topic Re: Weights from assembly in Inventor Forum

Weights from assembly

baliasM74U3 — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 06:55:37 GMT

HI Experts

Inv 2018

I have an assembly with 15 components. Can I select 5 of them and find out the mass of these items (combined mass of components only)from the assembly environment ?

Re: Weights from assembly

SharkDesign — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 07:00:07 GMT

Don't think so.

Couple of options.

Open BOM, add the mass column. Copy these into excel and do a sum.

Create a new assembly, click the 'restore layout' icon next to the cross in the top right. This tiles the windows. Drag those parts from the browser in to the new assembly and check the mass in the iproperties.

Re: Weights from assembly

johan.degreef — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 08:16:36 GMT

@baliasM74U3

@SharkDesign

Set all the parts you don't want to "BOM structure - Reference" and check the mass again.

Re: Weights from assembly

andrewiv — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 11:56:29 GMT

You could create a level of detail and suppress everything except the 5 components that you want to get the weight of. When you perform a mass properties update it will ask if you want to calculate the mass of the master LOD. You can click NO and it will tell you the mass of just the components that are not suppressed.

Re: Weights from assembly

SharkDesign — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 12:05:13 GMT

If you're doing any of the methods above involving suppressing or referencing stuff do the following.

Click the items you want, click the filter and choose invert selection, then all the items you don't want are now selected.

You can now suppress en masse or reference.

Re: Weights from assembly

johnsonshiue — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 18:51:49 GMT

Hii! All above suggestions make sense. They are the only ways to do it in Inventor unfortunately. But, strictly speaking they are not what the OP was looking for. Any of the above workflow involves design change. What OP was looking for is a quick way to tell the mass prop of a group of components. The ability is available on Fusion 360.

Many thanks!

Re: Weights from assembly

karthur1 — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 20:09:54 GMT

@johnsonshiue wrote:

Hii! All above suggestions make sense. ..... The ability is available on Fusion 360.

Many thanks!

😞 😞 Too bad Inventor does not have the same tool for this.

Re: Weights from assembly

Curtis_W — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 21:03:18 GMT

Hi @baliasM74U3

You can give this ilogic rule a try.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

oConversion = 1 oUnit = " kg" ' 'uncomment this To use lbs 'oConversion = 2.2046 'oUnit = " lbs mass" Dim oADoc As AssemblyDocument = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument Dim oTotalMass As Double Dim oList As New ArrayList oSet = oADoc.CreateHighlightSet While True oMsg = "Select parts (press ESC to continue) Total Mass " & _ Round(oTotalMass * oConversion, 3) & oUnit Dim oOcc As ComponentOccurrence oOcc = ThisApplication.CommandManager.Pick( SelectionFilterEnum.kAssemblyLeafOccurrenceFilter, oMsg) ' If nothing gets selected then we're done If IsNothing(oOcc) Then Exit While 'check against list to prevent 'selecting same component twice If oList.Contains(oOcc.Name) = False Then oList.Add(oOcc.Name) oSet.AddItem(oOcc) Dim oMassProps As MassProperties oMassProps = oOcc.Definition.Document.ComponentDefinition.MassProperties oTotalMass = oTotalMass + oMassProps.Mass End If End While InputBox("Total mass in " & oUnit, "ilogic", Round(oTotalMass * oConversion, 3)) oSet.Clear

Re: Weights from assembly

karthur1 — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 12:29:39 GMT

Curtis,

Sweet! One thing I noticed is that if the assembly consists of both parts and assemblies, when you try to pick the items from the graphics window, it will only select "parts". If you want to select the whole sub-assembly, you have to select this from the model browser rather then the graphics window. If you try to select all the items of a sub-assy from the graphics window, it can be difficult to include all the items. There is no selection widow, but being able to select the entire sub from the model browser is key.

Also, there is no way to remove an item from the selection set. Pick your items carefully.

Kirk

Re: Weights from assembly

Curtis_W — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 14:25:26 GMT

@karthur1 wrote:

One thing I noticed ...

