Jump to content

content centre iParts and updating iProperties with rules in Assemblies


TLRstacker

Recommended Posts

Hi All,

 

first let me say i am only a learner with the whole publishing parts to content centre and iParts/iLogic/Rules, so if this stops making sense at any point let me know and i will try explain a bit better. i am using Inventor 2012 and would like some help with rules, iParts and their use in assemblies if i can get it.

 

what i would like is for our description for SHS, RHS and CHS sections to read as follows;

 

"X" x "Y" SHS/CHS - XXX LG

 

"X" x "X" x "Y" RHS - XXX LG

 

what i have done;

i created an iPart and published it to a custom content centre library. (this part is an SHS profile) i have worked out how to allow an input for the length of the part (and some other details) in the dialog box (to give me my standard available details for SHS in my area) when inserting my part into an assembly from the content centre.

 

what i would like to do now;

what i am after is a way of updating the "Description" iProperty within the parts as i insert them into an assembly.

 

what i have tried;

 

attempt 1:

use a "Description" column in the part table with a rule (added in excel) to give me the desired name from other column entries. this worked but would not update the lenght with in the part. it would only return the default values every time.

 

attempt 2:

i created a rule in the iPart (prior to republishing it into the library) as follows.

iProperties.Value("Project", "Description")=Parameter("DIM_X")&" x "&Parameter("WALL_THK")&" SHS - "&Parameter("LENGTH")&" LG"

 

this returns me the value i am after including the updated length with in the part, (e.g. "X" x "Y" SHS - XXX LG)

however it doesn't update when i use the part in an assembly. the standard structural sections do this for their part name in the iProperties

so i am assuming it is possible to be replicated. there is nothing in the family table spread sheet of the existing AS rectangular hollow sections

to tell me how it is done either.

 

 

 

i am thinking i am going to have to make a rule within the assembly to make this update, but i am not sure of what that would be. i have had another look at the tutorial files and my brain is not making the connection between what is happening in the tutorial and what i need to do in my model. (i think i have been looking at it too long) thanks in advance for any help. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

BUMP :D i got it to work (sort of) for the description.

 

when publishing the part in the second last step where you set the family name for your content centre part in the "Family Description" area i needed to place the following;

 

= x SHS - LG

 

for example this SHOULD return me a value of

 

25 x 3 MILD STEEL SHS - 1200 LG

 

with all the numeric values taken from the part parameters. however it is returning blank spaces where the numeric values should be. so can anyone help me with this last step please?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, i have this working now and it is AWESOME!! :D

 

what i had to do to fix the blank spaves issue is go to the "Manage" tab on the "Parameters" panel click the "Parameters" button and in the Parameters dialog box for the model parameters you want to use you need to tick the "Key" and "Export Parameter" check boxes then right click the "Equation" cell for the model parameter and uncheck "Unit String" and "Trailing Zeros".

 

hope this helps someone. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll probably be bugging you about setting up custom content center libraries at some point in the near future. After we migrate to Vault Collaboration, we're going to try and get IT to unlock the content center for us so we can add our own stuff ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

glad you like the info guys. :)

 

Bishop i am not on here very often (usually only when i am looking to solve a problem after exhausting all other avenues) so i am not 100% sure i will see your help request. also given i have only been doing this about a week i am not sure i am the best person to be asking. :rofl: what i have learnt is all from the tutorials on iParts etc. and hunting around in the help menus. but feel free to ask in a thread or shoot me a PM if you have a question about this particular problem. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

OK i have this really zipping along now and have created some really nifty (well i think they are anyway) section profiles based on what is available locally and they have a few parameters that auto fill now. i have also created the same profiles as Structural Shapes so that they can be used in the frame generator and also auto fill things like the file/part name and the description to save us having to over write all the stupid standard strings in our parts lists. i have started writing myself a how to for it so i can teach the guys at the office about it all and if i get it nutted out well enough i will post it here to help some others. :) any questions on the subject let me know either in here, (i have subscribed to this thread so should get an email about the reply) or via PM. (again an email notification will be sent to me. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

it is VERY rough at the moment, but things being as quiet as they are for me at the moment i should get the chance to refine it a bit over the coming days. have to go to a meeting with the management about it tomorrow morning to show it all off and get it approved for use. :unsure:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've started messing with this now ... our sysadmins set up a read-write library for us to work with, and we're starting to migrate some of the ANSI library over and customize the tables with our own info. It's working well with nuts and bolts ... but I still haven't managed to get custom libraries to work with Frame Generator, and that's annoying me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have really refined the "How To" with screen shots and all and tailored it so it is not company specific. but i am waiting to get a Guinea Pig to trial it on before posting it to the world.

 

Bishop, i'll give you a little hint to get you moving in the right direction, you need to publish an ipart as a "Structural Shape" to work with the frame gen. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bishop, i'll give you a little hint to get you moving in the right direction, you need to publish an ipart as a "Structural Shape" to work with the frame gen. ;)

 

 

Thanks-

 

I haven't even tried to publish my own ... I've been copying the family from ANSI to my custom library, editing it there. Still doesn't show up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When it comes to the hardware side of things - nuts, bolts, angle iron, etc -almost all of my stuff is off-the-shelf, and already exists in the content center. I just have to add a couple columns to map to the DESCRIPTION and STOCK NUMBER iproperties, and then I can pretty well leave the rest of it alone, except for changing the file name.

 

Now pretty soon here I will have to do some completely custom stuff ... we've got some exotic threaded stuff - ACME, coil thread, some other stuff - and penta-head bolts, too. Also some stamped metal fasteners that I want to add in there too, even though they won't be iParts. We'll be able to standardize, have all the Inventor guys using the same parts across the whole company. It's a dream I have ... probably won't happen anytime soon, though ... we've got parts of the company spread out from AutoCAD 2007 to Inventor 2012, with every possible permutation in between, and half our resources are ... well, I've found a bunch of files with last-modified dates in the 1990's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

in that case you should probably look at 2 things,

 

1) if they are not iparts then publishing just as a standard part to the library and leave it at that as the iparts are only really used for things that have a larg number of parts with mostly the same shape just a differeing size.

2) doing the first instance in the oldest copy of inventor you have and then upgrade it with vault from there.

 

(you probably already knew these things but worth mentioning incase anyone else is follow this and is reasonably new to it all.)

 

i have just completed a tutorial on how to mod your existing content centre families to autofill the iProperties to things that make more sense and will post it in a sec. :) (again not that you need that bishop but for others following if any. ;) )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...