How to get associative point coordinates

Submitted by les-paul on Fri, 10/09/2015 - 00:56
Forums: 
Journaling / NXOpen API

Hey guys,

I have a Problem. I have a sketch of a mechanism, which is mooving by changing an Expression (From 0-360°). I succesfully programmed a vb file which is changing the Expression the way I want. The sketch contains also a Point ( as Center of mass) This Point is moving as well. I want to project this Point on a seperate Datum plane after every change of the Expression, to get the mooving curve of this Point.

Is there a way to read out the koordinates of this Point for every iteration? How can i identify the Point-id? is there a command which works like " read out the koordinates of Point XX)

Thank you very much!

Daniel

NXJournaling - Fri, 10/09/2015 - 05:44

I'd suggest that you give the point a custom name; doing so will make it easier to identify later in your journal code. Once you have a reference to the point object, you can use the .Coordinates property to read the point coordinates.

les-paul - Fri, 10/09/2015 - 06:24

Thank you very much. Can you tell my how i can do that? Would it be Helpful to pot the recorded Journal Code?

NXJournaling - Fri, 10/09/2015 - 11:42

To name a point, right click on the point object in the NX file and choose "properties". On the properties dialog, change to the "General" tab; enter a name in the entry box. If you have chosen a point feature, you may see both a "name" entry and a "feature name" entry; in this case, use the "name" entry and ignore the "feature name". For illustration, let's say you name the point "TEST"; OK the dialog to close it. The code below will cycle through the points in the work part and report if it finds one named "TEST".

Option Strict Off
Imports System
Imports NXOpen

Module FindPoint

Sub Main()

Dim theSession As Session = Session.GetSession()
Dim theUfSession As UF.UFSession = UF.UFSession.GetUFSession
If IsNothing(theSession.Parts.Work) Then
'active part required
Return
End If

Dim workPart As Part = theSession.Parts.Work
Dim lw As ListingWindow = theSession.ListingWindow
lw.Open()

Dim thePoint As Point
Const nameToFind As String = "TEST"
Dim found As Boolean = False

For Each pt As Point In workPart.Points
If pt.Name = nameToFind Then
thePoint = pt
found = True
'stop looping after the point is found
Exit For
End If
Next

If found Then
lw.WriteLine("point named: " & nameToFind & " was found, coordinates: " & thePoint.Coordinates.ToString)
Else
lw.WriteLine("no point named: " & nameToFind & " was found")
End If

lw.Close()

End Sub

Public Function GetUnloadOption(ByVal dummy As String) As Integer

'Unloads the image immediately after execution within NX
GetUnloadOption = NXOpen.Session.LibraryUnloadOption.Immediately

End Function

End Module

To use a different name for the point, right click on the point and enter a new name. Update the journal code to look for the new name.

les-paul - Tue, 10/13/2015 - 00:43

Hello, I Think I got it. Here is a part of my code. It works the way I want to.


Dim GSP As Point
Const nameToFind As String = "Gesamtschwerpunkt"
Dim found As Boolean = False

For Each pt As Point In workPart.Points
If pt.Name = nameToFind Then
GSP = pt
found = True
'stop looping after the point is found
Exit For
End If
Next

If found Then
'lw.WriteLine("point named: " & nameToFind & " was found, coordinates: " & thePoint.Coordinates.X.ToString)
Else
' lw.WriteLine("no point named: " & nameToFind & " was found")
End If

'lw.WriteLine("point named: " & nameToFind & " was found, coordinates: " & thePoint.Coordinates.tostring)
'lw.Close()

'Koordinaten des gefundenen Punkts auslesen

Dim GSPX as double
dim GSPY as double
Dim GSPZ as double

GSPX= "100"
GSPY=GSP.coordinates.y.tostring
GSPZ=GSP.coordinates.z.tostring

'lw.WriteLine(" Haben wir Y? " & GSPZ)
'lw.Close()

'Point3d mit gefunden Koordinaten erstellen

dim GSP3D as point3d= new point3d (GSPX, GSPY, GSPZ)

'Point mit Gefundenen Koordinaten erstellen, warum auch immer?

dim GSP2D as point

GSP2D = workPart.Points.CreatePoint(GSP3D)
GSP2D.SetVisibility(SmartObject.VisibilityOption.Visible)

But it works just for the case the Point "Gesamtschwerpunkt" is a Point inside a sketch. How can I get this working if "Gesamtschwerpunkt" is a Point3d?

Thanks a alot

NXJournaling - Wed, 10/14/2015 - 07:58

I've tried your code and it works for me whether the point is in a sketch or not. If you have multiple point objects with the same name, the code above will only process the first one that it finds. If you want it to process all of the points with a given name, the code will need to be modified.

les-paul - Mon, 10/19/2015 - 04:42

hello,
when the searched pointname is changed from a Point in a sketch to a Point in the room, the following message appears:

System.NullReferenceException: Der Objektverweis wurde nicht auf eine Objektinstanz festgelegt.

In english I would translate it as "The Object reference is not connected to an object entity"
Furthermor the line with the following Conde is mentioned as error Location

GSPX=GSP.coordinates.x.tostring

NXJournaling - Mon, 10/19/2015 - 05:25

Based on the error message, I'd guess that the point object was not found by your code. Check to make sure that the name of the point object and the name in the journal code match exactly - if they do not match exactly, the point will not be found. Also note that the code operates on the work part. Make sure that the part you want to search is the work part (or change the journal code accordingly).

The code example that I posted uses a boolean variable named "found" that gets set to "True" when the point is found. You can use this variable to see if the For loop found the point object or not. The rest of your code can take action accordingly.