topic Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic in Inventor Programming Forum

Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

Aubrey_Campbell — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 13:49:17 GMT

Hello,

I am new to writing code in iLogic (in fact this is my first attempt). As such I apologize in advance for my complete ignorance on the subject.

I have searched the forum and found similar topics on the bits and pieces I need. Unfortunately, I don't understand the syntax well enough to modify them to suite my needs, hence this post asking for help.

The goal is to create an external rule that will look at all .ipt files in an assembly (don't look at .iam files) and read a custom property ("CC Assy?" is the custom property. This custom property will serve as my "Flag".). This property will either be set to "yes" or "no" within the .ipt file iProperties.

If the rule reads an .ipt file with "CC Assy?" set to "no", do nothing. If the rule reads an .ipt file with "CC Assy?" set to "yes", then I need the code to read the "Part Name" from the iProperties

Now that we have a part number (probably stored as a variable) the code needs to do a Replace component on that .ipt. The code needs to look in all these (below) folders (they are all sub folders of a single directory) and find the .iam with file name = Part Name read earlier in the code. Preferably, only look in these folders one level deep (don't look in subfolders of the folders shown below).

Once the .iam file is found, do a Replace component and replace the .ipt with the .iam found in one of the folders above.

I'm sure you can tell what I'm trying to do at this point (based on the title of the post). The purpose is to allow me to put commonly used assemblies in the content center so they can be quickly and easily accessed. Because CC does not allow .iam files, I will simply place a representative .ipt file in the CC and manually trigger the iLogic code I'm trying to write to automatically replace the representative .ipt file with the correct .iam

The code will need perform the replace on all instances of the representative .ipt file placed from the CC.

Thank you in advance for any help anyone is able to offer!

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

CGBenner — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 13:58:02 GMT

@Aubrey_Campbell

Wouldnt it be quicker and a lot less work to just place the .iam in your designs right away, from wherever they reside? Maybe I'm not understanding your workflow?

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

Aubrey_Campbell — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 14:28:10 GMT

Not necessarily. Some commonly used assemblies work/go together and are stored in different folders. Also, each folder has a larger number of files in it with file names that are simply a letter and an 8 digit number making it sometimes time consuming (to a small degree, granted) to track them down. Also, it will help to error proof engineers placing components that don't go together. Furthermore, I have all our commonly used parts nicely organized in a quick and easy to find manner in the content center. It would be great to do the same for commonly used assemblies that never get edited.

I understand the CC is not meant to be used this way (hence the 'work around'). The CC is meant to 'build' a part based on parameters in the family table. However, the 'dumbed down' application of the CC I am attempting would be very useful in allowing me to access commonly used parts and assemblies all in one place, nicely organized and that organization doesn't have to follow my company's file storing (or naming) scheme.

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

theo.bot — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 14:55:24 GMT

I'm wondering how you organize your data today. If you use Vault workgroup or professional you are in control of your data. You can work work with shortcuts to frequently used assemblies. Or used the search capabilities to quickly find data that need to be reused. I don't think automation will speed up your process, using a data management system will.

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

Aubrey_Campbell — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 15:03:39 GMT

You are correct, Vault would help with this issue. However, we do not yet have Vault and a lot of our assemblies are not 'clean' enough to go into Vault. Seeing as how I only have Inventor to work with (no Vault or data management system) I need to make use of the CC for this purpose. ... of course it is always easier to spend more money and purchase more products (minus the pains and large undertaking of migration and training) but is not currently an option.

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

theo.bot — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 06:45:10 GMT

@Aubrey_Campbell

That's fine :-). off course we're not here to sell products, but at least have a discussion that helps you in finding your solution.

Before you start with automation, did you you manually tried this workflow in your models. The reason why I ask this is because you want to replace a part with a assembly. In most cases components are constraint with other components, when you replace a part with an assembly these constrains might fail or result in an error. So you might need to include this in your code.

