Add ability to update Material of part, but keep the face style the same -- ON HOLD

[KGeetings]

We often have parts that we "color" with the material face style so that we know what to paint it. It would be amazing if we could update the material data, except keep the non-updated face style that we override.

[rmcanany]

Which command are you using to update the material? The two I can think of, Update material from material table and Edit properties, both have the option Remove face style overrides. If that option is disabled, it is supposed to do what you want.

[KGeetings]

I tried using the Update material from material table with Remove face style overrides unchecked, but the face style color was changed back to the default (black). I do also want to be clear, I am not using the "part painter" in Solid Edge to change the face colors, I'm changing the face style in the material table settings here (this blue face style got reverted to black, with remove face style overrides unchecked"):

[KGeetings]

Is it possible that even though this setting was unchecked, that because my material bend radius was out of date, that it just updated everything anyway?

[KGeetings]

Interestingly, when I attempted to use edit properties with Remove face style overrides unchecked then the face style stays the same. So it appears that maybe only the one command Update material from material table does not work?

[KGeetings]

What's even more interesting, now that I look at the code between these two tasks, it seems as if they should both be calling the same exact UpdateMaterialFromMaterialTable(). So not entirely sure why one would remove the face style and the other wouldn't.

[rmcanany]

Man, you got me. I'll look at it tomorrow.

[rmcanany]

I think I see what's going wrong. I'm checking body, feature, and face FaceStyles, but not the MechanicalModeling.FaceStyle property. The latter is the one that changes if the override comes from the Material Table like you describe. I need to see if there's a way to deal with it using the Material Table API. Changing the property name only is not enough.

Regarding it working with Edit Properties, the material update functionality only kicks in if %{System.Material} is changed. Is it possible that your test did not change material?

[rmcanany]

@KGeetings

I may have it working. There's a new option, Update face styles, which you would disable for your use case. If you get a chance to try it, please let me know how it goes.

[KGeetings]

Trying this crashed my Solid Edge and produced the following error:

Error processing file
        System.Exception: An unhandled exception has occurred. See inner exception for details. ---> System.Reflection.TargetException: Object does not match target type.
   at System.RuntimeType.InvokeDispMethod(String name, BindingFlags invokeAttr, Object target, Object[] args, Boolean[] byrefModifiers, Int32 culture, String[] namedParameters)
   at System.RuntimeType.InvokeMember(String name, BindingFlags bindingFlags, Binder binder, Object target, Object[] providedArgs, ParameterModifier[] modifiers, CultureInfo culture, String[] namedParams)
   at System.RuntimeType.ForwardCallToInvokeMember(String memberName, BindingFlags flags, Object target, Int32[] aWrapperTypes, MessageData& msgData)
   at SolidEdgeFramework.SolidEdgeDocument.get_Type()
   at Housekeeper.UtilsCommon.GetDocType(SolidEdgeDocument SEDoc) in C:\Users\Kenyon\Documents\GitHub\SolidEdgeHousekeeper\My Project\UtilsCommon.vb:line 160
   at Housekeeper.TaskUpdateFlatPattern.ProcessInternal(SolidEdgeDocument SEDoc, Dictionary`2 Configuration, Application SEApp) in C:\Users\Kenyon\Documents\GitHub\SolidEdgeHousekeeper\My Project\TaskUpdateFlatPattern.vb:line 70
   at Housekeeper.HCIsolatedTaskProxy._Closure$__12-0`4._Lambda$__0() in C:\Users\Kenyon\Documents\GitHub\SolidEdgeHousekeeper\My Project\HCIsolatedTaskProxy.vb:line 196
   --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
   at Housekeeper.HCIsolatedTaskProxy.InvokeSTAThread[TArg1,TArg2,TArg3,TResult](Func`4 target, TArg1 arg1, TArg2 arg2, TArg3 arg3) in C:\Users\Kenyon\Documents\GitHub\SolidEdgeHousekeeper\My Project\HCIsolatedTaskProxy.vb:line 207
   at Housekeeper.TaskUpdateFlatPattern.Process(SolidEdgeDocument SEDoc, Dictionary`2 Configuration, Application SEApp) in C:\Users\Kenyon\Documents\GitHub\SolidEdgeHousekeeper\My Project\TaskUpdateFlatPattern.vb:line 37
   at Housekeeper.UtilsExecute.ProcessFile(String Path, String Filetype) in C:\Users\Kenyon\Documents\GitHub\SolidEdgeHousekeeper\My Project\UtilsExecute.vb:line 497

[KGeetings]

I think I see what's going wrong. I'm checking body, feature, and face FaceStyles, but not the MechanicalModeling.FaceStyle property. The latter is the one that changes if the override comes from the Material Table like you describe. I need to see if there's a way to deal with it using the Material Table API. Changing the property name only is not enough.

Regarding it working with Edit Properties, the material update functionality only kicks in if %{System.Material} is changed. Is it possible that your test did not change material?

Regarding your question here. Yes, that is exactly what happened there. My test did not change the material, only the thickness, bend radius, and face style.

[rmcanany]

I just pushed a new commit -- Solid Edge was taking a long time to Quit(). I added a bunch of .DoIdle commands where I am interacting with the material table.

Not sure it's related, but could you please give it a try?

[KGeetings]

Still getting the exact same error as above, even with the new commit.

[rmcanany]

OK. I think somehow the Application is getting hosed in TaskUpdateMaterialFromMaterialTable. If you run TaskUpdateFlatPattern alone, do you still the problem?

[KGeetings]

This issue does not happen when running TaskUpdateFlatPattern alone, everything looks good when doing just that task. Interestingly, after running just that task, and then only running the "TaskUpdateMaterialFromMaterialTable" task, I now get a different error

116.psm in C:\Users\Kenyon\Desktop\Test\SE Files v2
    Error processing file
        System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x800706BA): The RPC server is unavailable. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x800706BA)
   at System.RuntimeType.ForwardCallToInvokeMember(String memberName, BindingFlags flags, Object target, Int32[] aWrapperTypes, MessageData& msgData)
   at SolidEdgeFramework.SolidEdgeDocument.Close(Object SaveChanges, Object Filename, Object RouteWorkbook)
   at Housekeeper.UtilsExecute.ProcessFile(String Path, String Filetype) in C:\Users\Kenyon\Documents\GitHub\SolidEdgeHousekeeper\My Project\UtilsExecute.vb:line 523

[rmcanany]

I'm pretty sure the RPC server is the Solid Edge Application. If you have time, maybe you could look over UtilsMaterials, lines 172-199. You might spot something I'm doing wrong.