Automatic Dimension Retrieval

[Anonymous]

I have some drawings that have multiple pages, views, and bodies. I have all of the views set and they scale properly. The problem I'm having is that there are about 8 different part configurations, each with their own body. At any time, only 1 configuration will be unsupressed while the others are suppressed. What I've tried so far is to place the view, dimension it, add the dimensions to layers, then suppress the view and turn the layer off. ( I also preserve orphaned annotations). The problem is, if I change which part is suppressed, the dimensions reappear but don't always reattach because the line that it was attached to moved. Is there any way to make it find the line you want it to attach to using ilogic code? Or, is it possible to somehow select in the part file, which dimensions you want to be displayed on the drawing and have it only display those? Any other ideas?

[cbenner]

First... version of Inventor?

I'm not sure I understand.  Are you trying to change each page from one model config to another?  Is this in between released states, like trying to decide which version to release?  I'm not clear on what your after for a finished drawing.

[Anonymous]

2016 I have a drawing, and I want to have all of the relevant dimensions appear. Probably using iLogic or vba. I can place all dimensions by hand but then when the view gets suppressed then unsupressed, the dimensions become orphaned so it doesn't help as much as I'd like.

[cbenner · Accepted solution]

I guess my question is why are you suppressing and unsuppressing views in a drawing?  Or does this orphaning in the drawing occur when you suppress and unsupress in the model, then return to the drawing?

[Anonymous]

The second one. It happens when I suppress parts of the model then return to the drawing. I modeled all possible parts as solid bodies in a single part file, then selected "make component" to put everything into an assembly. Depending on which options you select, certain components are suppressed in both the assembly and drawing while others remain. The problem is in the view of the entire assembly when I dimension something and then it gets suppressed. When I bring that part back sometime in the future, the dimension will be orphaned and i'll manually have to reconnect it only for it to become orphaned again when the model changes. Does that make sense?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I found a solution. Instead of suppressing my parts at the part and assembly level, I let them remain active. I changed the ilogic code that suppressed the parts to code that set it as not visible and the BOM structure as reference depending on the options that were selected at the assembly level. This way, the geometry will always exist and I can just add it to a layer at the drawing level to make it not visible. Good question @cbenner!

[cbenner]

Thanks, Nick.  I'm glad you found a solution!  I'm happy to help even if all I did was get you thinking in a different direction.