Thread Designation in Description Iproperty?

[mslosar]

Say you model a custom nut or bolt with threads. Is it possible to put the thread designation in the description iproperty?

Something like:

=bolt, hex head, <dia> - <thread designation>

??

[dan_inv09]

I was going to say something about making the description a column in your iPart and messing with it in excel, but this probably isn't something you want to keep updating an iPart factory for.

What you (we) need is to have access to thread data outside of just the hole note. All that stuff is there, somewhere, hidden.

I just did an experiment, I've got something dimensioned on a part I'm working on, it's d20. The very next thing I do is a blind, thread depth hole. The thread depth is d23 the hole depth is d27 and the drill tip angle is d28. Then I dimensioned something else, that's d29. So the hole takes up d21 through d28, but we can only see 3 of them. (It's "Unable to Parse" the others if you try to use them in an equation.)

[mslosar]

I never got that deep with it, but that's good and very interesting information to know!

I think I found a way around it.

I 'was' trying to simpy tweak an existing bolt/nut from the existing library.

I copied those to my existing library.

I did an 'open from content center' to access a file. In that file, I exported it's diameter, length, and TP (i wanna say that's thread pitch, but i'm not sure. I'm at home now so I can't check). In the existing table there, they have columns for all those, obviously, and I was able to export the settings in the IPT file.

Back in my library, i selected the library file I wanted to update, and used my external file to import into the existing content center library bolt. It updated the library's ipart to export all those parameters.

Then, in the Family Description in the content center, i entered:

=BOLT, HVY HXHD, <dia>" - <TP> UNC

(The length is used in a custom column in the parts list so it's not part of the equation)

In the part's description and in the parts list/BOM it shows:

BOLT, HVY HXHD 1/2" - 13 UNC

Which is exactly what I wanted it to say. The only downside is that, in your content center if you are in list mode you see the =BOLT, HVY HXHD, <dia>" - <TP> UNC equation in the description field. Not a deal breaker for me at all, but I can't speak to everyone.

It's not the most perfect solution in the world, but it works 🙂

[mslosar]

Well, my solution was close, but I missed the fact that sometimes the threads actually are UNF as well. So, just typing it isn't really an option. Back to the drawing board 🙂

[mrattray]

You could use iLogic or an API routine to do this. I know for sure that the thread callout is accesible through the TapInfo object. The code could then write that information as a property or parameter to be referenced by the callout, or better yet just create the whole callout for you.

I can elaborate on this if you feel it is a soluion that may work for you.

[mslosar · Accepted solution]

At least when it comes to iparts that exist in the library, there is a way to do this.

Turns out, you can push any entry in the Ipart table to an iProperty in the content center. (I don't know if there's a way to do this outside the content center - i've not tried).

Anyhow, as I said above, I opened my part from the content center. Saved it to a neutral location so it can be edited.

In the Parameters dialog I export the length and dia and thread. That's what I did before. In addition, I went to the parts Iproperties and to the Custom tab and added a new parameter there. THREADTEXT and left the value blank. (I don't the value matters one way or another because I believe the content center will overwrite the value on creation.).

With the new iproperty THREADTEXT, I went into the Library Editor and wet to edit the Family Parameters of the part. In there I went to the Family Mapping tab can chose Template Parameters. This has a list of all parameters in the file on the left and what you want to map them to on the right. I found the paramter from the table I wanted to map. I found my thread type column (TS i think it was) and on the right side, clicked the ... button. From there I gave me a menu of the various parts of the ipart and I went into Iproperty/Custom and choose my THREADTEXT variable.

Apply

At that point I just added it to my description line.

=BOLT, HVY HEX, <GD>" - <TPC> <THREADTXT>

Upon insertion of the piece, the description reads:

BOLT, HVY HEX, 1/2" - 13 UNC

I'm not what options you have with the columns, but if you can edit the table in excel and use excel's concatenation, you could create a full table (FULL_DESC) entry that says: ="BOLT, HVY HEX," + A4 + A12". Once the table imports back into inventor it should read the full description of your part. You could use the mapping to have the description set to that field.

[mslosar]

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@mrattray wrote:

You could use iLogic or an API routine to do this. I know for sure that the thread callout is accesible through the TapInfo object. The code could then write that information as a property or parameter to be referenced by the callout, or better yet just create the whole callout for you.

I can elaborate on this if you feel it is a soluion that may work for you.

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The problem I see with those solutions is that they'd work on an idividual part level, but I believe that when using the content center, the 'family description' overwrites the description in the part. I had customized descriptions and loaded the part back into the library, but the library description alwasy trumped it. Rightly or wrongly, at that point, it seemed like iLogic or VB would work on just an IPT, but not when coming out of the library. There could be something i'm missing that keeps the family description from being written to the part. If so, it then is a solution as well.  

As it turns out the system can be made to do what's necessary, but it involves having to learn a lot about the content center system 🙂

[mrattray]

I missed that this was in the content center, that certainly throws a wrench in the works. Anyways, it looks like you worked out a viable solution on your own without code.