Electrical Trench Section Dynamic Block Problem

[murray-clack]

Hi there,

I am trying to create an electrical trench section that is a dynamic block with a direct-bury conduit.

In a perfect world, here is what I want to happen:
1. Insert my electrical trench section showing one conduit with the desired trench clearances

2. If I dynamically stretch the side of the trench horizontally at a preset increment, the trench widens, and then additional conduits array themselves

3. If I stretch the bottom of the conduit vertically at a preset increment, the bottom of trench stretches vertically downward, and the conduits that were arrayed horizontally, are now arrayed vertically.

But, as you know, you can't array an object that's already part of an array action.

So, the trick I came up with is to have two conduits on top of each other so they both get arrayed horizontally, but, one conduit gets moved downward when the trench bottom is stretched

But here's the problem.....

If I want to stretch the bottom of the trench again (to accommodate other things), I want the bottom conduit to stay put where it's at, but it keeps moving as I stretch the bottom of the trench.  

Is there a way to only allow the bottom conduit to move once while I can keep stretching the trench bottom freely?  In fact, just to throw you a curveball, I want to be able to do this with three vertical conduits.  (i.e. first conduit stays put, second conduit goes under the first after the trench stretches, and the third conduit moves below the second and stays put if I want to continue to stretch the trench bottom)

Thanks in advance

[h_s_walker]

Three visibility states are needed.

See the attached drawing for guidance. It uses a double lookup to check what the vertical distance is and then changes the visibility state to either 1, 2 or 3 conduits

[Libbya]

Post the block with drawn examples within it of how you would like it to behave.

[murray-clack]

@h_s_walker , your technique works great!  However, when I try to create my own, I can't get the lookup tables to work like yours (all three layer states show the conduits regardless of what the vertical stretch is).  I even tried just modifying yours to get the desired conduit diameter and trench offsets, but it screws up too.

I'm trying to do a 78mm DIA conduit arrayed at 190mm with 150mm clearances for the trench

[Libbya]

You need a double lookup for hwalker's version.  Here's how to make one:  https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/dynamic-blocks-forum/how-to-make-a-double-lookup/m-p/5785708

However, if I understand your request, that is probably more complicated than the block needs to be.  Here's a simpler alternative with similar functionality:  

[h_s_walker]

@murray-clack I've updated the drawing and attached it