There is a lot of build-in ThumbnailProviders inside every installed OS. Due to these providers Windows is able to show Thumbnail of many files. For example Windows Explorer can show content of *.jpg files, but from Solidworks *.sldprt files too (If SolidWorks is installed).
But is there any way to get these thumbnails? I´ve tried to manage this using Windows API CodecPack, but I succeeded only on Windows 7.
ShellFile shellFile = ShellFile.FromFilePath(filePath);
Bitmap shellThumb = shellFile.Thumbnail.Bitmap;
Question is: is there any other usable way to get Thumbnail of any file with registered Thumbnail provider on Windows XP/Vista? I´m really desperate...
There are several ways:
1) With library OpenMCDF.
Solidworks file is Compound document so access to its content - is parsing the file.
OpenFileDialog dialog = new OpenFileDialog();
dialog.InitialDirectory = Application.StartupPath;
if (dialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
string STORAGE_NAME = dialog.FileName.ToString();
CompoundFile cf = new CompoundFile(STORAGE_NAME);
CFStream st = cf.RootStorage.GetStream("PreviewPNG");
byte[] buffer = st.GetData();
var ms = new MemoryStream(buffer.ToArray());
pictureBox1.Image = Image.FromStream(ms);
}
2) With library EModelView.dll to be added as a control and placed to the Form.
OpenFileDialog dialog = new OpenFileDialog();
if (dialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
axEModelViewControl1.OpenDoc(dialog.FileName.ToString(), false, false, true, "");
}
3) With SWExplorer library (wpfPreviewFlowControl)
OpenFileDialog dialog = new OpenFileDialog();
if (dialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
string sDocFileName = dialog.FileName.ToString();
wpfThumbnailCreator pvf;
pvf = new wpfThumbnailCreator();
System.Drawing.Size size = new Size();
size.Width = 200;
size.Height = 200;
pvf.DesiredSize = size;
System.Drawing.Bitmap pic = pvf.GetThumbNail(sDocFileName);
pictureBox1.Image = pic;
}
3) With library Document Manager (SolidWorks.Interop.swdocumentmgr)
OpenFileDialog dialog = new OpenFileDialog();
if (dialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
string sDocFileName = dialog.FileName.ToString();
SwDMClassFactory swClassFact = default(SwDMClassFactory);
SwDMApplication swDocMgr = default(SwDMApplication);
SwDMDocument swDoc = default(SwDMDocument);
SwDMConfigurationMgr swCfgMgr = default(SwDMConfigurationMgr);
string[] vCfgNameArr = null;
SwDMConfiguration7 swCfg = default(SwDMConfiguration7);
IPictureDisp pPreview = default(IPictureDisp);
SwDmDocumentType nDocType = 0;
SwDmDocumentOpenError nRetVal = 0;
SwDmPreviewError nRetVal2 = 0;
Image image = default(Image);
//Access to interface
swClassFact = new SwDMClassFactory();
swDocMgr = (SwDMApplication)swClassFact.GetApplication("Post your code here");
swDoc = (SwDMDocument)swDocMgr.GetDocument(sDocFileName, nDocType, false, out nRetVal);
Debug.Assert(SwDmDocumentOpenError.swDmDocumentOpenErrorNone == nRetVal);
swCfgMgr = swDoc.ConfigurationManager;
pathLabel.Text = "Path to file: " + swDoc.FullName;
configLabel.Text = "Active config: " + swCfgMgr.GetActiveConfigurationName();
vCfgNameArr = (string[])swCfgMgr.GetConfigurationNames();
foreach (string vCfgName in vCfgNameArr)
{
//get preview
swCfg = (SwDMConfiguration7)swCfgMgr.GetConfigurationByName(vCfgName);
pPreview = (IPictureDisp)swCfg.GetPreviewPNGBitmap(out nRetVal2);
image = Support.IPictureDispToImage(pPreview);
//insert to picturebox
pictureBox1.BackgroundImage = image;
}
swDoc.CloseDoc();
}
You can use unmanaged windows shell methods to get the thumbnail
Here is the code (not a small one)
But results are far from perfect.
- debugging is very hard, unspecified error are common
- there has to be specific file reader availible on target machine (e.g. pdf-reader for pdfs, didn't tried it on SolidWorks)
- can work only in Windows
- performance issue
- thumbnails low quality (tried it with pdf)