SOLIDWORKS C# API - Browse/Open SOLIDWORKS Document

5 minute read

OBJECTIVE

I want to:

  • Browse and Open an SOLIDWORKS Document using

    • SOLIDWORKS C# API
    • Syncfusion WPF UI Controls
    • WPF Prism MVVM Framework

RESULT WE GET

Below image shows the result we get.

browse-and-open-solidworks-file

To get the correct result, please follow the steps correctly.

DEMO VIDEO

Please see below video on how to “Browse and Open SOLIDWORKS Document” using SOLIDWORKS C# API from Desktop Application.


Please note that there are no explanation in the video.

Explanation of each step and why we write code this way is given in this post.

CREATE A NEW PRISM PROJECT

Create a new Prism project as shown below 👇🏻.

create-open-solidworks-document-project

create-new-project

BUILD SOLUTION

After we create our “BrowseAndOpenSolidworksDocument” project, we need to select “Build Solution” option as shown in below image.

build-solution

  1. Select “Build” Option from application “Menu”.
  2. Select “Build Solution” option.

WHY WE BUILD SOLUTION ?

We build our solution because we want to make sure everything is working and there are no broken references.

Below image show MainWindow.xaml file before building solution.

before-build-solution

Below image show MainWindow.xaml file after building solution.

after-build-solution

ADD NUGET PACKAGES

Now we need to add following NuGet packages:

  • Syncfusion.Tools.WPF
  • Syncfusion.Shared.WPF
  • Syncfusion.SfSkinManager.WPF
  • Syncfusion.Themes.FluentLight.WPF
  • Syncfusion.UI.WPF.NET

Steps to Add NuGet packages:

  • Open NuGet Package Manager by 1) Right Click on “Dependencies” then 2) Select highlighted option as shown in below image.

6.open-nuget-package-manager.png

  • A new screen open as shown below.

7.pachage-manager-screen

  • Search and Add “Syncfusion.Tools.WPF” package as shown below.

8.add-Syncfusion.Tools.WPF

  • In similar way, we add remaining packages. List of added Nuget Packages are shown below.

9.list-of-nuget-packages

ADD USER INTERFACE CONTROLS

Below we add some UI control for user interaction.

UPDATE WINDOW START-UP LOCATION AND HEIGHT/WIDTH

In below image, we update ‘Start-up location’ and ‘Width & Height’ of our window.

update-window-startup-location-width-height

First we update Start-up location of window by adding following line.

WindowStartupLocation="CenterScreen"

After this, we update window’s Height and Width to following values.

Height="250" Width="500"

REMOVE CONTENT CONTROL

Now we will do:

  • Add below 👇🏻 Syncfusion namespaces to our window.

xmlns:syncfusion="http://schemas.syncfusion.com/wpf"

syncfusion:SfSkinManager.Theme="{syncfusion:SkinManagerExtension ThemeName=FluentLight}"

10.adding-namespaces-xaml

  • In below image we remove ContentControl Tag in Grid. Also, we change Grid to SfBusyIndicator from Syncfusion library for helding our UI Controls.

remove-grid-add-busy-indicator

UPDATE BUSY INDICATOR

Now, we update properties of Busy Indicator as shown below.

<syncfusion:SfBusyIndicator IsBusy="{Binding ShowIndicator,Mode=TwoWay,UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged}"
                            Header="Loading..."
                            AnimationType="Gear">

</syncfusion:SfBusyIndicator>

11.update-busy-indicator-properties

ADD GRID TO HOLD CONTROLS

In below image, we add Grid to hold our UI controls.

12.add-grid-control

Grid with Row and Column definition is given below.

<Grid>
    <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <ColumnDefinition Width="15" />
        <ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
        <ColumnDefinition Width="15" />
        <ColumnDefinition Width="Auto" />
        <ColumnDefinition Width="15" />
    </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

    <Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <RowDefinition Height="15" />
        <RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
        <RowDefinition Height="15" />
        <RowDefinition Height="*" />
        <RowDefinition Height="15" />
    </Grid.RowDefinitions>
    
</Grid>

ADD TEXTBOX FOR FILE PATH

In below image we add syncfusion:SfTextBoxExt inside Grid for showing selected document file path.

13.add-textbox-with-properties

syncfusion:SfTextBoxExt with Text and other properties are given below.

<syncfusion:SfTextBoxExt Grid.Row="1" 
                         Grid.Column="1" 
                         TextWrapping="WrapWithOverflow"
                         TextAlignment="Center"
                         Text="{Binding FilePath, Mode=TwoWay}">
</syncfusion:SfTextBoxExt>

ADD COMBOBOX FOR DOCUMENTS LIST

In below image we add ComboBox inside StackPanel for holding our list of SOLIDWORKS documents.

add-documents-combobox

ComboBox with set properties are given below.

<ComboBox Width="350"
          Height="30"
          Margin="10"
          VerticalAlignment="Center"
          FontSize="16" />

ADD BUTTON FOR SELECTED DOCUMENT

In below image we add Button to open selected SOLIDWORKS document.

add-button-for-solidworks-document

Button with Content and other properties are given below.