Hey that's 2 things! 😏

Thing 1:

So... I don't know how to allow the user to switch between selecting subassemblies and parts using the Pick method with iLogic... there might be a clever way to code that, but I've never figured it out...

the previous example was set to filter for "leaf occurrences" meaning it allowed the user to select parts from within the sub assemblies... this example is filtering for "occurrences"... so it selects the entire subassembly

...but as far as I know it's an either/or choice as far as coding it

Thing 2:

This version removes a previously selected item, if it is selected again.... whereas the previous version simply disallowed it to be selected again.

Thing3 (bonus):

I changed the "feedback" to use the client graphics rather than the cursor tool tip, so you should see the weight and number of selected components in the top left of the screen, something like the image below... let me know if that doesn't display well... I've only experimented with using client graphics for this kind of thing in the past, so I don't know how well it translates to different monitor and display setups

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

Sub main oConversion = 1 oUnit = " kg" ' 'uncomment this to use lbs ' oConversion = 2.2046 ' oUnit = " lbs mass" Dim oDoc As AssemblyDocument = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument Dim oTotalMass As Double Dim oList As New ArrayList oSet = oDoc.CreateHighlightSet Dim oCollection As ObjectCollection oCollection = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateObjectCollection While True oMsg = "Select components (press ESC to exit select)" Dim oOcc As ComponentOccurrence oOcc = ThisApplication.CommandManager.Pick( SelectionFilterEnum.kAssemblyOccurrenceFilter, oMsg) ' If nothing gets selected then we're done If IsNothing(oOcc) Then Exit While Dim oMassProps As MassProperties oMassProps = oOcc.Definition.Document.ComponentDefinition.MassProperties 'check against list to prevent 'selecting same component twice If oList.Contains(oOcc.Name) = False Then oList.Add(oOcc.Name) oCollection.Add(oOcc) oTotalMass = oTotalMass + oMassProps.Mass Else oList.Remove(oOcc.Name) oCollection.RemoveByObject(oOcc) oTotalMass = oTotalMass - oMassProps.Mass End If oLine1 = Round(oTotalMass * oConversion, 3) & oUnit _ & " ; " & oCollection.Count & " items selected" Call WriteClientGraphics(oLine1) oSet.AddMultipleItems(oCollection) End While Call ClearGraphics End Sub Sub WriteClientGraphics(oLine1 As String) oFont = "Stylus BT" oFontSize = 35 Dim oDoc As Document = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument ' a reference to the component definition. Dim oCompDef As ComponentDefinition oCompDef = oDoc.ComponentDefinition Call ClearGraphics oClientGraphics = oCompDef.ClientGraphicsCollection.Add("Text Test") Dim oTG As TransientGeometry oTG = ThisApplication.TransientGeometry Dim oAnchorPoint As Point oAnchorPoint = oTG.CreatePoint(0, 1, 1) ' Create a graphics node. Dim oNode As GraphicsNode oNode = oClientGraphics.AddNode(1) '[ Text1 Dim oTextGraphics1 As TextGraphics oTextGraphics1 = oNode.AddTextGraphics oTextGraphics1.Text = oLine1 ' Set the text's anchor in model space. oTextGraphics1.Anchor = oAnchorPoint ' Anchor the text graphics in the view. Call oTextGraphics1.SetViewSpaceAnchor( _ oAnchorPoint, oTG.CreatePoint2d(40, 40), kTopLeftViewCorner) oTextGraphics1.Font = oFont oTextGraphics1.FontSize = oFontSize oTextGraphics1.PutTextColor(0, 0, 255) ThisApplication.ActiveView.Update '] End Sub Function ClearGraphics ' a reference to the component definition. Dim oCompDef As ComponentDefinition oCompDef = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument.ComponentDefinition ' Attempt to get the existing client graphics object. If it exists ' delete it so the rest of the code can continue as if it never existed. Dim oClientGraphics As ClientGraphics On Error Resume Next oClientGraphics = oCompDef.ClientGraphicsCollection.Item("Text Test") If Err.Number = 0 Then oClientGraphics.Delete End If On Error GoTo 0 ThisApplication.ActiveView.Update End Function

Re: Weights from assembly

karthur1 — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 14:53:23 GMT

@Curtis_W wrote:

@karthur1 wrote:

One thing I noticed ...

