topic Re: Formulas not immediately updating in Inventor Forum

Formulas not immediately updating

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 11:43:16 GMT

Hi,

I just have a quick question that hopefully someone can answer for me. I have been using formulas frequently to make my assemblies adaptable, but sometimes they act funny. In some scenarios when I change the dimensions of one part which should affect the dimensions of another, the secondary part will not change until I go into the edit box wherever the formula is (and change nothing) and then simply close it. It’s like the part just doesn’t want to immediately update for some reason and the “local update” button is not available to click.

Have you noticed this happening? Am I doing something wrong or is this a bug within Inventor that needs to be fixed? Any help would be great!

Thanks

Sandro

Re: Formulas not immediately updating

Mark.Lancaster — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 11:54:57 GMT

Sandro

You may want to indicate which version of Inventor you are using and provide an example of some sort... Maybe a screencast to show what's going on.

Re: Formulas not immediately updating

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 12:05:33 GMT

Yes you are probably right!

I am using Inventor Basic 2016 and heres a screenshot.

so as you can see the formula is ridiculously simple, its just one dimesion divided by 4. The dimension it is referencing will change when I change the number 84 to either increase or decrease that offset value. The problem is that the space you see right now STAYS that way even when I change the 84. When I go into the "edit constraint" box as you can see and then just simply hit "ok" the formula updates and moves the spacing. It is super annoying..

Re: Formulas not immediately updating

Mark.Lancaster — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 13:07:40 GMT

Hard to make out your screen shot and see what your formula is written as.. But in my test assembly my constraint that has a formula (dimension/4) updates as the overall length (84) is changed. Do you perhaps have defer updates checked under Application Options/Assembly tab?

Re: Formulas not immediately updating

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 13:15:31 GMT

I just checked and i do not have that checked off. the only thing that i can think of is the dimension it is referencing is coming from a different location.

I just learned how to derive parameters into other parts. I have not figured out if there is a way to do this within an assembly so what ive done is made a sketch within the assembly, then grabbed the dimension i wanted ( it had to be a driven dimension), and now that parameter was available for me to select within the formula.

Maybe that workaround is too hard for Inventor to follow and immediately update but when i go into the edit constraint box its working perfectly fine, it just didn't move the part until i clicked "ok"

Re: Formulas not immediately updating

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 13:39:34 GMT

I know you said "Local Update" is greyed out... but how about "Rebuild All" in the "Manage" tab of the ribbon?

Re: Formulas not immediately updating

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 17:23:50 GMT

I tried the "rebuild all" button and it almost worked perfectly. It solved the problem of the formulas not updating immedietly, but I ran into some other strange problems.

Either way this seems strange that I have to hit this "rebuild all" button to update my assembly and pretty annoying. Perhaps its just because its the first time ive heard of this and was so confused earlier. I guess its not that big of a deal but is this really what i need to remember for the future?

Thanks for the tip tho! it seems to have solved my problem...and ill accept it as one if this is the only way..

Thanks

Sandro

Re: Formulas not immediately updating

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 17:26:51 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I tried the "rebuild all" button and it almost worked perfectly. It solved the problem of the formulas not updating immedietly, but I ran into some other strange problems.

Either way this seems strange that I have to hit this "rebuild all" button to update my assembly and pretty annoying. Perhaps its just because its the first time ive heard of this and was so confused earlier. I guess its not that big of a deal but is this really what i need to remember for the future?

Thanks for the tip tho! it seems to have solved my problem...and ill accept it as one if this is the only way..

Thanks
Sandro

The other "strange problems" are likely modelling errors that need to be corrected. They may not have come to light without hitting "rebuild all".

That being said, once you correct those errors, the formulas may start updating themselves. Having errors in models, including sick assembly constraints, can cause loads of unpredictable issues.

Re: Formulas not immediately updating

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 17:36:01 GMT

yea ill work at it a little longer to see if it actually is a design error but im pretty sure its just a bug. Hard to explain but its not that big of an issue anyway. The rebuild all button works great for what im trying to do.

Do you know of a way to reference a PARTs paramaters in an ASSEMBLY?

Id like to just click the parameters box right away and change numbers instead of having to go into the part and change it from there to affect the whole assembly.

Thanks!

Re: Formulas not immediately updating

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 17:59:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

Do you know of a way to reference a PARTs paramaters in an ASSEMBLY?

Id like to just click the parameters box right away and change numbers instead of having to go into the part and change it from there to affect the whole assembly.

Thanks!

Yes.

In your part file:

In the "Manage" tab of the ribbon, click on "Parameter"

Check off "Export" in the row of the parameter you would like to export

Close the parameters dialogue box

Save the part file

In your assembly file:

Click on "Parameters"

Click on "Link" in the Parameters dialogue box

Change the file type to "Inventor Files"

Browse for the part file

Select the parameter that you exported in the part file

Re: Formulas not immediately updating

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 18:09:31 GMT

Thanks! Almost there lol...

I did what you said. This definitely solves my issue of referencing part parameters within formulas. however, I still can not edit these dimensions from within the assemblies parameters box. They are visible for referencing but they are greyed out and cant be edited.

Is there another way?

Re: Formulas not immediately updating

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 20:19:08 GMT

I see what you mean, I can't edit the parameter inside the assembly either. Maybe this is a limitation of the program; likely there's some other explanation that someone much smarter than me can elaborate on.

If it's any consolation, at least you can use the parameters inside the assembly for other things, e.g. constraints, sketches, etc.

Re: Formulas not immediately updating

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 15:34:56 GMT

Thanks for trying to help anyways! At least the parameters are in the assembly they are just greyed out. I will make a separate post to the forum and hopefully get the answer there!

Thanks

Sandro