Coordinate in sketched symbol

[rusty_67]

Hi There,

Is there anyway to report a coordinate of a part in a sketched symbol.  

I have  a plan view and would like to be able to point to specific part and among other things, report its elevation.  Is this possible?

Thanks,
Russ

[rhasell]

Agree, not sure what you are looking for with the co-ordinates.

You can also use a custom balloon, which will pull iProperties from the part / assembly BOM, this is also applicable for Leader text. (As above)

[rusty_67]

Not sure what you mean by leader lines in the .iam, but I don't think thats what I'm looking for.

Basically, I have made a plan view of my assembly and also created a sketched symbol to bring forward some iproperties and custom properties from that iam.  What I would also like to have in this sketched symbol is the elevation (z-value) of the part that the leader from my sketched symbol points to.

Is there a string of text that will bring forward the z-value of whatever the leader is pointing to?

[rhasell]

All I can think of doing is getting information from the IAM or part.

You will either have to populate a custom property with the values (Push it to each part via the BOM, that way the relevant leader will update when attached to a part/ sub assembly.)

or perhaps have a sketch in the .IAM and pull the dimensions via leader text? (I will have to test that, I don't even know if it is even possible 🙂 (The .iam sketch dimensions))

[rusty_67]

I see what you are saying now.  Unfortunately that wont work for what I'm trying to accomplish.  I want to be able to instantaniously report the elevation the point that the leader points to.  With the method you describe, say a part had multiple elevations, you would have to make a dimension for each of elevations and then keep track of those dimensions (d,d2,d3,d4, etc) for when you create the leader for reporting.  Which means you would have to create multiple leaders.

I want to have one leader (sketched symbol)  capable of reporting this. 

It should be a fairly simple task in my mind.  You could quite easily enough report elevations in an elevation view, so why not in a plan view?

[SBix26]

Seems to me that it's not simple at all.  If your sketched symbol is pointing at the edge of a cube (for example), what elevation should it report?  Top?  Bottom?  Middle?  If you are wanting to report the elevation of a surface, that is a problem, too, since a view consists only of edges, as far as I can tell.  There's nothing on that hypothetical cube to attach a symbol to except the lines representing the edges.

I'm guessing this could be accomplished through some smart programming, but it's way beyond me.

It would be nice to be able to attach balloons, leaders, sketched symbols, etc. to part surfaces, but for now, it's not possible. Submit this as a wish to the Inventor IdeaStation.

Sam B
Inventor 2012 Certified Professional

Please click "Accept as Solution" if this response answers your question.
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Inventor Professional 2013 SP1.1 Update 1
Windows XP Pro 32-bit, SP3
HP EliteBook 8730w; 4 GB RAM; Core™ 2 Duo T9400 2.53 GHz; Quadro FX2700M
SpaceExplorer/SpaceNavigator NB, driver 3.7.18
still waiting for a foreshortened radius dimensioning tool in Drawing Manager

[rusty_67]

I understand what you are saying, but I don't see that as the issue.  There are ways of getting around that. 

The problem comes when trying to report coordinates from the model in the idw.   Like, say instead of a plan view I were working with an isometric view.  It's easy to pick a specific point in an iso view, but can I acquire and report its coordinates in the model on the idw?  That is the question I need answered.

[SBix26]

No way that I know of.

Sam B
Inventor 2012 Certified Professional

Please click "Accept as Solution" if this response answers your question.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inventor Professional 2013 SP1.1 Update 1
Windows XP Pro 32-bit, SP3
HP EliteBook 8730w; 4 GB RAM; Core™ 2 Duo T9400 2.53 GHz; Quadro FX2700M
SpaceExplorer/SpaceNavigator NB, driver 3.7.18
still waiting for a foreshortened radius dimensioning tool in Drawing Manager