bluebytesystemsinc / solidworks-pdm-api-sdk

PDM Professional Add-in Development Framework (Add-ins and task add-ins)

PDMSDK is .NET Library for SOLIDWORKS PDM Pro

Tip

We have a new documentation page that contains a step-by-step guide on getting started as well as extensive API reference. It is accessible here.

What can I Do with PDMSDK?

With PDM SDK, you can develop:

• SOLIDWORKS PDM add-ins
• SOLIDWORKS PDM task add-ins

VS Template

Get it from here.

Nuget

Command-line:

Install-Package BlueByte.SOLIDWORKS.PDMProfessional.PDMSDK

Sample add-in

TestAddIn folder contains a sample copy to clipboard addin.

Support

You can start a ticket on this repo. The best way to get an answer is to ask a question at cadoverflow.com under the PDMFramework group.

solidworks-pdm-api-sdk's Issues

Task is not being cancelled or paused correctly after SetRange and UpdateTaskMessage are used.

Situation:

We have stopped reporting progress via SetStatus2 and started using SetRange and UpdateTaskMessage.

The logic that handles cancellation and suspension is bound to SetStatus2 and this is not being used to report progress.

Action:
The logic needs to be moved to SetRange and UpdateTaskMessage.

Build PDMFramework package to target .NET Framework 4.5.1 - 4.8

Situation:
We're currently only targeting .NET 472. As more and more people start using the framework, we'd probably need to include more builds of PDMFramework for 4.5.1 - 4.8 in our NuGet package.

Issue:
Our current NuGet packaging process uses nupack (vs extension to build nuget packages) which is limited. We need to create a script :

• Build PDMFramework for the version of .NET, we'd like to support
• Copy those dlls to lib folder (example 451 dll is copied to lib/net451 and so on) where the nuspec file exists.
• invoke the nuget pack on the package.nuspec to build the package.

A code review might be warranted because some things we are using for 472 (Tuples) are not available for lower versions of .NET and we need to add some dependencies (Example: Tuples)

Common window and msgbox title

I found myself doing $"{Identity.Name} V{Identity.Version}" a lot in msgbox and window titles. Should probably be a method in the identity struct.

Resolve issue when runtime fails to load assemblies

Situation:
Some references fail to load during runtime. We're currently loading all assemblies into the domain every time the add-in loads.
Task:
Use AssemblyResolve event handler to load assemblies that fail to load.

VSTemplate issue with files under task

TaskLaunch, Run, Setup, SetupButton.cs have a partial class called AddIn. The namespace in those files must match the one in AddIn.cs

We need to drop the ".task" from the namespace from those files.

Does this make sense?

Solution: WPF usercontrol does not accept userinput when host in a EdmTaskPAge

Issue:

• Create a WPF usercontrol with any input and host in an EdmTaskPage.
• Compile add-in and add to the vault.
• Create task and choose add-in from dropdown.
• See created tab to replicate issue.

Regression bug : TaskSetupPage::ViewModel has a private setter

Regression bug : TaskSetupPage::ViewModel has a private setter

PDM commands visibility ?

Idea: Restrict how commands added to the IEdmCmdMgr5 through MenuAttribute class...

Effects/Consequences: The command manager is called when the user logs into the vault from Explorer or the administrator tool. As a consequence, the add-in will add commands based a set of criteria defined in the command definition (MenuAttribute).

This might be useful because the PDM client will not have to listen to the restricted commands and thus making fewer calls to the OnCmd method. We won't need the IsAdministrator from the Extensions package...

Application: Might be very useful to hide menus that only the administrators (or user with specific permissions) are supposed to see.

Issues/Critical bug: TBD

Suggestions:

Commands visibility can be restricted by:

• User name. (Include regex)?
• User id.
• Users who have certain permissions...

ListenForEvent is not setup to allow duplicates

Addin can listen to multiple events. Currently, ListenForAttribute is not set up to allow duplicates on class.

Logger.LogToOuput log issue

Logger.LogToOuput should the same signature for Disk and Console.

RequiredVersion readability

Add a new constructor for RequiredVersionAttribute that supports a year and service pack enum

Usability issue - All projects referencing PDMFramework need to be signed

Because we are signing PDMFramework, I have found in some instances that the addin main project and all of its project references need to be signed as well. This presents a usability issue that need addressing.

Add load and save task properties from file...