Hey that's 2 things! 😏

Thing 1:

So... I don't know how to allow the user to switch between selecting subassemblies and parts using the Pick method with iLogic... there might be a clever way to code that, but I've never figured it out...

the previous example was set to filter for "leaf occurrences" meaning it allowed the user to select parts from within the sub assemblies... this example is filtering for "occurrences"... so it selects the entire subassembly

...but as far as I know it's an either/or choice as far as coding it

Thing 2:

This version removes a previously selected item, if it is selected again.... whereas the previous version simply disallowed it to be selected again.

Thing3 (bonus):

I changed the "feedback" to use the client graphics rather than the cursor tool tip, so you should see the weight and number of selected components in the top left of the screen, something like the image below... let me know if that doesn't display well... I've only experimented with using client graphics for this kind of thing in the past, so I don't know how well it translates to different monitor and display setups

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

Two things... yea, you know engineers cant add. 😁

Thing 1: If figured that it was "either/ or". I sort of liked the way it was originally, where we could pick single items from the graphics window, but if needed I could pick an assembly from the browser. That would give me all the items in the sub. That way you could have both.

Thing 2: Excellent. Much better!!!

Thing 3: I like it. But if the background is the same color as your text, it might be difficult to see.

Kirk

Re: Weights from assembly

Curtis_W — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 15:34:31 GMT

ok, so here's a version that has some option that can be uncommented for selection and graphics colors, etc... this way folks can set the "things" up as they prefer. 🙂