I would advise go in baby steps, if this is your first time to create a code. Here are some good guides for your workflow:

understand the assembly structure and how to loop thru the data.
Mod the Machine: Accessing Assembly Components (typepad.com)
understand iproperties
Mod the Machine: Accessing iProperties (typepad.com)
replace component
Replace a Component in an Assembly and Maintain Constraints Using the API - Manufacturing DevBlog (typepad.com)
Find documents in folder
How to: Find Files with a Specific Pattern - Visual Basic | Microsoft Docs

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

Aubrey_Campbell — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 15:12:51 GMT

@theo.bot

Thank you for the information!! This looks like the track I need to be on.

To answer your question, Yes, I have tested this process manually and it works well. I have not had any issues with constraints or joints breaking. ... We are talking about simple assemblies here; actuators, door switches, hinges and so on. Most assemblies only have 2 parts in them. Some of these assemblies don't even have constraints or joints (like door safety switch, which is just a magnet and a sensor in a flexible assembly).

Just so everyone is clear, here are more specifics on my situation:

My company uses a numbering system that consists of a specific letter (A, M, P, or Z) and 8 digits. An example of a purchased part would be "P10006521". If an engineer creates a new purchased part (downloads model from the vendor and adds to our system) they pull a new "P-Number" and that P-Number will be the next number in the sequence. All of these P-Numbers are stored in sorted folders (see image below).

When the P-Number is pulled by the engineer it is written to a spreadsheet we use as our parts library (all parts are in this spreadsheet with descriptions, manufacturer, manufacturer's part number and so on).

Now imagine it's 6 months after you created a P-Number and put it in the appropriate folder. Let's say it's a particular door switch and you need to use it again on your current project. You are not going to remember what that number was, therefore, you will not know which folder it is in. So, we search the spreadsheet, however, this relies on you having some information about the part. If you don't remember any details about the part, hopefully you remember what project you used it on and you can open that project to find it. Short of that, you would have to drill through folders on a blind hunt. Another problem with the spreadsheet (and searching in Vault, for that matter) is that key words need to be consistent which is very hard to get a group of people to do, particularly as new key words are needed; it becomes a task just keeping track of what you should call what. For example, I might call it a door safety switch whereas the guy at the desk behind me might call it a magnetic interlock. Also, key words could be spelled incorrectly by mistake. There is a lot of room for error when we rely on a group to all do the same exact thing at all times. These issues have led to some of us creating duplicate parts with different part numbers because we weren't able to find in the spreadsheet or folders a particular part we needed, when it actually did already exist somewhere.

My content center does have traditional CC parts that operate as CC parts are meant to operate (fasteners, for example). However, I also have commonly used parts in the CC for convenience and organization. These parts only have one row in their family tables and are not dynamic the way bolts are.

At home, I keep all my tools in as few tool boxes as possible and I keep those tool boxes together so all my tools are right at my fingertips and I know where to find anything I need to do the job at hand. Why would anyone not want the same for all commonly used parts and assemblies (assemblies that do not get edited, so they will always be the same from one project to the next, like purchased parts; actuators or door switches, for example)?

In the CC I can neatly organize all of our commonly used parts and assemblies in a manner that makes sense and is not tied to the part number (our folder system).

For example, If I need an actuator (.iam file), I can just open the CC, expand the pneumatics category and look at all the actuators we currently use. This will also help to greatly reduce the risk of repeated parts with different part numbers.

Wouldn't it be great if you could open one tool box and in it are all your fasteners, gussets, extrusions, actuators, robots, and so on? Who wouldn't want that??

This system also helps with constancy; I want all my machines to be uniform looking (same hinges and doors where possible, for example) and I want all my engineers to do the same so our machines are uniform and constant looking from factory to factory. Also, If a customer buys a machine, then another years later, I don't want to have to worry about what I gave them last time to make sure they match when the new one gets there.

... And I know someone will probably suggest we change the way we store our parts, or something to that effect. However, this is not an option!

I do understand this is not how CC was meant to be used, and to that I say, "why not?" Just because the developers didn't see the application, doesn't mean there isn't one! Isn't that what iLogic is for anyways; to do ANYTHING we need to that is not already a function of Inventor? It is certainly robust enough to get the job done!

