a simple concept prevue
i dont have the kind of $$$$ available that the referenced conveyor company has


"There's a few ways to get to that point, but I would start by automating the designs with the engineers and designers first"

i am the designer / engineer (ie: not IT) ... your tip on the irules project is going to help immensely (sp) ...where's the spell check?


" I would reccomend getting a consultant to come in and do a Discovery."

again, no cash for that ... essentially, if i cant do it, it isnt going to happen


"Could I be any more vague?"

on the contrary, you have been a huge help ... thank you so much!

_________________
"Artificial Intelligence is NO MATCH for Natural Stupidity" ... (my brother)
BTW, that is NOT my picture

Say no more, I know exactly where you're coming from.

Check out the Inventor Help. Do a search for "Advanced Rule Programming". The list of results should give you a "Rules (Quick Reference)" result. Open that up and click on "Advanced Rule Creation Techniques". Good info in there.

If you find that you are doing more advanced stuff using VB.NET syntax, it is much easier to code inside of Visual Studio (or VB.NET Express 2010, in your case) instead of the iLogic rule editor. You get intellisense which is a huge help. Plus refactoring your code is much easier too.

_________________
Brian Hall
"Good enough" isn't good enough for me.
Follow me on Twitter @Hallmanac

That error is because the wizard is trying to install an Inventor Add-in "Project Template" for Visual Studio 2008 or older. Since you have Visual Studio 2010 installed and not 2008, it won't install the project template. There's a work around for that, but you don't *need* to install the Add-In wizard to create the dialogue box that you want. That's more for developing full blown add-ins, which is a separate beast altogether.

Basically, when you go into Visual Studio Express, choose to start a new project. In your project templates, select a "Class Library" template. Once you get that up and running, right click on the "Project" (not solution) and hover over "Add", then choose "Windows Form". Choose the "Windows Form" template when the dialog box pops up. Once that gets added, you'll have a graphic blank Windows Form that you can drag and drop controls onto (i.e. list box, radio buttons, text box, labels, etc.).

If you don't see the "Toolbox" in the left, you can bring it up by going to menu View>Toolbox. The Toolbox will contain all the controls you need.

Next, you want to add the Autodesk.Inventor.Interop reference. if you double click the "My Project" in your Solution Explorer it will bring up your project properties. In the left column there is a "References" tab, click on that. That will show you all your current references. Select the "Add" button which brings up a dialog box for adding references. Go to the "Browse" tab and navigate to here:

C:\Windows\assembly\GAC_MSIL\Autodesk.Inventor.Interop

If you have more than one version of Inventor installed, there should be several folders there with numbers as their name. Inventor 2011 is version 15.0, Inventor 2010 is version 14.0, and so on. Open the folder for Inventor 2011 (version 15.0.0...) and select the DLL file that is in there. That will give you access to the Inventor API.

Let me know if you want me to keep going.

_________________
Brian Hall
"Good enough" isn't good enough for me.
Follow me on Twitter @Hallmanac

ok ... i'm confused ... in the advanced rail sample, a gui is launched by pressing the trigger button ... is that considered an add-on? ... if it is not, how is it called?

*** edited ***
just saw you responed to a message i deleted ... answers the above question
i wont delete this one

you 'da man

_________________
"Artificial Intelligence is NO MATCH for Natural Stupidity" ... (my brother)
BTW, that is NOT my picture

done ... was exactlly as you described

and, of course, i want you to keep going

_________________
"Artificial Intelligence is NO MATCH for Natural Stupidity" ... (my brother)
BTW, that is NOT my picture

Actually just stumbled upon this. Much more comprehensive than I could do here on the forums.

_________________
Brian Hall
"Good enough" isn't good enough for me.
Follow me on Twitter @Hallmanac

schweeeeeet ... wish i could buy you a beer!

_________________
"Artificial Intelligence is NO MATCH for Natural Stupidity" ... (my brother)
BTW, that is NOT my picture

Sounds good!! Hoegaarden is my current fav.

_________________
Brian Hall
"Good enough" isn't good enough for me.
Follow me on Twitter @Hallmanac