Translating a drawing using the API

shawn_crocker

I have been looking through the glassworks resource and am surprised that I can't find a way to create a translation of a drawing.  Is this really not possible?  My intent is to pull out a drawing into an image format or a pdf.

chadstoltzfus

This endpoint is available under the Drawings tag in the API explorer. 


We used to use this to mass export drawings as pdfs before Onshape introduced the batch export functionality. In the body of the request, just make sure you set the 'formatName' field to the translation format you want to use (a list can be requested using the translationFormats endpoint).

caden_armstrong2

@shawn_crocker
@chadstoltzfus
You can do the translation without needing to create an element and delete it.

If you specify "storeInDocument=false" in the body.
Use the returned translation ID (once its finished translating)
You can use: GET /documents/d/[did]/externaldata/[translationid] 
you can get a stream of the file directly.

chadstoltzfus

This endpoint is available under the Drawings tag in the API explorer. 


We used to use this to mass export drawings as pdfs before Onshape introduced the batch export functionality. In the body of the request, just make sure you set the 'formatName' field to the translation format you want to use (a list can be requested using the translationFormats endpoint).

shawn_crocker

@chadstoltzfus
Thanks.  I kept skipping over that one thinking a GET end point was what I needed.

chadstoltzfus

Oh yeah I forgot to mention, doing this will indeed create a PDF element in your document, which might not always be desired. If you want your application to just "grab a PDF" of the drawing and not have it create any PDFs in your document, you can simulate that behavior by doing the following:

- Use the drawing translation endpoint to create the translation (creates a PDF element in the document the drawing is in)
- Use the blob elements endpoint to get the base64 string of the PDF element in the document
- Decode the base64 and download/export as needed in your application
- Then use the delete element endpoint to remove the PDF element

shawn_crocker

@chadstoltzfus
Thanks again.  I will follow that procedure.  So creating a translation of a released drawing works and the pdf element moves up into the workspace?

chadstoltzfus

That's a great question, I should have mentioned that I don't work with release management because of the way we classify parts so I'm not quite sure. I would imagine based on the URL structure that it would have to work that way because you can use a version in the request, and since versions are immutable it wouldn't be able to create a new element in the referenced version. That's just a guess, though.

caden_armstrong2

@shawn_crocker
@chadstoltzfus
You can do the translation without needing to create an element and delete it.

If you specify "storeInDocument=false" in the body.
Use the returned translation ID (once its finished translating)
You can use: GET /documents/d/[did]/externaldata/[translationid] 
you can get a stream of the file directly.

chadstoltzfus

@caden_armstrong
Oh that's really nice, I'll have to update my app with that. 

shawn_crocker

@caden_armstrong
Thanks for that!

shawn_crocker

caden_armstrong said:

@shawn_crocker
@chadstoltzfus
You can do the translation without needing to create an element and delete it.

If you specify "storeInDocument=false" in the body.
Use the returned translation ID (once its finished translating)
You can use: GET /documents/d/[did]/externaldata/[translationid] 
you can get a stream of the file directly.

Hi @caden_@caden_armstrong
I have finally got the time to dig into getting drawing translations working.  I have successfully got the translation part working.  I have had success with "storeInDocument=true" and with "storeInDocument=false".  When using "false", I can find the "id" in the returned data but I am not able to get a stream of the file.  I get a "Resource does not exist, or you do not have permission to access it.".  I pretty certain this isn't the permission part of the message because using the same credentials, I am interacting with other parts of the API.  Her is the exact endpoint I am forming.

https://cad.onshape.com/api/v5/documents/d/29da4d254bbab3f7b8a7431f/externaldata/636fa71337b6be47af2961fd

I would be grateful for some more of your insights into this.  I also notice, every time I perform a new translation(for the same did/w/wvid/eid), the returned id is the same.  Seems strange to me.

shawn_crocker

I discovered my problem.  I need to call the status of the translation and then use the "resultExternalDataIds" from that call when the status is "DONE"