Show page numbers ballon is found on

[Anonymous]

So I'm playing around with Inventors Tube and Pipe to show how to do all of our flexible hose routing throuh our chassis.  It is a large assemblly with alot of hoses, so it will take multiple views to show how to route all the hoses.  I have done all the routing, but am now looking at how to document it.

I have the parts list setup to show each individual run.  So for example if my assembly had two runs, my parts list would look like the following:

Item......Qty......Stock Number.........Description

1..........59".......6295645.................Gladhand to filter hose

2..........120"......6295645................Filter to Control Valve hose

Now my idea is to show a couple of ISO views on the front page, along with the parts list.  On the ISO views I would make a bunch of Detail Views on the following sheets, and then in each detail view, I will use balloons to identify which lines are which.

Now say ther eare a dozen pages, I don't want people to search all 12 pages just to find which detail views Item 1 shows up in.  Is there any way to automatically show in the Parts List that Item 1 is shown on pages 1,2,3,6,7,9,12 and that Item 2 is shown on pages 2,3,5,7,10,11,12?  This list would populate based on which sheets have a balloon for that given item number.  

If anyone else has a better way to document hose runs in a large assembly, any input is greatly appreciated.  In the end the goal is so that someone could pick up the drawing package, know they are running the "Gladhand to Filter hose", find it in the parts list, and then flip to the appropriate pages that show how to route that hose.  

Thanks for any help! 

[blair]

Pretty much how we do it.

I have had good luck, with a master ISO view like you have stated, then for each section I need, just add a note to the master view to see "PAGE X". We have View Reps with only our air/electrical/Hydraulic lines on the View. This then allow us to create Cropped Views of the section that we need.

Same effect as you described.

[bobvdd]

Jeff,

Here is a VBA macro that produces something close to what you are asking.

I haven't tested it though on a T&P assembly. The macros is called "WhereUsed" and it creates a custom property called "SheetLocation" which you can use in your partslist. I also turned on undo so you can experiment prior to actually saving your drawing.

You need to rereun the macro each time you add or remove drawing views of course.

Here is an example partslist:

Bob

[skyngu]

bob,

if the part is used in different assembly, the sheetlocation will be different. right? so the user properties of that part is changed all the time.

thanks

[bobvdd]

Absolutely correct but this can be remedied by including the drawing name in the name of the custom property if you like. To make the property more unique across multiple drawings, you could change this line

Call Create_or_set_prop(occdoc, "Sheetlocation" , osheet.name)

to

Call Create_or_set_prop(occdoc, "Sheetlocation" + "_" + ThisApplication.ActiveDocument.DisplayName, osheet.name)

Bob

[skyngu]

bob,

I have not got a chance to look at your attachment yet.

The sheetlocation will show up blank if the part is not with ballon, right?

thanks again.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the Macro, but it doesn't seem to do quite what I want it to.  it just lists what sheet the item is found on, not ballooned on.  So if I place a view, and put only one balloon on it, then run your macro, every part shows up as being on sheet 2.  I want it so that only the one item that I ballooned would show up on sheet 2.

[bobvdd]

MIssed that small detail about balloons. 😞

Bear with me. I'll see if I can modify the code.

Bob

[bobvdd · Accepted solution]

Can you try attached modified code?

The name of the custom property to include in your parts list is Sheetlocation_<drawing name>

Bob

[Anonymous]

Awesome, that seems to work perfect, thanks!  

[Anonymous]

So it seems I jumped the gun a little bit.  It works really good when adding balloons, but if I remove a balloon it doesn't remove it from the custom iProperty.  So if I place a balloon on Sheet 2, and on Sheet 3, and run the Macro it will show both of them, but if I remove it from Sheet 2, and run it again, it still says Sheet 2 on it.  It almost needs to make it blank first, then write the sheets after.  

if my Visual Basic skills weren't so rusty I'd give it a shot, but I would probably just break it I'm afraid. 

[bobvdd · Accepted solution]

Well Iin version 2 of the code I was actually resetting the custom proprty to an empty string at the start of the macro but I was not doing it properly. Attached version3 should work better in that respect.

Bob

[Anonymous]

Awesome Thanks Bob!  I really appreciate your help on this.  Now if only i could find a way around Inventors bug of not being able to put balloons on some hoses, I'll be set.  Thanks again!

[bobvdd]

My pleasure. For the balloons failing on hoses, I think we already have a logged defect 1309940.

No word on when it will be fixed.

Bob

[Dan_Margulius]

Hi,

This is a very interesting macro. But I cant get it ti work. I imported the bas file and i run it in the drawing environment

but nothing happens...I built a custom property which is callled "SheetLocation" with the thought that the macro will populate it. Still nothing. 

How can i make it work?

Thanks

Dan 

[bobvdd]

Dan,

You don't have to create any custom properties yourself.

The macro will do that for you and it will use following syntax for the custom property:

SheetLocation_<drawingname>.

You will need to save your drawing first. Let's say you save it with name Test.idw.

The macro will then create a custom property SheetLocation_Test.idw in the individual components that are ballooned.

The only thing you need to do manually is add a custom column to your parts list and call it SheetLocation_Test.idw.

Bob

[Dan_Margulius]

Got it to work, thank you.

Will it be possible to arrange a macro or ilogic rule of some kind so that when I click on the baloon icon in the part list I can see it in the drawing? Sometimes we have a lot of views and baloons on the sheet. They are hard to find. 

Thanks,

Dan

[bobvdd]

Not that easy to use selection techniques from within a parts list.
What is your ultimate purpose of locating the balloon from the parts list?

Is it to simply "find" the parts on the drawing or are there other goals that you have in mind?

If it is just to find and open parts, I would simply use the BOM in the assembly environment.

BOM has cross highlighting capability with the browser and also has an Open command in the context menu.

Bob

[Dan_Margulius]

Hi,

Engineers pass between them drawings or we send to our manufacturer in Ukraine drawings and assy.

The goal is to simply find the baloon and see the part.  

Sometimes drawings are very complicated with a lot of views and sections, ballons and other annotations.

It would be nice to have the same highlighting capability when I edit the part list like in the BOM

Thanks,

Dan