Parameter naming - single letter designations

[acad-caveman]

Gentlemen, I have a question regarding parameter naming.

A good number of my parts are made to standards with different size classes. ( AS, MS, JIS etc )

In these parts the dimensions are given with a single letter designation ( A, B, C etc )

Unfortunately, Inventor does not allow some ( a good number actually ) letters to be used as a single digit parameter.

Is there a way around this?

Until now I've been using "DimA", "DimB" etc. but I'd like to find a way to use just A, B, C .... just as it is on the prints.

Thank You

[MegaJerk]

I don't believe so, but as a compromise, you could create a form and label all of the inputs to your heart's desire. You could even set up a dummy picture of your print (that shows the corresponding labels) so that it's even easier to navigate. 

[acad-caveman]

Thanks Mega... well... you know...

  It isn't as much as a visual thing, ecah part has it's own B/P with the actual dims and tolerances and the corresponding letter designation. I do this in ACAD.

I was more thinking to create a standard template part, and just whip up a new starting point just by plunking in the values into the parameter table to get the basic shape, edit only what's otherwise specified.

Not too big of a problem, but would have been nice to see exactly the same letters on the parameter table as it is in the standard's chart.

[JDMather]

Somewhere (in the Help) there is a list of reserved variable names that cannot be used.

[stephengibson76]

you could try embeding an excel table into your part template that has the correct notation an sheet 1 then link them to sheet 2 that inventor reads, parameters will still be called DimA etc but the initial input would be as required.  can add some pretty pictures to the excel front sheet as well.  Similar to using a form as suggested by megajerk

[cwhetten · Accepted solution]

For these situations, I just put an underscore after the letter.  So instead of 'C' I would use 'C_'.  This allows you to use any letter for a parameter.

It's obviously not exactly the same thing, but it's the closest you can get.  The restricted ones are restricted for good reason--usually because the letter is used as a unit designation (e.g. 'C' is used as the unit for 'Coulomb').

-cwhetten

Please click "Accept as Solution" if this response answers your question.

[acad-caveman]

Wow!

  You've actually found a character that would work with single letters!

Must tell you, the underscore has got to be the only one I didn't try, but it will work just fine.

I know that none of these work: !@#$%^&*(){}[] .....

Apparently I've missed the _..

Thank You!

[cwhetten]

Oh no!  Hopefully you didn't spend too much time trying to find a character that will work, because the underscore _ is the ONLY character that is allowed in a parameter name.

Also note that the parameter name cannot start with an underscore.

Here are the rules for creating a user parameter in Inventor:

-The only valid characters are letters, numbers, and an underscore _ (spaces are not allowed).

-The parameter name must begin with a letter.

-Parameter names are case sensitive, so you could have a parameter called 'length' and also another parameter called 'Length'.  (I would advise against doing this, however, because I don't believe that iLogic can tell the difference between them).

-Certain names cannot be used because they are reserved by Inventor to mean specific things.  I can't seem to find the list that JD mentioned, but if your parameter name meets the above criteria and Inventor is still rejecting it, this is why.

-cwhetten

[jeffcarson]

I found this:

http://blogs.rand.com/files/reserved-inventor-parameter-names.pdf