AutoDesk Inventor – Batch Exporting PDFs & DXFs with iLogic
If you have ever had to publish a lot of Inventor IDW drawings at the same time, you will know how tedious it can be to go into each drawing and Save Copy As each file as a DXF or PDF individually.
Here is where iLogic can come to the rescue. I have written an iLogic rule that will automatically export all IDW drawings that are open in your Inventor session in a timestamped folder. Each time the rule is run it will create a new timestamped folder so that you will easily be able to find your newest exported files. The video below gives a demonstration of how it works.
To use this rule yourself, open the iLogic browser in an Inventor session. Create a new rule called Export PDF’s & DXF’s, and paste the following code into the rule before saving and running the rule. (Note This code has been edited and improved since recording the video).
Sub Main()
Dim myDate As String = Now().ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HHmmss")
myDate = myDate.Replace(":","") ' & " - " & TypeString
userChoice = InputRadioBox("Defined the scope", "This Document", "All Open Documents", True, Title := "Defined the scope")
UserSelectedActionList = New String(){"DXF & PDF", "PDF Only", "DXF Only"}
UserSelectedAction = InputListBox("What action must be performed with selected views?", _
UserSelectedActionList, UserSelectedActionList(0), Title := "Action to Perform", ListName := "Options")
Select UserSelectedAction
Case "DXF & PDF": UserSelectedAction = 3
Case "PDF Only": UserSelectedAction = 1
Case "DXF Only": UserSelectedAction = 2
End Select
If userChoice Then
Call MakePDFFromDoc(ThisApplication.ActiveDocument, myDate, UserSelectedAction)
Else
For Each oDoc In ThisApplication.Documents
If oDoc.DocumentType = kDrawingDocumentObject
Try
If Len(oDoc.File.FullFileName)>0 Then
Call MakePDFFromDoc(oDoc, myDate, UserSelectedAction)
End If
Catch
End Try
End If
Next
End If
End Sub
Sub MakePDFFromDoc(ByRef oDocument As Document, DateString As String, UserSelectedAction As Integer)
' oPath = oDocument.Path
' oFileName = oDocument.FileName(False) 'without extension
'oDocument = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
oPDFAddIn = ThisApplication.ApplicationAddIns.ItemById _
("{0AC6FD96-2F4D-42CE-8BE0-8AEA580399E4}")
oContext = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateTranslationContext
oContext.Type = IOMechanismEnum.kFileBrowseIOMechanism
oOptions = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateNameValueMap
oDataMedium = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateDataMedium
oFullFileName = oDocument.File.FullFileName
oPath = Left(oFullFileName, InStrRev(oFullFileName, "\")-1)
oFileName = Right(oFullFileName, Len(oFullFileName)-InStrRev(oFullFileName, "\"))
oFilePart = Left(oFileName, InStrRev(oFileName, ".")-1)
'oRevNum = oDocument.iProperties.Value("Project", "Revision Number")
'oDocument = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
' If oPDFAddIn.HasSaveCopyAsOptions(oDataMedium, oContext, oOptions) Then
oOptions.Value("All_Color_AS_Black") = 0
oOptions.Value("Remove_Line_Weights") = 0
oOptions.Value("Vector_Resolution") = 400
oOptions.Value("Sheet_Range") = Inventor.PrintRangeEnum.kPrintAllSheets
'oOptions.Value("Custom_Begin_Sheet") = 2
'oOptions.Value("Custom_End_Sheet") = 4
' End If
'get PDF target folder path
'oFolder = Left(oPath, InStrRev(oPath, "\")) & "PDF"
oFolder = oPath & "\iLogic PDF's (" & DateString & ")"
'Check for the PDF folder and create it if it does not exist
If Not System.IO.Directory.Exists(oFolder) Then
System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(oFolder)
End If
'Set the PDF target file name
oDataMedium.FileName = oFolder & "\" & oFilePart & ".pdf"
'Publish document
If (UserSelectedAction = 1) Or (UserSelectedAction = 3) Then
oPDFAddIn.SaveCopyAs(oDocument, oContext, oOptions, oDataMedium)'For PDF's
End If
If (UserSelectedAction = 2) Or (UserSelectedAction = 3) Then
oDocument.SaveAs(oFolder & "\" & oFilePart & ".dxf", True) 'For DXF's
End If
'oDocument.SaveAs(oFolder & "\" & ThisDoc.ChangeExtension(".dxf"), True) 'For DXF's
'------end of iLogic-------
End Sub
Hey man! I’m from Brazil and just need to thank so much.
Good morning ,
This rule is amazing, is saving me a considerably amount of time.
Is there any way to modify the code to save only the profile of the part without the whole title block and dimensions?
Really appreciate your efforts in providing this great code,
Thanks,
Eric
Hi there, terrific piece of code, very helpful, well done
Thanks
Dave
Hello, love this Rule.
However, I’m trying to get the oRevNum to work and have it add this to my filename.
Removing the comment mark of your line for oRevNum, stops the Rule from working (no error message, but it just won’t execute beyond the inputboxes.
If I remove the “oDocument” part in front of iProperties, I only get the revision number of the active document on all other saved documents. Hope you can help me here. Many thanks, Walter
I do not know who you are but you literally saved my life. Thank you very much.
Legendary, thanks for this. I modified it slightly so that it requires me to enter a revision number and only does pdf.
