topic Re: Possibility of Multiple Frames Being Controlled by Model States in Inventor Forum

Possibility of Multiple Frames Being Controlled by Model States

petestrycharske — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 21:04:36 GMT

All,

Good afternoon! A colleague of mine @Curtis_W and I have been experimenting with controlling Frame Generator members using top-level assembly model states. Unfortunately, we've not been successful (without using iLogic), but have stumbled onto an interesting and probably unintended workflow. Instead of a long drawn out explanation, please see the video below and let me know if I'm missing a step on accomplishing this task. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. I'm particularly interested to hear your thoughts @johnsonshiue ! Thanks in advance for any ideas and have a most blessed day!

Peace,

Pete

(view in My Videos)

Re: Possibility of Multiple Frames Being Controlled by Model States

johnsonshiue — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 00:11:35 GMT

Hi Pete,

How are you doing? This is unfortunately a limitation in Model States. On 2021 and earlier, LODs used to be able to allow occurrence suppression (with issues). But on 2022 and later, Model States no longer supports occurrence suppression. Specialized components created from Bolted Conn, Cable&Harness, Design Accelerator, Frame Gen, and Tube&Pipe do not allow non-Primary Model States to be created. Adaptivity isn't fully supported in Model States either.

The closest workflow mimicking LOD in 2022 and later is Design View Rep. It does allow occurrence visibility to be overridden. And Design View Rep, as LOD, doesn't alter the BOM.

Many thanks!

Re: Possibility of Multiple Frames Being Controlled by Model States

BDCollett — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 01:17:02 GMT

The way I see it, those accelerators are to speed up one off designs.
As soon as you try and create something more complex that has variations, every time I end up just doing it the long way.

So normal parts for the frame members instead of being generated by Content Center. Then just set them up so the cut length etc still populates the bom as usual.

You have more flexibility this way, it just takes longer to create the initial model.

I really hope the developers are focusing on bringing all those accelerators into this century, as they are already so limited in their use and the addition of model states has just made that more obvious.

Re: Possibility of Multiple Frames Being Controlled by Model States

Gabriel_Watson — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 04:10:24 GMT

Looks like you found a bug AND a feature all in one! =D
I was just wondering what would happen if you pressed to Rebuild All, after altering the frame size there...

And yes, I agree with BD above, that frame generator seems to be mostly just a tool for experimentation and not really full production, most of the times (due to problems with custom variations or duplication of similar elements in the BOM). Lucky are the customers/users who are actually able to use it in final designs.

Re: Possibility of Multiple Frames Being Controlled by Model States

kesUPRHR — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 05:53:18 GMT

Hi @petestrycharske

Sounds like an interesting idea.

i would loved to try figuring it out but i just need some information about the scope of this test.

1. You want to be able to change different parts of your wall with different frame-gen structures (like removing some frames while adding others)?

2. you also want to still be able to change the frame sketch and update the model with it?

And without the program throwing an error.

Kind regards.

Re: Possibility of Multiple Frames Being Controlled by Model States

kesUPRHR — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 21:54:31 GMT

@petestrycharske

i have been testing some possible solutions. the best one still have the QTY problem but that can be fixed by using ilogic to make the unit into "EACH"

Dim pdoc As PartDocument = ThisDoc.Document
pdoc.ComponentDefinition.BOMQuantity.SetBaseQuantity(BOMQuantityTypeEnum.kEachBOMQuantity)

this however turns off the standard mm QTY, so if you want it back you will need to multiply the custom iproperty("G_L") with the new QTY.

the method primarily uses frame_gen demoting and supress

the setup:

by demoting within the frame generator you can get some simple assemblies to put into a subassembly where they where you can construct the frame wall. this subassembly while be used in the main assembly

frame assembly:

wall assembly:

then you can create modelstates inside this assembly but not the assimblies made with frame-gen (that is doable but will require extra constraints and lots of re-applying frame-gen features)

if you decide to use patterns then be aware what feature you suppress (suppress the assembly feature and not the element. the element is not bound by modelstates)

the modelstates as they are right now might have one last thing that would be worth to consider. and that is if they should have different "part number" so that they can have their own spot each in the BOM. that can be done by activating the modelstate you want to have a diffent "part number" and just change it in iproperties.

that is it for the setup

side note to fix the mixed BOM parts: to avoid this problem use different part numbers for different frames.

here are some screenshots of my results.

400mm added to length:

300mm added to height:

if you got any questions feel free to ask me.