Using a Lookup Table to designate the location of a Point Parameter?

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone, I'm still in school for drafting but managed to land a job doing mechanical drafting. I'm making a block for a condensate pot template, and I'm supposed to use Point Parameters and a Lookup Table in such a way that the Point Parameters locations are given in the properties palette. The idea is that once the template block is inserted and the proper pot configuration and size put in with the Block Table (already done), the Point Parameter locations can be used to insert the connections to the pot (they will be separate blocks). I've looked for a solution for days and can't figure it out, and it seems like nobody else on the planet has ever had this problem before.

[Libbya]

If you want the coordinates of a point parameter to show in properties (they do as default), then you can select the point parameter within the block, go to properties, and make sure the property 'show properties' = YES.  If you would like further assistance post your block.

[Anonymous]

I should have mentioned, the points need to move to correspond with specific locations on the block. How is that accomplished? I've been led to believe that's how this is supposed to happen, but as I'm hopelessly confused I could have entirely misinterpreted what I've been told.

I'm new to this forum, is there a thread or how-to on posting blocks? thank you for responding so quickly.

[Libbya]

You can use a lookup or block properties to move the point parameters.  In your initial post you mention that you already have a block properties table in place so it would see that using that for locating your point parameters would make sense unless the point parameter locations do not correspond to the block properties selections.  If you want the point parameter locations to be selected separately then a lookup would be the way to do it.  Add the lookup, add the point parameters' X and Y values as input properties, fill in the values.  

Here is a screencast that shows how to attach a file to your reply:

[Anonymous]

I don't see the screencast. I'll try to get it up after lunch.

[Anonymous]

There's the block. I have a point at the top left hole location.

I'm apparently supposed to use existing constraints to get the Lookup Table to drive the point's location. Which seems to be the most unnecessarily difficult way to do it.

[Libbya]

There probably isn't any need for any of the constraints in that block and it would be WAAAYYYY simpler to make it with a few dynamic parameters/actions instead.  I did not delve deeply into the workings of the block, so I might be wrong about that.  My personal choice would be to remake the block and delete all the unnecessary constraints but it might be a bit late in the game for a full remake.

Constraints cannot affect dynamic parameters.  You cannot use existing constraints to drive a lookup to move point parameters.  That is a non-starter.  You can, however, directly enter the point parameter's positions into the block properties table and it will move based on the row selected.  In the following screencast I demonstrate how to move the point parameter with the block properties table.  Obviously filling out the full table with appropriate values will be a monumental task.  I don't envy you.  Also, maybe a little less obviously, if dynamic parameters/actions had been used instead of constraints, you could probably simply have used the existing dynamic parameters/actions to move the point parameters (no values in tables necessary).  

[Anonymous]

Yeah, that doesn't look feasible. All four holes on the body need to be able to be independently located, and all six holes independently sized, or I could have used a lot fewer constraints. It seems that using attributes to display point coordinates is what I should be doing. Thank you so much for your help.

[Libbya · Accepted solution]

Ah, it seems like I completely misunderstood what you were looking to do.  'Designate' means to assign the position of something.  If are not wanting to designate the locations of the point parameters via a lookup and instead just want to display the coordinate values of the point parameters that can be manually placed anywhere, then that is much simpler.  Indeed, just an attribute for each point parameter with a default value of a field referencing the position parameter is all that is needed.  

[Anonymous]

That's what I ended up doing. I was presented the task in a way that was very confusing to me, and I just passed it along.