API: InsertBOMTable2 with top level only

I'm trying to insert a bill of materials with View::InertBOMTable2, and
it works when I use the parts only or indented style, but when I use
the top level only style, SolidWorks crashes (from an addin - if I do
it in a macro, SW doesn't crash but I get a nice error "The object
invoked has disconnected from its clients" on that statement). I'm not
specifying a configuration (as documented in the API docs), and even
when I do it doesn't work. Here's what my call looks like:

(macro)
Set MyBOM = MyView.InsertBomTable2(False, 0, 0, 1, 2, "", _
"C:\Program Files\SolidWorks\lang\english\bom-standard.sldbomtbt")

(C++)
pView->InsertBomTable2(VARIANT_FALSE, 0, 0,
swBOMConfigurationAnchor_BottomRight,
swBomType_TopLevelOnly, CComBSTR(L""),
CComBSTR(L"C:\\Program
Files\\SolidWorks\\lang\\english\\bom-standard.sldbomtbt"), &pBomTA);


Anyone know what's up or how to work around it?

Thanks in advance,
Jonathan Anderson

 

Sounds like your view object changed somehow and the reference to it was no
longer valid. Look up persistent references, this may help solve the
problem.

Corey

 

Actually, nothing is wrong with the view object, because it works fine
with the other BOM types. I also sent a message to api support, and I
received this reply:

---------
This is a known issue scheduled to be fixed in 2005 SP02.

256221 "View::InsertBOMTable2 does not insert a table and crashes."

I apologize for the inconvenience.
---------

So at least they're planning on fixing it. For now, I'm working around
the problem by inserting the BOM with a different type and then
changing the type to top level only. This is a little bit of a hassle
because doing it this way I also have to set the proper configuration
for the BOM rather than letting SW do it automatically.

Now if I could figure out how to get the BOM table from the view, I'd
be in business. Unfortunatly, since SW creates the feature for the BOM
at the top level instead of under a view, using
View::GetFirstTableAnnotation followed by View::GetNext doesn't find
the BOM table.

Jonathan Anderson

 

So they lost the reference to an object. That'll make a guy feel better.

I wanted to do the same thing. You can do this with the old Excel Based
BOM, but as you stated you cannot reference the view that it was created
from. This really sucks because I hate assuming that the view used to
create the bom is the view specified in the Sheet Properties this could
cause problems if you start using views of more than one model on a single
drawing or if there are multiple configurations shown on a single sheet. If
you figure anything out that I may have missed please let me know.

 

I've been pondering this and here's a couple of things I came up with:

You can't get the attached BOM object from the View, but maybe you
could match it with a good probability.

The BomTableAnnotation object doesn't really provide any useful
information, but the BomFeature object does allow you to get the
configuration shown as well as the configurations available for a BOM
(BomFeature::GetConfigurations). You can also get the referenced
configuration from the View object (View.ReferencedConfiguration), so
in theory you could look for a BomFeature and View object that
referenced the same configuration. However, if they reference
different models that have the same configuration name, you would be in
trouble. There isn't any easy way that I can think of to get the
referenced model from the BOM. You could theoretically match the
configurations like I described, and then you could iterate through the
BOM table as well as the feature tree of the model referenced in the
view, and if the same parts are in the BOM and the feature tree then
you would have a match. That's a lot of work to do something simple,
but in theory it would work. And hey, you only have to write it once
I'm running SW 2004, so they may have some way in 2005 to get the
referenced model from the BOM, which would make things easier.

That's the only way I can think of if you don't know anything else
beforehand. For my purposes, my program is going to be creating the
BOM on a certain drawing view, and then needs to get the correct view
and BOM later (after a save and quit). So I'm going to get the
persistent reference ID of the view and the BOM when I create the BOM
and save those (ModelDocExtension::GetPersistReference). Then I can
come back later and pick the appropriate BOM and view. I'm actually
creating a macro feature that will drive the BOM order from a back end
database that we use with product structures, so it's easy for me to
save those in my macro feature data properties. You could possible
save something like that in a custom property. Or for that matter, you
could just assign a unique custom property to the BOM and the view that
would later allow your program to make the connection.

Wow, that's a lot just to associate a BOM and view. Hope that helps,
Jonathan Anderson

 

Nice.. I was thinking along the same lines and decided it was too much work
for something that wouldn't feel exact. So I just went on the assumption
that it was going to be the same as the Custom Properties View. It is alot
less work and will be accurate at least 98% of the time the way we do things
here. I too am working with 2004. Let me know how it works out with the
BOM from MRP system that might be a nice project for later. The only
things I am worried about is the baloons, will they stay linked to the
numbering system. We leave most fasteners, fluids and other BULK items off
of the models for feasability but it might be beneficial to have them show
up on the Drawing when updated with the MRP system.

Corey