<Button Width="350"
        Height="50"
        FontSize="18"
        FontWeight="Medium"
        Content="Open Solidworks" />

UPDATE VIEWMODEL

Now, we update our MainWindowViewModel viewmodel, for showing data and adding functionalities.

ADD DOCUMENTS LIST

In below image we a list of SOLIDWORKS document in MainWindowViewModel.

add-document-list-to-viewmodel

For this we use below code.

private ObservableCollection<string> _DocumentsList;
public ObservableCollection<string> DocumentsList
{
    get { return _DocumentsList; }
    set { SetProperty(ref _DocumentsList, value); }
}

In above code, _DocumentsList is private member of our MainWindowViewModel class, whose value we set in the Constructor of MainWindowViewModel class.

DocumentsList will use for Binding document list to our ComboBox as ItemSource.

Here we use ObservableCollection<T> because of MVVM.

For more details please visit this link.

public MainWindowViewModel()
{
    _DocumentsList = new ObservableCollection<string>
    {
        "Part Document",
        "Assembly Document",
        "Drawing Document"
    };
}

In above code, we add SOLIDWORKS documents into our _DocumentsList list.

BINDING DOCUMENT LIST TO COMBOBOX

In below image we Bind our document list i.e. DocumentsList to ComboBox as ItemSource.

binding-document-list

For Binding DocumentsList we add following line.

ItemsSource="{Binding DocumentsList}"

After this update our ComboBox looks like as:

<ComboBox Width="350"
          Height="30"
          Margin="10"
          VerticalAlignment="Center"
          FontSize="16" 
          ItemsSource="{Binding DocumentsList}"/>

When we Run our code, we get following window.

comboBox-list-window

As I have mentioned in above image, if there are no item selected, we will get error when we click “Open Solidworks” button.

To avoid this error we define SelectedIndex property of ComboBox to 0.

After this update our ComboBox looks like as:

<ComboBox Width="350"
          Height="30"
          Margin="10"
          VerticalAlignment="Center"
          FontSize="16" 
          SelectedIndex="0"
          ItemsSource="{Binding DocumentsList}"/>

When we Run our code, we get following window.

part-document-selected-in-list

ADD SELECTED VALUE IN COMBOBOX

In our program, we want to open selected SOLIDWORKS Document.

To get the selected value, we need a property i.e. SelectedDocument in our MainWindowViewModel ViewModel and bind this property to SelectValue property of ComboBox.

For more details please see below image.

selectedvalue-binding

ADD COMMAND TO VIEWMODEL

In our application to open selected SOLIDWORKS document, we need add a Command to our button.

For this we need to do following:

  • We need to create a Prism Command i.e. OpenSolidworksCommand in MainWindowViewModel ViewModel.

  • Bind this OpenSolidworksCommand to our button.

In below we see how to do this, also we checked the selected value.

add-command-to-button

ADD SOLIDWORKS REFERENCES

For opening SOLIDWORKS we need to add some references into our project.

Please see below image for how to add SOLIDWORKS reference.

add-solidworks-references

OPEN SOLIDWORKS DOCUMENT

Now for opening SOLIDWORKS Document we need to add following code as shown in below image.

void ExecuteOpenSolidworksCommand()
{
    // Create a new Instance of Solidworks Application
    SldWorks.SldWorks swApp = new SldWorks.SldWorks();

    // Make Solidworks visible
    swApp.Visible = true;

    // Variable to hold selected document's template path
    string templatePath = string.Empty;

    // Switch Conditional Statement
    switch (SelectedDocument)
    {
        case "Part Document":
            // Get default Part template path
            templatePath = swApp.GetUserPreferenceStringValue((int)SwConst.swUserPreferenceStringValue_e.swDefaultTemplatePart);
            break;
        case "Assembly Document":
            // Get default Assembly template path
            templatePath = swApp.GetUserPreferenceStringValue((int)SwConst.swUserPreferenceStringValue_e.swDefaultTemplateAssembly);
            break;
        case "Drawing Document":
            // Get default Drawing template path
            templatePath = swApp.GetUserPreferenceStringValue((int)SwConst.swUserPreferenceStringValue_e.swDefaultTemplateDrawing);
            break;
    }

    // Create a new Document as ModelDoc2 object
    SldWorks.ModelDoc2 swDoc = swApp.NewDocument(templatePath, 0, 0, 0);
}

add-open-solidworks-document-code

FINAL RESULT

Now, we have done everything needed to Open SOLIDWORKS Document through our application.

Please see below image for final result of our work.

final-result

This is it !!!

I hope my efforts will helpful to someone!

If you found anything to add or update, please let me know on my e-mail.

Hope this post helps you to Open SOLIDWORKS Documents from WPF PRISM Application.

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Do let me know by you like this post or not!

Till then, Happy learning!!!

Updated: