Finding sketches with GRIP 1

[debc]

I am working on a GRIP program to check models, verify layers, etc. Is there a way thru GRIP to cycle model entities and find sketches. Although UGDOC shows the entity type, it doesn't appear to be valid in INEXTE command. If I can locate sketches, does anyone know a way to check constraints, specifically looking for fixed constraints in the sketch.

 

[looslib]

Sketches are new to at V10 in 1994. GRIP's last significant update in the area of modeling was long before that. There are very few GRIP routines that work with parametric modeling and sketches.
You will find some, like the entity type, but they may be for the V9 UG Concept sketch is is different from the V10+ sketcher. Also, the constraint manager has been replaced at least once since V10, so I doubt there are any GRIP routines to get constraint data.

UG has always said that the parametric and sketch data will not be added to GRIP and that you need to use UG/Open API programs to reada nd manipulate that data.

GRIP has been on its death bed since V16 and with the new VB journaling, it may be on its last breath.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
"Fixed in the next release" should replace "Product First" as the PTC slogan.

Ben Loosli
CAD/CAM System Analyst
Ingersoll-Rand

 

[Shadowspawn]

Ben,
Ok, I'll bite... what's the scoop with VB journaling? Is this more like grip or macros? I've always stayed away from macros for user routines since they have to be redone with every release.

SS

 

[looslib]

From what I have read on the BBS, YES.

It has some program control like GRIP, but is also recorded like a macro.

Since I don't have enything newer than NX1, I don't have the full scoop since VB journaling came out with NX3.



"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."
"Fixed in the next release" should replace "Product First" as the PTC slogan.

Ben Loosli
CAD/CAM System Analyst
Ingersoll-Rand

 

[MSPBenson]

Journaling can be recorder but doesn't have to be.
I record something to see how it's coded in VB.NET and then use the syntax and manipulate it to do what I need.
It has some advantages over grip.
I've used it to replace an old grip routine that used to spawn out to a vb compiled program. I had to do this because we needed a browser window when creating parts.
Using journalling I combined a built in browser window from VB.NET and some other UG journaling functionality.
Also journaling runtime as far as I understand is free whereas you have to pay for a grip runtime license.

Down sides are you can't use journals for user exits unless they are converted to dll's and you require an extra license to complete the process.
I've been writing the code in a simple text editor (but it must be easier in a proper vb.net package) and also used the built in vb.net compiler that comes with winxp or can be got off the net (dotnetfx.exe from microsoft) if you're using win 2000. I don't have the license for signing the dll (a sly thing UGS have added so you can't run your dll's without their dotnet authoring license) so I can't check if the compiling has worked fully.

Also there are gaps in coverage for what you can do in journaling that are in grip. An example of this is importing/exporting parts which has caused me some grief.

On the whole it seems quite good and if the coverage gets better we may be able to stop using grip altogether but for now the lack of functionality means we'll be using both.

Hope that all makes sense,


Mark Benson
CAD Support Engineer