Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

I've never played around with linking excel spreadsheets into my parameters lists, I've always just worked inside of Inventor. If it was me doing this, I wouldn't change my workflow from that but would just run everything from multivalue lists(only if it's part of the user interface) and use iLogic code to force everything to match up.

If you look at the template I posted and ignore the other 200 things that are going on in there you'll see in the "Sheetmetal" form an input field for Thickness and a drop down list for material. The Thickness is the actual model parameter Thickness and the material drop down is a multi value text user parameter. When a user types in a Thickness the bend radius automatically changes via iLogic coding to match our tooling.

If you're not familiar with iLogic or Inventor forms I strongly recommend that you do some reading and tutorials to familiarize yourself with them. In my opinion, if your not using iLogic you're not doing it right. It's too poweful of a tool to not use.

[#2]

Looks like I have some reading to do.

I was kinda thinking along those same lines, but honestly just haven't had the time to learn iLogic.

Looks like it's that time now though, thankfully.

This is the stuff I've been wanting to pick up on but have always been pulled back to handle more basic, immediate needs. Years ago I was literally told by my boss to "dumbdown" my modeling practices because the users didn't understand how to edit the parts. Yes, rather than train them, we had to "simplify" our processes. I guess it comes from always having to work with newbies and now, I have to sadly admit, I've fallen behind on a lot of things I should be able to do in my sleep as I did many releases ago. But what was current back then has obviously been updated...now it's my turn...

Again, thanks for all your help.

Now on to becoming an iLogic Wiz...

[#3]

mrattray,

One, hopefully simple, question for you.

In the Parameters dialogue menu, you have a Equation for the "BendRadius" Parameter set to "bendR".

For the life of me, I cannot get that field to edit. How did you accomplish such?

[#4]

Hi CelticDesignServices,

I might have missed something, but I think you can do what you want with Inventor's built in Bend Table tools. Is there something specific that you not able to do with a Bend Table?

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[#5]

Hi there Curtis,

Bear with me as I'm going thru some growing pains of learning iLogic finally (long time wanting, finally doing).

I think I just figured out what I'm trying to do.

I have the following custom settings I need to somehow input into our Sheetmetal templates:

Material (I have 4 specific)

Gage (20 for each of the above 4 materials)

Bends (one each for each Gage based on the gage and the Material)

So I'm attempting to set up a template with iLogic rules that'll control these.

I tend to be going thru it on a hit or miss manner by reading the basics tutorials and comparing my needs to those examples.

In this case I have the general default sheet metal parameter of Thickness that I needed to point to the custom thickness and the default BendRadius parameter to point to the custom bend radius. From what I can tell I simplt create a iLogic Rule that states the default "Thickness' parameter = the custom parameter, in this case 'Gage".

I'm thinking I should probably start a new thread as I work thru this in hopes it'll help others??

[#6]

OK, so much for that idea.

I can set the default Thickness parameter to = my custom "Gage" parameter by writing the rule:

Parameter ("Thickness") = Gage

And that is accepted fine, but if I write another rule to set the default BendRadius parameter to the custom one as:

Parameter ("BendRadius") = BendR

I get a fatal error when slecting the "OK" button to save the rule. Looks like I'm getting nowhere fast with this task.

[#7]

BTW - Curtis,

I just did my part in making sure you're a best selling author....just ordered your Inventor 2012 book from amazon.

All in hopes it covers stuff like this and beyond.

[#8]

Sorry for leaving you hanging all afternoon, I only go on here from work and we quit early.

The BendRadius paramter will not accept being renamed like a model parameter. You need to create the User Parameter "bendR" then set the bend radius in your sheetmetal rule (for sheetmetal defaults not iLogic) to bendR. Then when you want to change it's value you change it directly.

i.e.

bendR = .120

Notice that I didn't use the paramter() syntax. That's not needed unless your rule is controlling a parameter in another file, such as an assembly level rule controlling paramters in it's components or a drawing accessing parts/assemblies. For parameters in the same document as the rule they can simply be accessed directly by name.

i.e.

Thickness = Gage