How do I set the photo eye type in code?

[axel_kohonen]

[ FlexSim 16.0.1 ]

Hi,

I have a photo eye that I put on a conveyor using code (just create the photo eye into the conveyor to create the link automatically) and I would want the photo to be a certain pre-defined type that I have created earlier. How can I set the type in code? Should I first create a basic photo eye with createinstance and then set the type or can I create a copy of the instance in the conveyor system?

Thank you!

Kind regards,

Axel

[Matthew_Gillespie · Accepted solution]

Photo Eyes (and all conveyor objects) have a type variable that points at their type object. This can either be a global type stored on the Conveyor System object or a custom type stored in the objects variables.

To set the type just point the type variable at the desired type:

treenode photoEye = node("PE1", model());
treenode typeVar = getvarnode(photoEye, "type");
treenode desiredType = node("ConveyorSystem>variables/photoEyeTypes/PEType1", model());

nodepoint(typeVar, desiredType);

You can sample the types in the toolbox from the sampler in the script console to get the paths to each type.

To set the type to custom point the "type" variable at the object's "localType" variable.

[arunTTT2P]

Hi Mathew,

Can you explain why you used nodepoint() command?

Is the photo eye type a coupling data in the photo-eye object.

Regards,

Arun KR

[axel_kohonen]

Thank you Matthew! Works well. I would like to know the answer to Arun's comment as well.

Axel

[Matthew_Gillespie]

Yes, I used the nodepoint command because the type variable has coupling data. This means it stores a reference to another node, or that it "points" at another node. The way that you set what a coupling node is pointing at is to use the nodepoint command.

@Axel Kohonen

[Ben_WilsonADSK]

Anyone finding this thread looking for more information on couplings, in addition to the nodepoint() command, which is a one-way pointer, be sure to check out createcoupling(), which creates a two-way pointer/reference.