topic Re: 3d PDF / Parts List ~ Part Number limit in Inventor Forum

3d PDF / Parts List ~ Part Number limit

mdavis22569 — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 11:29:42 GMT

Curious if anyone there can get their FULL part number to show up in the 3d PDF parts list.

I know I can do it in the model tree browser, but for the life of me, I can't get it in the actually pick part's list

If you look at the first picture you can see it's missing the 6 on the right's parts list, but it's fully there in the model tree...

I've looked at numerous videos, and PDF's and I've yet been able to find one that has this possible

Re: 3d PDF / Parts List ~ Part Number limit

mdavis22569 — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 19:29:29 GMT

WOW ..finally got it with some help from Autodesk and Anark ...

@mcgyvr I was given a document that you might want on adding rows, buttons, and getting into the Javascript

But in the end I got my 10 plus characters ..

anyone who wants more info just let me know ...

Re: 3d PDF / Parts List ~ Part Number limit

mcgyvr — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 19:34:31 GMT

@mdavis22569

Please.. oh please.. send me all the information you have.. PM me or shoot me an email (I think your PM's are blocked as I think I tried to contact you before and couldn't)

Re: 3d PDF / Parts List ~ Part Number limit

mdavis22569 — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 19:40:17 GMT

are you on the beta?

Re: 3d PDF / Parts List ~ Part Number limit

mdavis22569 — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 19:57:04 GMT

@mcgyvr give me about an hour and I'll make a download link for you.

I have some unlocked Anark templates too

Re: 3d PDF / Parts List ~ Part Number limit

Curtis_W — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 20:04:07 GMT

@mdavis22569 wrote:

WOW ..finally got it with some help from Autodesk and Anark ...

@mcgyvr I was given a document that you might want on adding rows, buttons, and getting into the Javascript

But in the end I got my 10 plus characters ..

anyone who wants more info just let me know ...

Hi mdavis22569,

If you can post all of the information and files to this topic, I think that would great, as I'm sure someone will find this thread when encountering the same issue at some point in the future.

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

Re: 3d PDF / Parts List ~ Part Number limit

mcgyvr — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 20:19:51 GMT

@mdavis22569 wrote:

are you on the beta?

@mdavis22569

I participate in the Inventor "betas" and am active/current with it (aka.. I can see the beta site and I get the beta builds).. Not sure if that's specifically what you are referring too..

Sad that we have to be all "hush--hush" and "scouring" for scraps of information on something that should be readily available and properly/completely documented in the help files..

Re: 3d PDF / Parts List ~ Part Number limit

mdavis22569 — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 21:10:54 GMT

Oh nooo.. I didn't mean it like that.

I downloaded it, I just couldn't do it at work. They monitor all of our downloads and uploads, so I didn't want to have to explain myself tomorrow.

The attachment doesn't tell you how to change it ... the screencast does

You'll need:

Adobe Pro

Inventor 2017

Notepad, or some kind of Javascript editor.

Re: 3d PDF / Parts List ~ Part Number limit

mdavis22569 — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 21:16:39 GMT

Oh nooo.. I didn't mean it like that.

I downloaded it, I just couldn't do it at work. They monitor all of our downloads and uploads, so I didn't want to have to explain myself tomorrow.

The attachment doesn't tell you how to change it ... the screencast does

You'll need:

Adobe Pro

Inventor 2017

Notepad, or some kind of Javascript editor.

Re: 3d PDF / Parts List ~ Part Number limit

mcgyvr — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 12:42:47 GMT

why?... just plain why?

I have a feeling I'm going to be complaining left and right when I need to start working with 3d PDF's..

I'd love to be able to generate our product datasheets straight from Inventor and stuff loads of technical details into custom iproperties and have it just populate everything automagically..

I'm so confused why they coded a limit on the part number though.. Of course every part number we have is 10 digits so it looks like I'm going to have to dive into the javascript right away too... Why did they even put a limit on it?