I hope this makes sense and paints a more clear picture for anyone willing to help.

I really do appreciate any and all help from anyone and, specifically, thank you to @theo.bot for pointing me in a direction to get me started!

Searching the forums, I see others have attempted something similar to this in the past. For the benefit of those and others in the future, I will post my code if/when I have something working.

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

A.Acheson — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 22:46:21 GMT

A nice and clear explanation of the workflow. Of course there is more than one way to carry out these tasks and for sure having a nice assembly library with the functionality of the CC is something that should have been created all ready.

I am happy to lend a hand. Do you prefer to start writing the rule yourself based on @theo.bot links or would you prefer assistants at this stage? Either way I will work on this in the background as it is an interesting challenge and will post my version if you require assistance. From experience the more you read and do and get wrong the more knowledge goes in. Sure copying and pasting a rule from the forum is great but understanding what it does before you press the button really helps to learn and avoid error after error.

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

Aubrey_Campbell — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 13:46:48 GMT

Thank you very much @A.Acheson!! Help is much appreciated!

I agree, the best way to learn is to stumble a little. So, let me take a crack at it based on the info @theo.bot has provided. I'm sure I will get stuck and it will be great to compare notes/code when I get a little more done with it.

Thank you again for the offer of help! ... I will post what I have when I have something.

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

Aubrey_Campbell — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 19:44:10 GMT

Reading through the documents @theo.bot provided, I am trying to run the sample code in the documents to better understand. However, I am having a little trouble with the first sample.

Below is the sample code I am trying to run and here is the link: https://modthemachine.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/03/accessing-assembly-components.html

Public Sub TraverseAssemblySample() ' Get the active assembly. Dim oAsmDoc As AssemblyDocument Set oAsmDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument Debug.Print oAsmDoc.DisplayName ' Call the function that does the recursion. Call TraverseAssembly(oAsmDoc.ComponentDefinition.Occurrences, 1) End Sub Private Sub TraverseAssembly(Occurrences As ComponentOccurrences, _ Level As Integer) ' Iterate through all of the occurrence in this collection. This ' represents the occurrences at the top level of an assembly. Dim oOcc As ComponentOccurrence For Each oOcc In Occurrences ' Print the name of the current occurrence. Debug.Print Space(Level * 3) & oOcc.Name ' Check to see if this occurrence represents a subassembly ' and recursively call this function to traverse through it. If oOcc.DefinitionDocumentType = kAssemblyDocumentObject Then Call TraverseAssembly(oOcc.SubOccurrences, Level + 1) End If Next End Sub

When I hit Save I get an error message that says "Error in rule program format: The rule must contain: Sub Main() ... End Sub"

Can someone please explain? I would think this code should work as it is a teaching sample. What am I missing?

Thanks!!

--- It appears this code is VB. I am pretty sure I got it to work in the VBA editor. What would be the iLogic equivalent? ... or is it not that simple?

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

Aubrey_Campbell — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 21:49:08 GMT

Ok, So I have a new piece of code I am working with and trying to understand. Also, I think this code is close to what I need for part of what I am trying to do (reading through each part in the assembly).

The problem I'm having with the code is that it does not look for the "flag" properly (see if custom iProperty "CC ASSY?" is set to "yes"). In addition, the code pulls the Part Name from the iProperties of the assembly and not each part in the assembly.

Dim AssyPN As String Dim AssyNum As String ' Get the active assembly document. Dim oAsmDoc As AssemblyDocument = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument ' Iterate through all of the documents referenced by the assembly. Dim oDoc As Document For Each oDoc In oAsmDoc.AllReferencedDocuments ' Verify that the document is a part. If oDoc.DocumentType = kPartDocumentObject Then Dim oPartDoc As PartDocument = oDoc 'Manipulate part Dim model As String = oPartDoc.DisplayName 'model = model & ".ipt" Try If iProperties.Value("Custom", "CC Assy?") = Yes Then AssyNum = iProperties.Value("Summary", "Title") MessageBox.Show("Assy Part NUmber is: " & AssyNum, "Assy Number To Find") Else End If Catch MessageBox.Show("Must manually change " & model) End Try End If Next

For my education:
'Dim': it looks like this is a command used to declare a variable. Is that accurate? Is there any more nuance to it?

