SDK question - getting entities from database

[CaKiwi]

I am having trouble using the SDK to get entities from the database and I can't find any sample code. This is what I am trying.

 

boolean succf;

DB_LIST_ENT_PTR ptr, found_ptr;

ent entity;

ushort sel_mask;

ulong ent_mask;

 

sel_mask = 0x2ff;

ent_mask = 0xffff;

ptr = db_start;

get_ent (&ptr, &found_ptr, &entity, sel_mask, ent_mask, &succf);

 

I have tried setting the selection mask and entity mask to different values but without any success. What I want to do eventually is go through the database and retrieve all invisible notes on a particular layer. I also want to be able to store notes in the database. Can anyone help me with thus or point me to some sample code?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

CaKiwi

[Bullines]

quote:

---

What I want to do eventually is go through the database and retrieve all invisible notes on a particular layer.

---

code:

---

boolean succf;

DB_LIST_ENT_PTR ptr, found_ptr;

ent entity;

ushort sel_mask;

ulong ent_mask;

int iLevelYouWant = 22; // for instance

 

 

for ( ; ; )

{

get_ent(&ptr, &found_ptr, &entity, BLANK_BIT, N_ID, &succf);

 

if (!succf) break;

 

if (entity.level == iLevelYouWant)

{

// Here's a blanked note on level 22

// Now the fun begins

}

}

---

HTH

[CaKiwi]

Bullines: Thanks for the rapid response, but I can't get your code to work. If I don't initialize the variable ptr to something, I get a fatal error. I was initializing it to db_start, which did not give me a fatal error but always returned a null ptr and the succf argument was always false.

[Bullines]

quote:

---

If I don't initialize the variable ptr to something, I get a fatal error.

---

Is it better if you init both the db pointer and found pointer to the beginning of the db?

 

code:

---

// init

ptr = db_start;

found_ptr = db_start;

 

for ( ; ; )

{

get_ent(&ptr, &found_ptr, &entity, BLANK_BIT, N_ID, &succf);

 

if (!succf) break;

 

if (entity.level == iLevelYouWant)

{

// Here's a blanked note on level 22

// Now the fun begins

}

}

---

quote:

---

succf argument was always false

---

Just to be sure, there are entities in the currently opened file?

[CaKiwi]

Initializing just ptr to db_start ( and setting the masks so there was something to find) fixed the problem. Thanks a lot for your help. Have a virtual beer on me.

 

I still need to save a note in the database and I would greatly appreciate any help you could give me on that.

 

Thanks again.

 

CaKiwi

[CaKiwi]

One more thing, now that I have the note in the entity structure, where do I find its text?

[Bullines]

quote:

---

One more thing, now that I have the note in the entity structure, where do I find its text?

---

code:

---

ulong mtid;

char *szText;

char *szNoteText;

int iTextLen;

 

 

strcpy(szText, "Mastercam Notes are fun!!!");

iTextLen = strlen(szText) + 1;

szNoteText = (char *) mTableAlloc(iTextLen, &mtid); // allocate table item

your_label_ent.u.n.mtid = mtid; // assign memory table

strcpy(szNoteText, szTExt); // copy string

---

Then when you call store_ent(), your text will be stored with the note.

 

HTH

[CaKiwi]

Am I misunderstanding something or is your code storing text in a note? I have a note and I want to find out what text it contains. Does the mtid field contain an index into some text storage?

 

Thanks again for the quick response.

 

CaKiwi

[Bullines]

Oh, you want to get the text of an existing note. My bad

 

Instead of mTableAlloc(), you'll want to use mTableFindData() to to get the data that's pointed to in the memory table by the mtid of the current note (Ex: your_note_ent.u.n.mtid).

[CaKiwi]

Thanks, that worked great!

 

I do also want to create a new note, which your previous post helps with. Is there some way to initialize the fields in the entity structure to sensible default values without having to set each field individually? Does store_ent() create a new entity or just update an old one?

 

CaKiwi

[Bullines]

quote:

---

Is there some way to initialize the fields in the entity structure to sensible default values without having to set each field individually?

---

InitNOTE() should help.

 

quote:

---

Does store_ent() create a new entity or just update an old one?

---

store_ent() creates a new entitiy. You'd use rewrite_ent() to modify an existing one.

[CaKiwi]

I'm getting REALLY close. I am able to create a note and read it back, but if I blank it either by using delete_ent() as in the code below (is this the correct way to do it?) or manually in MC my call to get_ent() doesn't find anything. Any thoughts?

 

code:

---

...

store_ent (&entity, &ptr, 0, 0, 3987, new_attrib, &succf);

 

if (succf)

{

delete_ent(ptr, 1, 1, 0, &succf, 0);

}

 

sel_mask = BLANK_BIT;

ent_mask = N_ID;

ptr = db_start;

get_ent (&ptr, &found_ptr, &entity, sel_mask, ent_mask, &succf);

while (succf)

{

// handle note

cptr = (char *) mTableFindData (entity.u.n.mtid);

get_ent (&ptr, &found_ptr, &entity, sel_mask, ent_mask, &succf);

}

---

Thanks a lot for your help.

 

CaKiwi

[CaKiwi]

I haven't been able make get_ent() retrieve blanked entities. I tried get_raw_ent() with the chkvis argument set to false and this is working fine, retrieving both blanked and visible entities. So my next question is, how do I find out if an entity that I have retrieved is visible or blanked.

 

Thanks

 

CaKiwi

[CaKiwi]

I've found that passing a sel_mask set to BLANKED_BIT to get_raw_ent() retrieves only blanked entities. Also, I noticed that the documentation says the get_ent() only retrieves visible entities, which I suppose explains why it returns no entities if the sel_mask is set to BLANKED_BIT.

 

I seem to have run out of questions, at least temporarily. Thanks again for all the help.

 

CaKiwi

[Roger Martin from CNC Software]

CaKiwi,

 

Are you talking to yourself?

You do know that programming with the SDK has that effect on people...

 

But seriously, it looks like you're getting it!