Pictures are worth how many words?

iLogic Forms are how you interact with your iLogic models.  They are the user interface that you use to enter parameters, make selections and run rules that are necessary to complete your configuration.  The iLogic Form Editor is the tool that is used to layout and design those forms.  

The main sections of the Form Editor are:

  A) Parameters / Rules / iProperties
  B) Toolbox
  C) Form Design Tree
  D) Properties

The Form Editor uses drag and drop functionality to build a form.  You simply drag items from the Parameters / Rules / iProperties or Toolbox section and drop them on the Form Design Tree.  You then modify the properties of those items using the Properties section.

While it is not necessary to have any rules or parameters before creating a form, it is generally a better workflow to at least have the main parameters created so that you have something to work with.  I generally set the parameters that I’m going to use on my form as Key parameters and use the handy filter in the Form Editor dialog box to easily find them to layout my form (it's in the upper left).

There are a lot of resources for finding information on creating a basic form.  I’d like to focus on one of the tools that isn’t easily understood, Picture and the Picture Folder.

  

Picture

Pictures can be used to display image files such as a company logo.  Acceptable image formats are .bmp, .gif, .png, .jpg, .jpeg & .tiff.  To include a picture in your form, drag the Picture tool from the Toolbox and drop it on your Form Design Tree.  The properties available for a Picture are:

• Label – This is the name of the image that shows on the Form Design Tree and on the form if you decide to show it.
• Image – This is where you specify the image file to use.  Click in the Image property and then on the ellipse button to specify the image file.  (Image should be sized before assigning it to the property).
• Show Label – This is a Boolean property that controls whether or not the Label property is displayed on the form.  If this is set to True then the Text Location property becomes available.
• Text Location – Only available if the Show Label property is set to True.  This property controls the location of the label on the form.  You can choose from Left, Right, Top & Bottom.
• Picture Parameter Name – This property is used in conjunction with the Picture Folder property.  Set this property to a Text user parameter with a multi-value list that will control which picture from the picture folder is displayed.

Note:  If the Picture Parameter Name property has a parameter, it will override the image that is selected in the Image property.

Picture Folder

An even better use for pictures is to have them change based upon selections your user makes in the form.  The Picture Folder is used in conjunction with the Picture tool and is used to display multiple images in this manner.  By default, the Picture Folder comes in with 2 possible images but can be increased by dragging more Picture tools into it (just as if you were dragging a Picture tool onto your form).  Each picture that is part of the Picture Folder has two properties to modify:

• Label – Populate the label property with a possible value for the Text parameter that was used in the Picture Parameter Name property.  This is how you set the link between the property and which image to display. If the value of the Label property does not match a value in the Picture Parameter Name multi-value list, the image will display the text ‘No image data’.
• Image - This is where you specify the image file to use.  Click in the Image property and then on the ellipse button to specify the image file.

Note:  If you’ve already specified an image file to use and would like to update it, you’ll need to specify it again.  The updated image will not reload automatically.

 

Using Pictures and the Picture folder to drive images based upon selections can really help clarify things for your end user.

In the examples to the left, the user has two different End Designs to choose from.  I'm showing him those different designs using a Picture Folder.

Pictures really are worth 1,000 words!

Bonus tip about using the Properties area of the Form Editor:  You can double click in the box to make it toggle through all available options.  It's sometimes easier and quicker than using the drop down box.

Randy

“We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust the sails.” — Author Unknown

...An iProp For Everyone!

In my last post, I showed one solution to a common task of using assembly level parameters to set iProperties of part files in your assembly using an Array and a For Next Loop.  Using that solution, we specified each component that we wanted to push the iProperties to.

In this post, I'd like to discuss another solution that will push iProperties down to all components in your assembly, even those inside of sub-assemblies.

Sub Main
        Dim oAsmDoc As AssemblyDocument 
        oAsmDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument 

    '    Call the function that does the recursion. 
        Call TraverseAssembly(oAsmDoc.ComponentDefinition.Occurrences, 1)
End Sub 

Private Sub TraverseAssembly(Occurrences As ComponentOccurrences, Level As Integer) 
    '    Iterate through all of the occurrences in this assembly.  Level 1 components. 
    