Sub main '/////////// options oConversion = 1 oUnit = " kg" '''uncomment these 2 lines to use lbs ' oConversion = 2.2046 ' oUnit = " lbs mass" Dim oSelectionFilter As SelectionFilterEnum 'subassembly selection oSelectionFilter = SelectionFilterEnum.kAssemblyOccurrenceFilter '''uncomment this line to use part selection 'oSelectionFilter = SelectionFilterEnum.kAssemblyLeafOccurrenceFilter ''' uncomment or change this to a named color scheme of your choice oColorScheme = "Light" 'oColorScheme = "Sky" Dim oColor As Color oColor = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateColor(0, 0, 0) 'black '''uncomment one of these to change text color ''' or create your own RGB color values 'oColor = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateColor(255, 0, 0) 'red 'oColor = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateColor(0, 255, 0) 'green 'oColor = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateColor(0, 0, 255) 'blue '/////////// end options oCurrentBackground = ThisApplication.ColorSchemes.BackgroundType oCurrentBGName = ThisApplication.ActiveColorScheme.Name ThisApplication.ColorSchemes.BackgroundType = BackgroundTypeEnum.kOneColorBackgroundType ThisApplication.ColorSchemes(oColorScheme).Activate On Error GoTo ResetColors Dim oDoc As AssemblyDocument = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument Dim oTotalMass As Double Dim oList As New ArrayList oSet = oDoc.CreateHighlightSet Dim oCollection As ObjectCollection oCollection = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateObjectCollection While True oMsg = "Select components (press ESC to exit select)" Dim oOcc As ComponentOccurrence oOcc = ThisApplication.CommandManager.Pick( oSelectionFilter, oMsg) ' If nothing gets selected then we're done If IsNothing(oOcc) Then Exit While Dim oMassProps As MassProperties oMassProps = oOcc.Definition.Document.ComponentDefinition.MassProperties 'check against list to prevent 'selecting same component twice If oList.Contains(oOcc.Name) = False Then oList.Add(oOcc.Name) oCollection.Add(oOcc) oTotalMass = oTotalMass + oMassProps.Mass Else oList.Remove(oOcc.Name) oCollection.RemoveByObject(oOcc) oTotalMass = oTotalMass - oMassProps.Mass End If oLine1 = Round(oTotalMass * oConversion, 3) & oUnit _ & " ; " & oCollection.Count & " items selected" Call WriteClientGraphics(oLine1,oColor) oSet.AddMultipleItems(oCollection) End While Call ClearGraphics ResetColors : ThisApplication.ColorSchemes.BackgroundType = oCurrentBackground ThisApplication.ColorSchemes(oCurrentBGName).Activate End Sub Sub WriteClientGraphics(oLine1 As String, oColor As Color) oFont = "Stylus BT" oFontSize = 35 Dim oDoc As Document = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument ' a reference to the component definition. Dim oCompDef As ComponentDefinition oCompDef = oDoc.ComponentDefinition Call ClearGraphics oClientGraphics = oCompDef.ClientGraphicsCollection.Add("Text Test") Dim oTG As TransientGeometry oTG = ThisApplication.TransientGeometry Dim oAnchorPoint As Point oAnchorPoint = oTG.CreatePoint(0, 1, 1) ' Create a graphics node. Dim oNode As GraphicsNode oNode = oClientGraphics.AddNode(1) '[ Text1 Dim oTextGraphics1 As TextGraphics oTextGraphics1 = oNode.AddTextGraphics oTextGraphics1.Text = oLine1 ' Set the text's anchor in model space. oTextGraphics1.Anchor = oAnchorPoint ' Anchor the text graphics in the view. Call oTextGraphics1.SetViewSpaceAnchor( _ oAnchorPoint, oTG.CreatePoint2d(40, 40), kTopLeftViewCorner) oTextGraphics1.Font = oFont oTextGraphics1.FontSize = oFontSize oTextGraphics1.PutTextColor(oColor.Red, oColor.Green, oColor.Blue) ThisApplication.ActiveView.Update '] End Sub Function ClearGraphics ' a reference to the component definition. Dim oCompDef As ComponentDefinition oCompDef = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument.ComponentDefinition ' Attempt to get the existing client graphics object. If it exists ' delete it so the rest of the code can continue as if it never existed. Dim oClientGraphics As ClientGraphics On Error Resume Next oClientGraphics = oCompDef.ClientGraphicsCollection.Item("Text Test") If Err.Number = 0 Then oClientGraphics.Delete End If On Error GoTo 0 ThisApplication.ActiveView.Update End Function

Re: Weights from assembly

karthur1 — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 16:01:13 GMT

I get this for the latest version. Could not figure out where the error was.

Re: Weights from assembly

Curtis_W — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 16:27:28 GMT

hmmmm...I'm not sure, but it was probably something related to toggling the color schemes... but there might be some hiccups with using the client graphics that I'm not familiar with, since I've not used that all that much

here's two other versions....

a simpler version that just uses the tool tip and gets rid of all the color scheme and client graphics stuff
and one that gets rid of all the color scheme stuff, and just writes the info to the tool tip and client graphics both