Whenever we are testing a task with a customer, we end up having to load up the add-in then the task and fill in data over and over again.

I think we should have two methods called
LoadTaskPropertiesFromFile()
and
SaveTaskPropertiesFromFile()

That are part of the TaskSetupPage so we can load things easier.

We don't have to add any buttons to the UI, just the methods. I'm not too sure about the buttons if truth be told. It might worthwhile to test adding them...

See this example for the load method and this example the save as.

Binding exception thrown if a task definition is loaded twice

We use the OnDataLoaded method to add bindings to the TaskSetupPage controls. This method can be invoked as many times as the user loading task definitions from LoadSettings. This throws a binding exception and fails the load settings operation.

The default behavior (base behavior) of the OnDataLoaded method should clear all bindings from the TaskSetupPage controls...

VSTemplate: 1.8

1. Fix [Menu((int)Commands.CommandOne, "Click Me!", 43)] to use the right constructors in both CS and VB Project Templates
2. Upgrade dependencies to 76 or later
3. Add callback sample for commands enum when it is support is added to PDMSDK
4. Add support for a category in the Add New Item window when adding a new page. Right now the PDMTaskPage the filename in the window.
   See
   

Switch to packgereference

Let's switch to packagereference instead packages.config. We need PDMAddInFramework package to be the highest.

Added license terms and small changes

Can you add the following to the top of all the .cs files:

/*
MIT License

Copyright (c) 2022 Blue Byte Systems Inc.

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO >THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL >THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF >CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER >DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.*/

Also, change this required version attribute to be like following (You will nedd to add the namespace):

[RequiredVersion(Year_e.PDM2018, ServicePack_e.SP0)]

Compile vstx file (1.3.1) and tag me here when you are done.

base.Instance is null on TaskDetails

See title

Strong name reference issue

The PDMAddInFramework is signed with StrongKey.pfx file. That means that all of its references must also be signed and have Strong Name property set to True. For some reason, it cannot be done manually for all NuGet packages.
To solve this issue, the NuGet package StrongNamer by Daniel Plaisted needs to be installed.

Add support for TaskSetupPage on TaskDetails

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
A clear and concise description of what the problem is. Ex. I'm always frustrated when [...]

Describe the solution you'd like
A clear and concise description of what you want to happen.

Describe alternatives you've considered
A clear and concise description of any alternative solutions or features you've considered.

Additional context
Add any other context or screenshots about the feature request here.

Add overload for ForEachFile to support parent folder as a parameter

See title

Change Command id to process id in addinbase

There is a typo in addinbase when attaching the debugger

Logger.LogToOutput throws an exception if identity or instance are not defined

Issue:

Logger.LogToOutput throws an exception when GetType is set to SQL if instance is not defined. While this is okay for task add-ins, PDM add-ins are not all necessary task add-in.

Solution:

Performs null checks for identity and instance.

Documentation: Adding programming guide for new users

Help us complete, proofread, or verify the information in the documentation guide for PDMSDK.

Compiled version: https://bluebytesystemsinc.github.io/SOLIDWORKS-PDM-API-SDK/docs/getting-started.html

Working directory: https://github.com/BlueByteSystemsInc/SOLIDWORKS-PDM-API-SDK/tree/master/docfx/docs

To contribute, please make a pull request by:

• Editing the content of the markdown files.
• Adding your own or starting a new one that does not exist.

Request PR to be merged and HTML to be compiled by @AmenJlili

Add tags to VS template

We want to be able to add the following tags: C#, SOLIDWORKS, SOLIDWORKS PDM, Add-in, PDM

See below for visual of tags:

AddInBase of another add-in is being triggered

Situation:

• AddIn X that uses PDMFramework is loaded into the vault.
• AddIn Y that uses PDMFramework is being tested with unit testing. AddIn is not loaded.
• Some API call in AddIn Y while debugging would take the debugger to methods in AddInBase in AddIn X.
• Degraded performance is observed.

Required action:

• Identity why code in AddIn X is being triggered from debugger of AddIn Y. Potential references issue.

SetStatus2 is resetting the progress bar and the elapsed time in the tasklist the administration tool

Issue:

SetStatus2 uses IEdmTaskInstance::SetStatus. Tasks that use PDMFramework do not have proper elapsed time or progress in the administration tool. After reading this, I noticed that SetStatus is only used to set to change the task status. Any other progress is done through SetProgress.

