Grant Soremekun came to me recently with an inquiry about the VB IFC Export.  He had the latest service pack installed his version of DP (SP3 + Hotfix) and couldn’t get the IFC file to generate with the standard export code in Visual Basic.  I had referred the IFC code to him with the comment “Last time I used this, it worked fine,” which is usually the kiss of death in CATIA.  (-;

Code:
Sub CATMain()
Dim Doc As ProductDocument
Set Doc = CATIA.ActiveDocument
Dim prod As Product
Set prod = Doc.Product
Dim objIFCex As IfcExport
Set objIFCex = prod.GetItem("GTCEIFCVBExt")
objIFCex.ExportCurrentDoc "D:\", "Test_ifc_export.ifc"
End Sub

Well, it turns out the latest service pack causes a conflict and produces unstabile or corrupted IFC files, or no file at all.  I verified it myself and it barely committed the log file, with a string stating the issue.  This file did not even generate an extension.

Well naturally I sent in the bug report to GT Support.  As usual (whenever I send in a support request)  it was met without prioritization, but I asked Grant to send in the request too.  Coincidentally, Victor also found the very same bug and reported it the same day.  With three simultaneous requests, Support committed to fixing the export within the next upcoming service pack (SP5) coming out in the next few days.

So it’s good news to us scripters that it’ll be fixed in a few days.  The lesson of the day is:  whenever you need GT Support to do something, make a bunch of fake email accounts and bombard the support page with the same request.

Screen capture of NP's DP script editor for the IFC Export

Screen capture of NP's DP script editor for the IFC Export