topic Re: Giving an attribute (name) to the face with largest area using iLogic in Inventor Programming Forum

Giving an attribute (name) to the face with largest area using iLogic

frahaman7SKBG — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 00:17:23 GMT

Hi guys,

I'm working on complex design automation. As I am working through the problem, I realize I need to detect the largest face of my part and give it a name (attribute). Once the name is given to that face, I can use the 'Angle' measure snippet to measure the angle between that face and one of the origin planes. And then continue with the rest of the code.

If anyone here knows how to make this or points to a resource where I can find some guidance, it will be greatly appreciated.

Re: Giving an attribute (name) to the face with largest area using iLogic

JelteDeJong — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 08:55:07 GMT

is this what you are looking for:

Dim doc As PartDocument = ThisDoc.Document Dim bodies = doc.ComponentDefinition.SurfaceBodies Dim biggestFaceArea As Double = Double.MinValue Dim biggestFace As Face = Nothing For Each body As SurfaceBody In bodies For Each face As Face In body.Faces Dim area = face.Evaluator.Area If (biggestFaceArea < area) Then biggestFace = face biggestFaceArea = area End If Next Next Dim attSet = biggestFace.AttributeSets.Add("hjalte.nl") Dim att = attSet.Add("biggest", ValueTypeEnum.kDoubleType, biggestFaceArea)

Re: Giving an attribute (name) to the face with largest area using iLogic

JelteDeJong — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 09:29:26 GMT

Just because it can be done. It's also possible without loops 😁

Re: Giving an attribute (name) to the face with largest area using iLogic

frahaman7SKBG — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 18:49:35 GMT

Hello @JelteDeJong

Thank you for taking the time and helping me with this problem.

I have tried running your code but for some reason, I'm getting an error on this line:

Dim attSet = biggestFace.AttributeSets.Add("hjalte.nl")

I have also tried following the method described on this blog (link at the btm), and it looks like I'm getting similar errors when trying to add an Attribute to the part using the code from it. It says the parameter is incorrect.

Blog: https://modthemachine.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/07/introduction-to-attributes.html

Re: Giving an attribute (name) to the face with largest area using iLogic

JelteDeJong — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 19:54:52 GMT

The code will only work if the attribute set is not created jet. That means it probably only runs once. Did you check if the attribute was created? (A good tool for that is the Nifty Attributes addin from @BrianEkins )

Re: Giving an attribute (name) to the face with largest area using iLogic

frahaman7SKBG — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 20:15:12 GMT

You are correct, it does look like the attribute was created. I was able to check using the code below.

Why does the attribute not appear under the Entities list in the iLogic browser? When I tried calling the attribute for my next calculation, it said the Entity was not found.

Isn't the Attribute and Entity the same thing?

Dim doc As Document doc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument ' Get the attribute manager. Dim attribMgr As AttributeManager attribMgr = doc.AttributeManager ' Find all attribute sets named "SampleSet". Dim foundEntities As ObjectCollection foundEntities = attribMgr.FindObjects("hjalte.nl") MsgBox ("Found" &foundEntities.Count & " entities.")

Re: Giving an attribute (name) to the face with largest area using iLogic

JelteDeJong — Sat, 03 Sep 2022 20:37:01 GMT

Entities are attributes with special (set)names.

Re: Giving an attribute (name) to the face with largest area using iLogic

frahaman7SKBG — Sun, 04 Sep 2022 03:59:20 GMT

I think I might have explained my problem incorrectly in the initial post. I want to use iLogic to inspect the model and Assign Entity Name on the biggest face. So instead of right click and 'Assign Entity Name', I want to do that with iLogic. Is that possible?

Re: Giving an attribute (name) to the face with largest area using iLogic

JelteDeJong — Sun, 04 Sep 2022 15:34:36 GMT

Oke creating entities is a bit more difficult. The script below will do it for you. Be aware that the entity is created but not directly visible. In some cases, you need to save and reopen the file. The script might also not work with faces of sheet metal features. If that is the case then you need to alter the script a bit to also loop over all sheet metal features while searching for the face.

Dim doc As PartDocument = ThisDoc.Document Dim biggestFace = doc.ComponentDefinition.SurfaceBodies. Cast(Of SurfaceBody). SelectMany(Of Face)(Function(f) f.Faces.Cast(Of Face)). Aggregate(Function(face, nextFace) If(face.Evaluator.Area > nextFace.Evaluator.Area, face, nextFace)) Dim nameOfYourFace = "www.hjalte.nl" Dim attSetName = "iLogicEntityNameSet" Dim attName = "iLogicEntityName" Dim attNameFeatureName = "iLogicEntityNameFeatureName" Dim EntityNameSet = "iLogicEntityNameSet" Dim entityNamesOrdered = "iLogicEntityNamesOrdered" ' Create Name attribute Dim attSet As AttributeSet If (biggestFace.AttributeSets.NameIsUsed(attSetName)) Then attSet = biggestFace.AttributeSets.Item(attSetName) Else attSet = biggestFace.AttributeSets.Add(attSetName) End If If (attSet.NameIsUsed(attName)) Then attSet.Item(attName).Value = nameOfYourFace Else attSet.Add(attName, ValueTypeEnum.kStringType, nameOfYourFace) End If ' Create Feature attribute Dim feature = Nothing For Each cFeature As PartFeature In doc.ComponentDefinition.Features If cFeature.Faces Is Nothing Then Continue For For Each cFace As Face In cFeature.Faces If (biggestFace Is cFace) Then feature = cFeature End If Next Next Dim lCont As Long = doc.ReferenceKeyManager.CreateKeyContext() Dim bKey() As Byte = New Byte() {} feature.GetReferenceKey(bKey, lCont) Dim strKey As String = doc.ReferenceKeyManager.KeyToString(bKey) If (attSet.NameIsUsed(attNameFeatureName)) Then attSet.Item(attNameFeatureName).Value = strKey Else attSet.Add(attNameFeatureName, ValueTypeEnum.kStringType, strKey) End If ' Add entity to list of entities. If (doc.AttributeSets.NameIsUsed(EntityNameSet)) Then attSet = doc.AttributeSets.Item(EntityNameSet) Else attSet = doc.AttributeSets.Add(EntityNameSet) End If If (attSet.NameIsUsed(entityNamesOrdered)) Then Dim nameListString As String = attSet.Item(entityNamesOrdered).Value If (Not nameListString.Contains(nameOfYourFace)) Then nameListString = nameListString.Trim() Dim ents = nameListString.Split(vbTab).ToList() ents.Add(nameOfYourFace) attSet.Item(entityNamesOrdered).Value = String.Join(vbTab, ents) End If Else attSet.Add(entityNamesOrdered, ValueTypeEnum.kStringType, nameOfYourFace) End If

Re: Giving an attribute (name) to the face with largest area using iLogic

frahaman7SKBG — Mon, 05 Sep 2022 00:23:20 GMT

Thank you @JelteDeJong