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

version that just uses tool tip

version that uses client graphics

Sub main '/////////// options Dim oSelectionFilter As SelectionFilterEnum 'subassembly selection oSelectionFilter = SelectionFilterEnum.kAssemblyOccurrenceFilter '''uncomment this line to use part selection 'oSelectionFilter = SelectionFilterEnum.kAssemblyLeafOccurrenceFilter oConversion = 1 oUnit = " kg" '''uncomment these 2 lines to use lbs ' oConversion = 2.2046 ' oUnit = " lbs mass" '/////////// end options Dim oDoc As AssemblyDocument = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument Dim oTotalMass As Double Dim oList As New ArrayList oSet = oDoc.CreateHighlightSet Dim oCollection As ObjectCollection oCollection = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateObjectCollection oMsg = "Select a component (press ESC to end selection)" While True Dim oOcc As ComponentOccurrence oOcc = ThisApplication.CommandManager.Pick( oSelectionFilter, oMsg) ' If nothing gets selected then we're done If IsNothing(oOcc) Then Exit While Dim oMassProps As MassProperties oMassProps = oOcc.Definition.Document.ComponentDefinition.MassProperties 'check against list to prevent 'selecting same component twice If oList.Contains(oOcc.Name) = False Then oList.Add(oOcc.Name) oCollection.Add(oOcc) oTotalMass = oTotalMass + oMassProps.Mass Else oList.Remove(oOcc.Name) oCollection.RemoveByObject(oOcc) oTotalMass = oTotalMass - oMassProps.Mass End If oMsg = Round(oTotalMass * oConversion, 3) & oUnit _ & " ; " & oCollection.Count & " items selected" Call WriteClientGraphics(oMsg) oSet.AddMultipleItems(oCollection) End While Call ClearGraphics End Sub Sub WriteClientGraphics(oLine1 As String) oFont = "Stylus BT" oFontSize = 35 Dim oDoc As Document = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument ' a reference to the component definition. Dim oCompDef As ComponentDefinition oCompDef = oDoc.ComponentDefinition Call ClearGraphics oClientGraphics = oCompDef.ClientGraphicsCollection.Add("Text Test") Dim oTG As TransientGeometry oTG = ThisApplication.TransientGeometry Dim oAnchorPoint As Point oAnchorPoint = oTG.CreatePoint(0, 1, 1) ' Create a graphics node. Dim oNode As GraphicsNode oNode = oClientGraphics.AddNode(1) '[ Text1 Dim oTextGraphics1 As TextGraphics oTextGraphics1 = oNode.AddTextGraphics oTextGraphics1.Text = oLine1 ' Set the text's anchor in model space. oTextGraphics1.Anchor = oAnchorPoint ' Anchor the text graphics in the view. Call oTextGraphics1.SetViewSpaceAnchor( _ oAnchorPoint, oTG.CreatePoint2d(40, 40), kTopLeftViewCorner) oTextGraphics1.Font = oFont oTextGraphics1.FontSize = oFontSize 'oTextGraphics1.PutTextColor(0, 0, 0) 'black 'oTextGraphics1.PutTextColor(255, 0, 0) 'red 'oTextGraphics1.PutTextColor(0, 255, 0) 'green oTextGraphics1.PutTextColor(0, 0, 255) 'blue ThisApplication.ActiveView.Update '] End Sub Function ClearGraphics ' a reference to the component definition. Dim oCompDef As ComponentDefinition oCompDef = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument.ComponentDefinition ' Attempt to get the existing client graphics object. If it exists ' delete it so the rest of the code can continue as if it never existed. Dim oClientGraphics As ClientGraphics On Error Resume Next oClientGraphics = oCompDef.ClientGraphicsCollection.Item("Text Test") If Err.Number = 0 Then oClientGraphics.Delete End If On Error GoTo 0 ThisApplication.ActiveView.Update End Function

Re: Weights from assembly

karthur1 — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 17:54:08 GMT

I tested both and no errors on either. I like the one that writes it to the tool tip.... just my preference.

Thanks again.

Kirk

Re: Weights from assembly

dlekx — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 17:11:48 GMT

Hi, I got this by reference from another thread. I tried it and it works well. Is there a way to have multiple-selection functionality? (drag mouse and it picks everything in the window, shift-select in the browser window, etc)

Re: Weights from assembly

Cris-Ideas — Tue, 27 Jul 2021 18:24:34 GMT

Hi,

It depends what is the purpose of your effort.

But if you only want a quick info I would suggest as follows:

1) select everything of interest for you (but this can only be components (parts or assemblies) of the top level)

2) Ctrl+C

3) open new assembly file

4) Ctrl+V

5) iProperties -> physical properties

This will be faster than playing with LoD and requiring less effort, and also it is easier than changing other parts to reference BOM, and you will not produce errors in your original model.

But if this is a solution for you it depends on what exactly is that you are after.

There are also other potential the like trick that come to my mind, but it all depend on the intent.

Cris