Solution:

Implement SetProgress to report progress to the user unless when explicitly needing to fail, suspend, resume cancel or complete the task in which case use SetStatus with no message whatsoever.

Refresh created menus in Windows explorer

When PDMFramework creates menus, it should ask for Windows Explorer to refresh to reflect changes.

This can be done through EmdCmd's refresh flags here.

Create Visual Studio project template

We need to create class library project template for solidworks addins that use PDMFramework

The template should be under VSProjectTemplate folder and have the following structure :

Scripts
Prebuild.bat - This script is referenced in the rebuild event of the project and make sure the embed intro types to false
Task
SetupPages
Settings.cs
SettingsViewModel.cs - Needs to implement INotifyPropertyChanged
TaskRun.cs
TaskLaunch.cs
TaskSetup.cs
TaskSetupButton.cs
AddIn.cs

We also need to create an item template for SetupPages: A UserControl that implement TaskSetupPage

Initiative to create PDMFramework documentation by the community and for the community - We need you!

We're looking for good-spirited PDM API developers to help document our framework and in the process provide feedback on ease of use.

I think we can break down the documentation as follow:

• Technical docs done with sandcastle for Visual Studio. This will require that we complete the xml docs.
• Technical docs through the wiki page here. I'm too sure if this would be useful.
• Add more examples to the Example folders.

Fix assembly resolve issue

We're using the following resolver now and making it virtual.

        {
            var Assembly = default(Assembly);
            var thisAssembly = new FileInfo(this.GetType().Assembly.Location);
            var directory = thisAssembly.Directory;




            var nameWithoutExtension = args.Name.Split(',').First();


            Console.WriteLine($"{FileVersionInfo.GetVersionInfo(thisAssembly.FullName).ProductName} - Failed to load {args.Name}");

            var files = directory.GetFiles("*", SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly);

            if (files != null)
            {
                var dlls = files.ToList().Where(x => x.Extension.ToLower().Contains("interop") == false && x.Extension.ToLower().EndsWith("dll"));
                if (dlls != null)
                {
                    foreach (var dll in dlls)
                    {
                        if (args.Name.ToLower().StartsWith(nameWithoutExtension.ToLower()))
                        {
                            Assembly = System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(AssemblyName.GetAssemblyName(dll.FullName));
                            break;
                        }
                    }
                }

            }


            return Assembly;

        }

Remove all unsigned dependencies

I think it might be wise to have as fewer dependencies as we can.

Right we are using these:

  <package id="BlueByte.SOLIDWORKS.PDMProfessional.Interops" version="2021.0.0" targetFramework="net472" />
  <package id="Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack-Core" version="1.1.0.2" targetFramework="net472" />
  <package id="Microsoft.WindowsAPICodePack-Shell" version="1.1.0.0" targetFramework="net472" />
  <package id="Newtonsoft.Json" version="13.0.1" targetFramework="net472" />
  <package id="SimpleInjector" version="5.3.2" targetFramework="net472" />
  <package id="StrongNamer" version="0.2.5" targetFramework="net472" />

1. We're only using Windows API code pack for the common open dialog which I think we can do ourselves.
2. We can drop use of Newtonsoft.Json in favor of XML serializer from .NET
3. I don't know what we're going to do with SimpleInjector since I can't a signed version. Since it's under a MIT license, we can safely include it in the source code provided that we update the license terms.

Add a UI after the user clicks on create project to specify admin identity

Template Version 2

@avdynut

We want to be able to create a simple UI in WPF to ask the user for the following information (once they click create) :

• Name of the add-in - > fill the NameAttribute
• Description -> Descriptionattribute.
• Company -> CompanyAttribute.
• Is Add-In a task ? -> IsTaskAttribute (checkbox)

I'm not sure if we should include these

• RequiredVersion (this will be two comboboxes one for the year and one for the service) -> RequiredVersionAttribute

Uncommitted version number locally 41

@Alex-Egorchatov : I think you have forgotten to push your version increment change to 41 after you added the strong name. I had to increment to 42.

Feature: Add callback method name to the MenuAttribute

Add a callback method name to the MenuAttribute

Remove Pfx key in public src

Package the PDMFramework VS project template

We need to use VSX SDX for this. We may need some outside help for this.

The goal of this is to publish our project templates on Visual Studio Extension marketplace.