Avoid retooling reused parts (Workflow suggestions please :) )

[GavoGarmo]

Hi,

I have recently created an iLogic driven kitchen door that can become any door, at any size in our range. (Which is too big) The descrption udates to identify the characteristics of the door in fine detail.

The problem we have: Is there a simple system that will let our CADCAM guy know he's already tooled a door of that descrption before?

Previously we were using iParts, which made it simple for him, but a bit of a nightmare for the guys in the drawing office as our range was huge and full of custom sizes, that in some cases only varied by 1mm.

I realise the answer may lay outside of Inventor, but I was hoping there may be a feature i may be unaware of.

Cheers for any help.

GavoGarmo

[Scott_Stubbington]

Hello,

I would make iLogic create a log of all the assembly descriptions created when they are created.  You now have a log you could also get iLogic to open and check for critea when you wish to see if a floor has already been created.

I am assuming you can leverage iLogic in the same way as VBA.

Hope this helps

Scott

[GavoGarmo]

Would that method add the descriptions to a single list, even though we'd be creating a huge range of parts?

This seems like exactly what we'd need.

I'm getting pretty good at teaching myself iLogic from internet digging, but directions to any relevent information would be a great help.

Thank you very much!

[Scott_Stubbington · Accepted solution]

OK, I personally would use VBA, from VBA I could reference Microsoft Scripting Runtime, this would enable you to open and Read/Write to text files, if you only want a single list of descriptions, this is what you can create.

Code from VBA for opening a text file at a given location "pvarLocation" and will return an array of descriptions previously created.  You will need to reference "Microsoft Scripting Runtime" for the following code to run.

Public Function ReadTextFile(pvarFileLocation As String) As String()
    Dim i As Integer
    Dim varContents() As String
    i = 0
   
    Set varFSOText = varFSO.OpenTextFile(pvarFileLocation, ForReading)
    Do While Not varFSOText.AtEndOfStream
        ReDim Preserve varContents(i)
        varContents(i) = varFSOText.ReadLine
        i = i + 1
    Loop
    ReadTextFile = varContents
   
End Function

Hope this helps

Scott

[GavoGarmo]

Brilliant!

I'm not a programmer, but I'm slowly picking up bits of VBA as I plod along.

I'm assuming it would be best to save the text file on a networked location on the company's system.

I'm going to get reading.

Thanks again.