topic Re: Show Hidden Components, Make Collection/Selection Visible/Invisible in Inventor Programming Forum

Show Hidden Components, Make Collection/Selection Visible/Invisible

cnoJTCG6 — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 21:49:34 GMT

I have a sweet little iLogic rule that sets all Invisible components to Visible and the Visible to Invisible.
Prior to this, the number of Visible and Invisible components is determined which happens very quickly, Inventor knows this in no time.
Then I don't know any other way than to go through the collection one by one and do a visible/unvisible comparison and then connect the reversed action to it, this method takes quite some time.
My question: Can this be done faster?
Is there a way to make a collection or selection visible/invisible at once?
See video and attachment(Code incl. Button with VBA code/module).

Re: Show Hidden Components, Make Collection/Selection Visible/Invisible

pcrawley — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 22:35:16 GMT

You can do all that from the selection menu:

>Select Part Priority

Window select all visible components, right-click > Visibility (to make them invisible)

>Previous Selection

>Invert Selection (now you have everything that was invisible selected)

Right-click > Visibility (to make them visible)

If you are looking for iLogic or other coding advice, you might have more luck over on the Inventor iLogic and VB.net Forum - Autodesk Community forum:

Re: Show Hidden Components, Make Collection/Selection Visible/Invisible

cnoJTCG6 — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 23:29:01 GMT

@pcrawley

Thank you for your response and clear explanation.
It is a bit cumbersome to be able to see what you have 'hidden' in a Design View, I think that button could have been there for a long time given the amount of code that is apparently required.
What is your experience with this method on an assembly with about 1600 occurrences?
Things don't run smoothly here, especially with Part priority it takes a long time for the selection to 'get through'.
I think I already love the button 🙂

Actually I was under the impression to have posted this post in 'Inventor iLogic and VB.net' Forum.
I did accidentally have '/' in the tags and removed them.
Could this also have changed the destination?
Btw, I still have strange experiences with the forum in the sense of spontaneously logging out, this has been going on for months now.
I just have to smile now, I think Autodesk tries to keep the Inventor style alive on the forum, a form of consistency.

Re: Show Hidden Components, Make Collection/Selection Visible/Invisible

pcrawley — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 00:02:52 GMT

In a previous life, I had a few customers using a similar workflow on assemblies with 30,000+ (mostly unique) parts and it worked OK.

Are you using Vault? I think that since all the files are local in a Vault environment, it dramatically helps the selection speed.

Re: Show Hidden Components, Make Collection/Selection Visible/Invisible

checkcheck_master — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 07:00:29 GMT

@pcrawley

Thanks again for your response.

Yes we are using vault.

Re: Show Hidden Components, Make Collection/Selection Visible/Invisible

CGBenner — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 14:58:27 GMT

@cnoJTCG6 wrote:

Actually I was under the impression to have posted this post in 'Inventor iLogic and VB.net' Forum.
I did accidentally have '/' in the tags and removed them.
Could this also have changed the destination?
Btw, I still have strange experiences with the forum in the sense of spontaneously logging out, this has been going on for months now.
I just have to smile now, I think Autodesk tries to keep the Inventor style alive on the forum, a form of consistency.

@checkcheck_master @cnoJTCG6

Did you still wish to have this post moved to the iLogic forum?

Re: Show Hidden Components, Make Collection/Selection Visible/Invisible

checkcheck_master — Fri, 16 Sep 2022 18:22:34 GMT

@CGBenner

Yes please, that would be nice, thanks for the thoughtfulness.

Re: Show Hidden Components, Make Collection/Selection Visible/Invisible

Lucas.dolinarVFXZU — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 09:18:35 GMT

Sry, but i don't think i understand your goal...

do you already have a rule?

(i think the attached video went missing?)

Re: Show Hidden Components, Make Collection/Selection Visible/Invisible

marcin_otręba — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 09:31:47 GMT

try this:

Dim ass As AssemblyDocument = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
For Each occ As ComponentOccurrence In ass.ComponentDefinition.Occurrences
	If occ.Visible = True Then
		occ.Visible=False
		
		Else
			occ.Visible=True
		End If

	Next

if this will not be enough for you we could try to do it trough selectset and execute command trough command manager.

Re: Show Hidden Components, Make Collection/Selection Visible/Invisible

marcin_otręba — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 09:46:48 GMT

you can check this thread as well:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ilogic-and-vb-net-forum/switch-between-visible-and-hide-parts-in-a-assembly/td-p/8749527

Re: Show Hidden Components, Make Collection/Selection Visible/Invisible

Lucas.dolinarVFXZU — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 11:41:59 GMT

Wouldn't a branchless version be faster?

occ.Visible = Not occ.Visible

Re: Show Hidden Components, Make Collection/Selection Visible/Invisible

marcin_otręba — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 13:44:04 GMT

hi, for large assemblies it could be faster, but still i think it will be faster to change visibility with one command, this approach even simplified like you suggested will be slower, this is because switching visibility is most time consuming operation here.

this one could be faster:

Dim ass As AssemblyDocument = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument Dim selset As SelectSet = ass.SelectSet Dim o_vis As ObjectCollection = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateObjectCollection Dim o_hid As ObjectCollection = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateObjectCollection o_vis.Clear o_hid.Clear For Each occ As ComponentOccurrence In ass.ComponentDefinition.Occurrences If occ.Visible = False Then o_hid.Add(occ) If occ.Visible = True Then o_vis.Add(occ) Next selset.Clear selset.SelectMultiple(o_vis) ThisApplication.CommandManager.ControlDefinitions("AssemblyVisibilityCtxCmd").Execute selset.Clear selset.SelectMultiple(o_hid) ThisApplication.CommandManager.ControlDefinitions("AssemblyVisibilityCtxCmd").execute selset.Clear o_vis.Clear o_hid.Clear o_vis = Nothing o_hid=Nothing

Re: Show Hidden Components, Make Collection/Selection Visible/Invisible

checkcheck_master — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 17:53:22 GMT

Thanks everyone for the responses.

@marcin_otręba
Thanks for your code.
That's what I had in mind too, but didn't do what I wanted.
I've incorporated your code into what I already had, I've excluded suppressed components to get it working for my assembly with suppressed components.
What surprises me is the speed difference.
I expected that with a collection it would run much smoother, but it seems to go slower.
Am I doing something wrong or can it be done differently?
See video for a comparison, code as attachment.
Apart from the fact that the code does work and it can be a handy tool compared to the clicks you have to make otherwise, it intrigues me why it should take so long.
Right-clicking on a design view and choosing show all or hide all is lightning fast, even if a part is already visible.
How does Inventor do that itself, I wonder.