Also, I noticed in a lot of code I see posted it looks as though most people put an 'o' in front of their variable names (for example, 'oDoc' in the code above). Is there a reason for this convention?

I am not used to object based programming and this seems to be a major source of my troubles. I thought I would need a loop (and a counter of some sort, like 'i=i+1') to iterate through each element in the assembly. .... or do I, and that is why my code is not working?

Thank you!

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

A.Acheson — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 01:43:50 GMT

Yes you are correct this is VBA sample. And this will work out of the box in VBA. This sample is actually from the API help documentation that comes with Inventor. The online help can be found Here, although it can be tricky to navigate as samples and non API descriptions come up in your search. The built in API help documentation can be found here and is more direct but you have to be a little more precise with the key words, less is more. The majority of the Help is written in VBA.

In the ilogic rule editor you would need to run this as VB.NET so you need the following changes.

Sub Main and End Sub always. The sub routines calls then go in between and the sub routine code outside of this.
Delete the word Set from all the rule.
“Debug.Print” can be replaced by Logger.Info () link here.
Optional: Call in-front of sub routine name and arguments can be dropped. The documentation says to drop it however I haven’t seen any errors if left in. It can be easier to spot the sub routine line.

Sub Main() TraverseAssemblySample() End Sub Public Sub TraverseAssemblySample() ' Get the active assembly. Dim oAsmDoc As AssemblyDocument oAsmDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument Logger.Info(oAsmDoc.DisplayName) ' Call the function that does the recursion. TraverseAssembly(oAsmDoc.ComponentDefinition.Occurrences, 1) End Sub Private Sub TraverseAssembly(Occurrences As ComponentOccurrences, _ Level As Integer) ' Iterate through all of the occurrence in this collection. This ' represents the occurrences at the top level of an assembly. Dim oOcc As ComponentOccurrence For Each oOcc In Occurrences ' Print the name of the current occurrence. Logger.Info( Space(Level * 3) & oOcc.Name ' Check to see if this occurrence represents a subassembly ' and recursively call this function to traverse through it. If oOcc.DefinitionDocumentType = kAssemblyDocumentObject Then TraverseAssembly(oOcc.SubOccurrences, Level + 1) End If Next End Sub

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

A.Acheson — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 01:41:26 GMT

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

A.Acheson — Tue, 07 Dec 2021 05:08:30 GMT

You are correct, you are currently using the ilogic snippet which is a shorten version of the API method to get and set iproperties and there values. As it is set up below the the document reference is omitted so it will only look at the document the rule is called from in this case the assembly.

iProperties.Value("Custom", "CC Assy?")

What is missing is the document reference. The above can also be written as below using the display name which is the occurrence name also. This ties the document to the iproperty.

iProperties.Value(oAsmDoc.DisplayName,"Custom", "CC Assy?")

The sample you have below will work to get the document references but you will still have to get a hold of the occurrences to carry out any change in the assembly. I would stick with the occurrence looping. But this is a good a start and useful for iproperty work.

Here is a working version of your code. Note the API access vs the ilogic snippet access. The ilogic snippets can be a bit troublesome at times and does not always give error messages. Using the API is more robust for adding iproperties.

