I am trying to automate Navisworks for the first time and my first use is to use a tabular Excel sheet to locate and step through items for Quality Control purposes. There are many other uses I have in my head, but this is the start.

• In .net – getting started I am hoping to do it from Excel (goto xyz coordinate) via VBA – but lets see how far we get
• Ooohh – here is a nice “Getting started” pdf on learning about Navisworks and automation
• Quick Keys
• Ahhh poppycock this is not straightforward – just use AutoIT or AutoHotKey key stroking tool … but wait … OK!!!!! I figured it out … read here (this link added once i got time and a significant amount of research later! – told you it was not straightforward.).
  • The other issue with the AutoIT hotkey is there is a certain sequence of filling in the boxes and auto-triggers the tool to do what we do. The school of hard knocks. Using .net or VBA COM makes Navisworks behave like we expect it to.
• More links found a month later that explain an awful lot I wish I had when I started…

• • An explanation how Navisworks API objects are related (start here)
  • Self-paced Navisworks API Training Labs by Xiaodong Liang (found a month later than the first posting of this article)

Other uses to automate Navisworks coming up

Other uses to automate Navisworks that I have an immediate need for, is to GET xyz locations for (in my case) AutoPLANT components with a comp_id or unique id. Currently, I open up AutoCAD models and extract this info – but Navisworks – we have only one file to open – the large Navisworks file – which ironically comes from the same models we have been opening. The hard part will be learning how to unpack a Navisworks path. I will blog that next and put this sentence into a link once I do.