If this helps anyone else, here’s the ilogic code:
Sub Main()
Dim myDate As String = Now().ToString(“yyyy-MM-dd HHmmss”)
myDate = myDate.Replace(“:”,””) ‘ & ” – ” & TypeString
userChoice = InputRadioBox(“Defined the scope”, “This Document”, “All Open Documents”, True, Title := “Defined the scope”)
Revision = InputBox(“Enter Revision”, “Revision Selection”, “0”)
If userChoice Then
Call MakePDFFromDoc(ThisApplication.ActiveDocument, myDate, Revision)
Else
For Each oDoc In ThisApplication.Documents
If oDoc.DocumentType = kDrawingDocumentObject
Try
If Len(oDoc.File.FullFileName)>0 Then
Call MakePDFFromDoc(oDoc, myDate, Revision)
End If
Catch
End Try
End If
Next
End If
End Sub
Sub MakePDFFromDoc(ByRef oDocument As Document, DateString As String, Revision As String)
‘ oPath = oDocument.Path
‘ oFileName = oDocument.FileName(False) ‘without extension
‘oDocument = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
oPDFAddIn = ThisApplication.ApplicationAddIns.ItemById _
(“{0AC6FD96-2F4D-42CE-8BE0-8AEA580399E4}”)
oContext = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateTranslationContext
oContext.Type = IOMechanismEnum.kFileBrowseIOMechanism
oOptions = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateNameValueMap
oDataMedium = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateDataMedium
oFullFileName = oDocument.File.FullFileName
oPath = Left(oFullFileName, InStrRev(oFullFileName, “\”)-1)
oFileName = Right(oFullFileName, Len(oFullFileName)-InStrRev(oFullFileName, “\”))
oFilePart = Left(oFileName, InStrRev(oFileName, “.”)-1)
‘oRevNum = oDocument.iProperties.Value(“Project”, “Revision Number”)
‘oDocument = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
‘ If oPDFAddIn.HasSaveCopyAsOptions(oDataMedium, oContext, oOptions) Then
oOptions.Value(“All_Color_AS_Black”) = 1
oOptions.Value(“Remove_Line_Weights”) = 1
oOptions.Value(“Vector_Resolution”) = 400
oOptions.Value(“Sheet_Range”) = Inventor.PrintRangeEnum.kPrintAllSheets
‘oOptions.Value(“Custom_Begin_Sheet”) = 2
‘oOptions.Value(“Custom_End_Sheet”) = 4
‘ End If
‘get PDF target folder path
‘oFolder = Left(oPath) & “PDF”
oFolder = oPath
‘Check for the PDF folder and create it if it does not exist
If Not System.IO.Directory.Exists(oFolder) Then
System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(oFolder)
End If
‘Set the PDF target file name
oDataMedium.FileName = oFolder & “\” & oFilePart & “-REV” & Revision & “.pdf”
‘Publish document
oPDFAddIn.SaveCopyAs(oDocument, oContext, oOptions, oDataMedium)’For PDF’s
‘oDocument.SaveAs(oFolder & “\” & ThisDoc.ChangeExtension(“.dxf”), True) ‘For DXF’s
‘——end of iLogic——-
End Sub
Nice, we use DWG files for our Inventor drawings, I do not know anything about I-logic, can this code be change to save pdf of open DWG files? Also, I dont need the revision portion either.
tuy
Ey Luke
Awesome rule. Thanks
Can you tell me , how I save as : Inventor dwg(one file and multiplessheets)? diferent that autocad dwg(multiples files)
Thanks for your help
Hi all,
This is great, but would anyone be able to adjust it so it separates out the drawing sheets within a single IDW to separate PDF files, instead of one combined PDF?
Very usefull i-logic, Thanks!
Terrific code!
This is time saving. I´ve been trying to get the Tiltle from the part model to use as a name for the pdf file but I have not succed it, so I have to change it manually. Do you have any ideas how to do that? I tried to modify the code but it just get the Tiltle of the last drawing.
Thank you again!
I tried to alter the rule to create a loop and export all sheets from a drawings file (multi sheet dwg) as an individual pdfs. Unfortunately I could not make it to work. Has anyone done such code?
I also need this. Use the sheet name as the pdf file name.
Awesome!
Can someone modify that sheet 1 will be the PDF only, while sheet 2 will be the dxf only..
Thanks!
Hola quisiera encontrar alguna solucion para recuperar uns pdf que fueron creados desde autocad vovrelos a pasar a dwg. me ayudaria? estoy usando vb .net
Thank You!!!! You saved me soooooo much time. I would have spent days exporting PDF’s and given myself carpel tunnel. Thank you Thank you!!! And the PDF only option was a perfect addition.
Truly a God send. What amazed me was how it automatically selected the correct paper size, letter vs tabloid. Great effort on your part. Thank you.
Thank you so much. This code save me a lot of time!
For the company I am working, we are required to add revision suffix “_r0” for each pdfs while archiving. I’ve tried to modify part the code for the naming section, then revision suffix can be added while run the code.
But I’ve also met a problem, it will only reflect revision in the activate drawing to all the PDFs. Could you please help to take a look at that how to modify the code for?
oDataMedium.FileName = oFolder & “\” & oFilePart & “.pdf”
oDataMedium.FileName = oFolder & “\” & oFilePart & “_r” & iProperties.Value(“Project”, “Revision Number”) & “.pdf”
Hi Lei
Try these lines instead:
docRev = oDocument.PropertySets(“Summary Information”).Item(“Revision Number”).value
oDataMedium.FileName = oFolder & “\” & oFilePart & “_r” & docRev & “.pdf”
That should do the trick
How I could export the pdf or dwg to a desinated folder?