' Get the active assembly document. Dim oAsmDoc As AssemblyDocument = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument ' Iterate through all of the documents referenced by the assembly. Dim oDoc As Document For Each oDoc In oAsmDoc.AllReferencedDocuments ' Verify that the document is a part. If oDoc.DocumentType = DocumentTypeEnum.kPartDocumentObject Then Dim oPartDoc As PartDocument = oDoc '[API Property Access Try ' ' Get the User Defined property set. ' Dim UserDefinedPropSet As PropertySet ' UserDefinedPropSet = oPartDoc.PropertySets.Item("Inventor User Defined Properties") ' ' Get the Size property. ' Dim AssyCheck As Inventor.Property ' AssyCheck = UserDefinedPropSet.Item("CC Assy") ' Dim Ans As Boolean ' Ans = AssyCheck.Value ' If Ans = True Then ' Logger.Info("Yes:" & oPartDoc.DisplayName) ' ElseIf Ans = False Then ' Logger.Info("No:" & oPartDoc.DisplayName) ' End If Catch End Try '] '[iLogic Snippets Try Dim Ans As Boolean Ans = iProperties.Value(oPartDoc.DisplayName,"Custom", "CC Assy") If Ans = True Then Logger.Info("Yes:" & oPartDoc.DisplayName) Dim AssyNum As String AssyNum = iProperties.Value(oPartDoc.DisplayName,"Summary", "Title") Logger.Info("Part Name: "& AssyNum, oPartDoc.DisplayName) ElseIf Ans = False Then Logger.Info("No:" & oPartDoc.DisplayName) End If Catch End Try '] End If Next

The Dim remark sounds about right, o is really just an easy way to identify a variable, there is no hard and fast rule on this.

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

theo.bot — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 11:36:14 GMT

@Aubrey_Campbell

great to see you already made some progress with the support of @A.Acheson.

I just want to add a great 50 minute session from AU that will get you up to speed in learning programming in I logic.
ilogic Best Practices and Fundamentals for Success | Autodesk University

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

Aubrey_Campbell — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 15:57:10 GMT

Thank you very much @theo.bot !

I will watch the video you have provided.

it definitely feels like I am starting to get somewhere with my code, (special thanks to @A.Acheson for that!!). I can finally see the code running through all the parts in my assembly but is no accurately capturing my 'Flag' for each part. I will work on it today and hopefully get posted what I have and what I think is going wrong later today.

Thank you, again!!

---- Update ----

I have watched the video and it was definitely worth a look as it helped to fill in some blanks for me regarding the basics. Thank you, again!!

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

Aubrey_Campbell — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 21:33:50 GMT

@A.Acheson

Thank you for the information and explanations. To avoid confusion (on my part) I will try to steer clear of the VBA code. ... If I understand correctly that this is an option.

As such, I have been working with the second set of code you posted.

The first bit of this code is all commented out (the bit that starts with

'[API Property Access

)

It looks like the second bit of code does the same thing (the bit that starts with

'[iLogic Snippets

), therefore, the API property access part of the code that is all commented out is not needed. Is that accurate?

Here is a snap shot of my browser tree:

Does the code read this list from top to bottom, or bottom to top? I would think it would be top to bottom, but it seems to be reading from bottom to top.

As you can see, I have 2 content center parts (.ipt), 2 regular parts (.ipt) and 1 assembly (.iam)

My idea for debugging and testing is to have 2 CC parts (one with Custom iProperty "CC Assy?" set to 'yes' and the other set to 'no'), 2 standard (or regular) parts (one with Custom iProperty "CC Assy?" set to 'yes' and the other set to 'no') and one assembly. The code should identify the one standard part and one CC part the has Custom iProperty "CC Assy?" set to 'yes' and pull the values from the iProperties 'Part Name' field of each of those parts (later, the code will need to look for those part names in the folder locations to perform replace on them). The code should ignore the assembly and the other standard part and CC part that have Custom iProperty "CC Assy?" set to 'no'

Here are some of the issues I have noticed with the code:

1. It seems to be looking at parts that make up the sub assembly (P10001446). The code is supposed to do nothing if the file type is an assembly.

2. The code does not seem to be identifying all parts that have the custom iProperty "CC Assy?" set to "yes".

3. The code seems to be treating the 2 parts from the CC in a different manner than the 2 standard parts.

4. Only one of the parts with custom iProperty "CC Assy?" set to "yes" is getting its part name pulled. The code should pull part name from both parts with custom iProperty "CC Assy?" set to "yes".

