Solid Edge Housekeeper External Programs

2024 Robert McAnany

Description and examples for Solid Edge Housekeeper's Run External Program task.

The external program is a Console App that works on a single Solid Edge file. Housekeeper serves up files one at a time for processing.

Requirements

To work with Housekeeper's error reporting, the program should return an integer exit code, with 0 meaning success. Anything else indicates an error. If an exit code is not issued, Housekeeper assumes success.

In order to return an exit code, the declaration for Main() should be: Function Main() As Integer. The usual declaration, Sub Main(), does not return a value.

You can provide feedback to the user through Housekeeper's error reporting mechanism. See details on how to do so in the example programs CompareFlatAndModelVolumes and ChangeToInchAndSaveAsFlatDXF.vbs for examples for VB.NET and VBScript, respectively.

If the ExitCode is not 0, and your program does not implement error reporting, Housekeeper simply lists the exit code.

Housekeeper launches the program as follows:

Dim P As New Process
Dim ExitCode As Integer
Extension = IO.Path.GetExtension(Me.ExternalProgram)

If Extension = ".ps1" Then
    P.StartInfo.FileName = "powershell.exe"
    P.StartInfo.Arguments = String.Format("-command {1}{0}{1}", Me.ExternalProgram, Chr(34))
    P.Start()
Else
    P = Diagnostics.Process.Start(Me.ExternalProgram)
End If

P.WaitForExit()
ExitCode = P.ExitCode

No arguments are passed to the program. If you need to get a value from Housekeeper, such as a template file location, you can use the function GetSettings() as shown in FitIsoView. The function parses the form_main_settings.json file passed into the macro's startup directory. The file is updated just before processing is launched. It should always reflect the current status of the form.

Housekeeper maintains a reference to the file being processed. If that reference is broken, an exception will occur. To avoid that, do not perform Close() or SaveAs() (SaveCopyAs() is OK) on the document.

No assumptions are made about what the external program does. If you change a file and want to save it, that needs to be in the program. If you open another file, you need to close it. One exception is that Housekeeper has a global option to save the file after processing. It is set on the Configuration tab.

Other repos and sources for macros

Sample programs may be the easiest way to get started automating Solid Edge yourself. Here are a few sites to check out:

Jason Newell SolidEdgeCommunity

Tushar Suradkar SurfAndCode

Jason Titcomb LMGiJason

Wolfgang Hackl Cadcam-Consult

Kabir Costa KabirCosta

Alan Pope Cadcentral NZ

UK Dave uk-dave

Francesco Arfilli farfilli

Chris Clems ChrisClems

NosyBottle NosyBottle

ZaPpInG lrmoreno007

To suggest other sources, including your own, feel free to message me, RobertMcAnany, on the Solid Edge Forum.

If you're looking for someone to create a program for you, I know a couple of folks who do it for a living. Message me on the Forum and I'll pass along the request.

Releases

Most developers will want the source code, however compiled versions are available here.