Why wouldn't they just have you stretch the text box on the PDF template or something if your part numbers didn't fit..

"hopefully" they get around to publishing some "detailed" help information pretty soon...

Thanks for being the guinea pig Michael..

Out of curiosity.. If I created my own template from scratch just adding fields,etc.. would I run into this javascript limit? Or is that javascript specific to that out of the box template only?

Re: 3d PDF / Parts List ~ Part Number limit

mdavis22569 — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 13:07:37 GMT

Yup ...We're 10 digits here too.

when you create a field is has a limit option. Creating new, you'd probably want to set it. Especially with Part Description, that's set to 23 currently and the QTY is at 4. I changed the QTY to 3 and the Description to 20. Got me a few more spaces and cleaner BOM Box on my templates.

I have Anark unlock ones, I just wanted to get permission to share them first before posting, as they aren't just out there and available, Anark gave them to me.

The PDF for creating rows etc I posted and the video should make it a lot easier to modify and change the template around. It shows you how to pull the Inventor values into the sheet.

Here I thought you just created a field/text box and put a code snippet in the Actions box, it's actually all in the javascript linked.

Re: 3d PDF / Parts List ~ Part Number limit

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 00:13:48 GMT

Hi Folks,

I wanted to help out here and I do not work for Autodesk nor claim to speak for them. Full disclosure that I work for Anark that is providing this background 3DPDF technology to Autodesk and @mdavis22569 and I had a few chats this week and we want to make sure that people are progressing.

I will use the generic word CAD as the same conversation could apply to Inventor or any of the major CAD formats.

Templates need to be updated periodically to remove bugs or add new capabilities.

There are a few ways that tracking and updates can occur. Which technique is easiest will depend on how much template customization has been performed and which workflow makes the most sense to you.

Generally speaking you can:

Copy Javascript from a new template into an "old" template…and then modify the "new" Javascript as required;
Modify a "new" template so that it looks and behaves like the "old" template.

In both cases, all the functionality required to make these changes is available in Adobe Acrobat. In some cases it is easier modify a new template…and in other cases it is easier to update an old template and until we see what people are trying to accomplish it is hard to say what is best.

A great example is that I was working with a expert in the MBD/MBE field earlier today and she had created a BOM template 2 YEARS ago which is getting up there but, she wanted to have the same layout. We took her template, copied the latest BOM template Javascript that we had and pasted into the old template and walla, all the BOM views worked just fine and she did not have to change any of her layout.

It is worth noting that customizing a PDF template typically happens early in a new project when new Model Based Definition practices and processes are being defined. After this period there is typically little need to update a template…unless new functionality is desired, or the modeling practice changes.

I would be happy to have a short session to show how this works in a generic sense meaning, the source of the CAD data is generic but, we could play with templates, see the resulting 3DPDF and more plus talk about some of the few key settings in Adobe Acrobat or the actual 3DPDF Template that influence viability, menus, etc. I would NOT be able to get all that deep into Inventor but, you guys are the experts there anyways.

Message me if you are interested and we can find a quick time to do a webinar. If you are already deep into trying something and have a question, we can also try and answer and post to the community

Thanks

Jim

www.anark.com

Re: 3d PDF / Parts List ~ Part Number limit

mdavis22569 — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 00:16:50 GMT

@mcgyvr

@Curtis_W

Re: 3d PDF / Parts List ~ Part Number limit

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 22:40:19 GMT

Follow on Note from a developer here @ Anark

-------------------

In general, we go to great lengths to make sure that we don’t break existing templates. We don’t want anyone to have anxiety over upgrading and we don’t want to waste anyone’s time.

New features and data will continue to be added, but it’s rare that something new will cause a problem for people. Breaking changes are done as an opt-in choice, rather than forcing everyone to update their templates. For example, old Livecycle-based templates continue to work today and will only need updates in order to use some of the new features. In the case where we simply cannot support something anymore then we’ll make a plan to transition people off of it with the least amount of pain possible (but I can’t think of an example of this happening).