I have heavily commented the code (my comments/questions have "*****" in front). I created these comments to confirm I know what each line of the code is doing. There are also specific questions peppered in there. Please let me know if any of my comments or assumptions as to what each line is doing is correct or not. I really need to make sure I understand the meaning of all the code to help me get it doing what I need. I may be wrong about what some of the code is doing and if this is the case, it is definitely contributing to my difficulties.

Here is the code:

' Get the active assembly document. '***** oAsmDoc is a variable and has been type cast as an '***** Assembly Document And Is Set equal To the current active document Dim oAsmDoc As AssemblyDocument = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument ' Iterate through all of the documents referenced by the assembly. '***** oDoc is a variable and has been type cast as a document. '***** So, oDoc represents a document Dim oDoc As Document '***** 'For Each' looks at each oDoc (which was earlier set to the active document). '***** So, essentially, this looks at Each document that is refenced by the assembly. For Each oDoc In oAsmDoc.AllReferencedDocuments ' Verify that the document is a part. '***** This line looks at the type of document the variable oDoc holds and checks to see if it is part document '***** Line 25 is below this line If oDoc.DocumentType = DocumentTypeEnum.kPartDocumentObject Then '***** If the variable oDoc contains a part ducument, then a message box that says "Doc is a Part" is displayed MessageBox.Show("Doc is a Part", "Title") '***** If variable oDoc contains a part ducument, declare a new variable called oPartDoc and type cast it to be '***** a part document and set oPartDoc equal to oDoc '***** Why is this line needed? Are we creating a superfluous variable? At this point, hasn't it already been '***** established that the variable oDoc contains a part Document? Dim oPartDoc As PartDocument = oDoc '[iLogic Snippets '***** Declare a new variable called Ans and it is boolean type. '***** Can Boolean Type be any Of these: "yes/no", "true/false", or "0/1"? Or, are only one of those three sets valid? Dim Ans As Boolean Try '***** write to the log the display name (from the browser tree, I assume. Is that accurate?) Logger.Info("oPartDoc Name: " & oPartDoc.DisplayName) '***** Set variable Ans = to the custom iProperty called CC_Assy? Ans = iProperties.Value(oPartDoc.DisplayName, "Custom", "CC_Assy?") '***** write to the log the value Ans has stored in it Logger.Info("Ans: " & Ans) '***** Check to see if Ans is true (value in custom iProperty for 'CC Assy?' is 'yes') If Ans = True Then '***** write to the log the display name of the part that has custom iProperty for 'CC Assy?' set to 'yes' Logger.Info("True: " & oPartDoc.DisplayName) '***** Declare a new variable called 'AssyNum' and its type is a string of characters Dim AssyNum As String '***** Set the variable 'AssyNum' equal to the 'Title' of the part from the iPorperties. '***** This part of the code now holds the part number I will need future code (yet to '***** be written) To find In my folders And perform a Replace On AssyNum = iProperties.Value(oPartDoc.DisplayName, "Summary", "Title") '***** Write to the log the value stored in 'AssyNum'. I am not sure about the 'oPartDoc.DisplayName' '***** after the comma. What is it doeing in this context? Logger.Info("Part Name: " & AssyNum, oPartDoc.DisplayName) '***** If Ans is false (set to 'no' in the iProperties under the Custom field 'CC Assy?'), '***** Write to the log the part name With the word False In front Of it. ElseIf Ans = False Then '***** Write to the log Logger.Info("False: " & oPartDoc.DisplayName) End If '***** If the Try does not work, display a text message saying "Failed" Catch MessageBox.Show("Failed", "Title") End Try '] '***** If the If Statment on line 26 is not satisfied, do nothing. In other words, if the document is not a part, '***** do nothing. Else '***** End of If Statement on line 26 End If Next

Attached are my part files (and the one assembly) you see in the browser tree image above.

Thank you for all the help! It is greatly appreciated!

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

A.Acheson — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 00:05:48 GMT

The issues I have found are related read only status of Content center files, ilogic iProperty snippet and the lack of a boolean parameter in the ipart table in content center.