        Dim oOcc As ComponentOccurrence 
        For Each oOcc In Occurrences 
        
        '    Get the selected item document occurrence name
            Dim oBrowserNode As String
            oBrowserNode = oOcc.Name
    
                Try                                                
                    '    Push the required iProperties down to the occurrences
                        iProperties.Value(oBrowserNode, "Custom", "SO_Number") = Sales_Order_Number
                        iProperties.Value(oBrowserNode, "Custom", "Company") = Customer_Name
                        iProperties.Value(oBrowserNode, "Project", "Project") = Project_Description
        
                Catch
                    '    Do not raise or display an error.
                
                End Try
        
            '    Check to see if this occurrence represents a subassembly 
            '    and recursively call this function to traverse through it. 
                If oOcc.DefinitionDocumentType = kAssemblyDocumentObject Then
                    
                    Call TraverseAssembly(oOcc.SubOccurrences, Level + 1) 
                    
                End If 
        Next 
End Sub

The above code will go iterate through each occurrence in your assembly and set the required iProperties.  If the occurrence is a sub-assembly, it will also iterate through each component inside of that sub-assembly.

Hopefully you see some benefit in the above solution.  Leave me a comment and let me know.

Randy

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do." - Steve Jobs

An iProp for you, an iProp for you...

When creating a configurable assembly using iLogic, you’ll often need to push iProperties down to the part files in your assembly.  Quite often these are project specific iProperties such as Project Number, Client Name, Sales Order, etc.

Writing a separate line to push the iProperty down to each component in your assembly is not a very efficient way of going about it.

Another way of accomplishing this is creating an Array whose values include the components in your assembly and a For Next loop.

iPropArray = New String(){"Sideframe_RH", "Sideframe_LH", "End_Guard"}

For Each part In iPropArray

    iProperties.Value(part, "Custom", "SO_Number") = Sales_Order_Number

    iProperties.Value(part, "Custom", "Company") = Customer_Name

    iProperties.Value(part, "Project", "Project") = Project_Description

Next

The Array values are the browser node names of the components in the assembly.

Inside the For Next loop are the actions you want done to each part in the array.  In this case, I’m pushing down iProperties but with a little imagination, you can see how you could expand on this.

Now if I were reading this, I’d say “But Randy, what if I don’t want to list out all the parts.  I want to do the same action to all the parts in my assembly”.  My answer to myself would be “Yes you can do that Randy…but you’ll have to wait until the next post.

Randy

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." - Thomas Jefferson 

Pardon the interruption

Hey folks,

I hope everyone has been enjoying Carl's blog posts and getting helpful information out of them.

I just wanted to do a quick post and let everyone know that soon I'll be starting to contribute to this blog.  I work with iLogic on a frequent basis and am looking forward to posting, sharing and hopefully starting some good discussions.

Talk to you soon!

Randy

“Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” - Joshua J. Marine

Driving Standards–Part 1

iLogic External Rules and Forms are tailor-made to help you control the more universal elements behind your design process. In this series of articles we’ll take a look at how we can leverage this technology to help you gain more control of your design data.
This sample will illustrate a technique for prompting a user to identify a designation or identifier that we would like to be entered as an iProperty in the “Title” area of the iProperty “Summary” Tab.

Searching Excel with iLogic

This is an interesting iLogic solution to a problem where part inventories may dictate the values of a component in an assembly.
Perhaps the inventory changes somehow on a regular enough basis and modifying the actual code would not be practical; or the person who determines the value of that database is not an Inventor user.

This particular client had an ever expanding list of customers with varying requirements for the end product including machining tolerances, available fastener specifications and approved material lists to name a few.

As new customers were added it seemed to be a constant struggle to add the new values into the iLogic code and, believe it or not, sometimes the existing customers would change their mind - almost NEVER happens right? ;-)

Setting the Level of Detail with iLogic

iLogic requires a custom Level of Detail (LoD) before it can perform an operation that suppresses a component. If a custom LoD is not active or one does not exist you will get an error message. I get a lot of enquires about this dialog box and how one can avoid the hassle.