PDF Exporter Class

Do you need some journal code to export your drawings as a .pdf file? A quick search on this site will yield this journal. That journal's only purpose in life is to export drawing sheets to a pdf file. It works as advertised, but if exporting a pdf is only a part of your project; incorporating this code can be difficult. To improve usability, I have converted the code to a more programmer friendly, self-contained class. I used this opportunity to clean up the code and add a few new features. The code was tested with NX 7.5, 8, 8.5, and 9.

Properties and Methods

Usage Examples

The examples shown below omit the class code for clarity, they are only to demonstrate how to call the properties and methods of the class. For full examples that can be run as journals, download the zip file. The zip file contains the full examples and also the class code as an independent file for those of you who want to include it as part of your own compiled project. If you intend to run your code as a journal, you will need to copy and paste the class code into your journal file (see the example code in the zip file). One of the limitations of journal files is that all the code must be in the one journal file; including other classes works, but it can make for a large journal file when you are done.

Bare minimum

The following example takes advantage of many of the class' default values to keep the code concise.

Option Strict Off
Imports System
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Windows.Forms
Imports NXOpen
Imports NXOpen.UF

Module NXJournal

Sub Main()

Dim theSession As Session = Session.GetSession

If IsNothing(theSession.Parts.Display) Then
MessageBox.Show("Active Part Required", "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)
Return
End If

Dim workPart As Part = theSession.Parts.Work

Dim myPdfExporter As New NXJ_PdfExporter
myPdfExporter.Part = workPart

Try
myPdfExporter.Commit()
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show("Error:" & ControlChars.CrLf & ex.GetType.ToString & " : " & ex.Message, "PDF export error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)

Finally
myPdfExporter = Nothing
End Try

End Sub

End Module

'### Class code omitted for brevity

Interactive Version

The following version uses the interactive options to prompt the user for values such as output folder, watermark text, etc.

Option Strict Off
Imports System
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Windows.Forms
Imports NXOpen
Imports NXOpen.UF

Module NXJournal

Sub Main()

Dim theSession As Session = Session.GetSession

If IsNothing(theSession.Parts.Display) Then
MessageBox.Show("Active Part Required", "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)
Return
End If

Dim workPart As Part = theSession.Parts.Work

Dim myPdfExporter As New NXJ_PdfExporter
myPdfExporter.Part = workPart

'$ prompt user for output folder
myPdfExporter.PickExportFolder()

'$ preliminary print?
myPdfExporter.PromptPreliminaryPrint()

'$ desired watermark text (if preliminary print)
myPdfExporter.PromptWatermarkText()
myPdfExporter.WatermarkAddDatestamp = True

'$ show confirmation dialog box on completion
myPdfExporter.ShowConfirmationDialog = True

Try
myPdfExporter.Commit()
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show("Error:" & ControlChars.CrLf & ex.GetType.ToString & " : " & ex.Message, "PDF export error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)

Finally
myPdfExporter = Nothing
End Try

End Sub

End Module

'### Class code omitted for brevity

Set options programmatically

If you want options other than the default values and do not want to prompt the user for input, you can set the values in code like in the following example.

Option Strict Off
Imports System
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Windows.Forms
Imports NXOpen
Imports NXOpen.UF

Module NXJournal

Sub Main()

Dim theSession As Session = Session.GetSession

If IsNothing(theSession.Parts.Display) Then
MessageBox.Show("Active Part Required", "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)
Return
End If

Dim workPart As Part = theSession.Parts.Work

Dim myPdfExporter As New NXJ_PdfExporter
myPdfExporter.Part = workPart

'$ set output folder
myPdfExporter.OutputFolder = "C:\temp"

'$ set desired watermark text
myPdfExporter.UseWatermark = True
myPdfExporter.WatermarkText = "PREPRODUCTION DRAWING"
myPdfExporter.WatermarkAddDatestamp = True

'$ show confirmation dialog box on completion
myPdfExporter.ShowConfirmationDialog = True

Try
myPdfExporter.Commit()
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show("Error:" & ControlChars.CrLf & ex.GetType.ToString & " : " & ex.Message, "PDF export error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)

Finally
myPdfExporter = Nothing
End Try

End Sub

End Module

'### Class code omitted for brevity

Code Download

Click the link below to download a zip file containing the class file and example journal code.


PDF Exporter Class

Conclusion

Hopefully, this class will provide an easy way to export pdf files from your own code. If you find any bugs or have ideas for features to add, please leave them in the comments below or email me: info@nxjournaling.com.