For the CC file I couldn't export a boolean parameter as custom iProperty so I had to use a string of "Yes" or "No"

The ilogic iproperty snippet will not work as it is trying to write to the read only CC file and not just read the value.

Solution is to use the API property method.

The reason your are seeing the parts contained in the sub assemblies is that the loop is working through every document in the main assembly shown by "AllReferencedDocuments". It is filtering on parts only.

For Each oDoc In oAsmDoc.AllReferencedDocuments

Working flag identifier code testing using 2020 files.

'[
' Get the active assembly document.
Dim oAsmDoc As AssemblyDocument = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument

' Iterate through all of the documents referenced by the assembly.
Dim oDoc As Document

For Each oDoc In oAsmDoc.AllReferencedDocuments

' Verify that the document is a part.
    If oDoc.DocumentType = DocumentTypeEnum.kPartDocumentObject Then    
        Dim oPartDoc As PartDocument = oDoc
	
	'[API Property Access
	Try
		' Get the User Defined property set.
		Dim UserDefinedPropSet As PropertySet
		UserDefinedPropSet = oPartDoc.PropertySets.Item("Inventor User Defined Properties")

		' Get the Size property.
		Dim AssyCheck As Inventor.Property
		AssyCheck = UserDefinedPropSet.Item("CC_Assy?")
		
		Dim Ans As String
		Ans = AssyCheck.Value
		
		If Ans = "Yes" Then
			 Logger.Info("UserDefinedPropSet-Yes:" & oPartDoc.DisplayName)
		ElseIf Ans = "No" Then
			  Logger.Info("UserDefinedPropSet-No:" & oPartDoc.DisplayName)
		End If
	Catch
		Logger.Info("UserDefinedPropSet-error:" & oPartDoc.DisplayName)
	End Try
		']
		
	
	'[iLogic Snippets used for testing, does not work on read only files from cc files, trying to write instead of read. 
	
'	Try	
'	Dim Ans As String
'	Ans = iProperties.Value(oPartDoc.DisplayName, "Custom", "CC_Assy?")
	
'	If Ans = "Yes" Then
'		 Logger.Info("Yes:" & oPartDoc.DisplayName)
'	ElseIf Ans = "No" Then
'		  Logger.Info("No:" & oPartDoc.DisplayName)
'	End If
	
'	Catch
'		Logger.Info("ilogic iproperty error:" & oPartDoc.DisplayName)
'	End Try
	']
    End If
Next

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

A.Acheson — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 07:31:05 GMT

And the answer to some of those questions.
For Each oDoc In oAsmDoc.AllReferencedDocuments

' Verify that the document is a part.

ODoc here could be either an assembly document or part document
If oDoc.DocumentType = DocumentTypeEnum.kPartDocumentObject Then
ODoc here is now a still a regular Document but you will not have access to the part specific objects, functions and collections such as sketch, etc in the drop down lists.

***** Why is this line needed? Are we creating a superfluous variable? At this point, hasn't it already been
'***** established that the variable oDoc contains a part Document?
Dim oPartDoc As PartDocument = oDoc

Passing the object to the new variable oPartDoc allows this to happen.

'***** Can Boolean Type be any Of these: "yes/no", "true/false", or "0/1"? Or, are only one of those three sets valid?
Dim Ans As Boolean
True/False were the only values that could be used in the editor to check if a yes/ no value was used in custom iproperty, I didn't check 0/1. As explained above CC files did not allow boolean to be used.

Re: Work Around To Get Assemblies In Content Center Using "Flags" and Replace With iLogic

Aubrey_Campbell — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 15:06:36 GMT

Thank you @A.Acheson !

I find it odd that you can't write to these CC files. Custom CC libraries are read/write. These parts are all from a custom CC library I created. Also, as you can see from the image below, my custom read/write CC library is the only one active in my test project.

Also, I can manually write info to the iProperties on these CC files.

The grayed out buttons show the input has been accepted.

It will not be a problem if we have to put the flag in the family table, or iPart table. Maybe this is preferable as it keeps the flag a little 'deeper' in the system so the value cannot be accidently changed by another engineer editing iProperties.