Changing Model States modifies View Representations

[seanlevy]

Hello,

I am having a problem with Model States and View Representations. I have an assembly with a component pattern of subassemblies. Those subassemblies have a "LESS HARDWARE" View Representation to turn the visibility off of common nuts, bolts, spacers, etc to conserve memory and declutter drawing views. When I go between two model states that change the parameters of the component pattern, elements that are added back when the parameters increase always default back to a "Master" View Representation.

I am not sure if this is the intended (or unintended) functionality, or I am missing a step in my work flow. To change the view representation of the sub assemblies, I select one of them inside the pattern elements, and choose "Select all Occurrences" then "Representation..." and change the design view in the dialogue box.  This works as expected until I change away from and then back to the larger component pattern model states. I have tried making the view changes with single and all model state scopes selected, and tried making the view changes associative. 

Any insight into this problem would be greatly appreciated.

-Thanks

Inventor Professional 2022 64-Bit Build 153, Release 2022.0.1

Dell Precision 7820 Tower w/ Windows 10 Pro 20H2

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! This was discussed recently. There isn't an out-of-box solution to link Design View to Model State. But, it can be done via iLogic. @Curtis_Waguespack provided a few solutions. Please take a look.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-forum/model-state-view-in-part/td-p/10315317

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-forum/inventor-2022-model-states-colors/td-p/10401456

Many thanks!

[seanlevy]

Thanks for the Reply,

I saw those posts and I don't think they quite apply to my situation. I don't want the view representations to change with a change in model state.  When pattern elements are added back to the assembly via a parameter change controlled by the model state, the subassemblies reappear with the "Master" view representation selected, not the one driven by the parent view representation in the browser tree. Subassembly elements that are common between the two model states of the component pattern retain the correct design view. 

Example:

Top level Assembly View Representation "LESS HARDWARE"

Model State A: Component pattern 1 has 6 Elements

Model State B: Component pattern 1 has 10 Elements

Start with Model State B:

10 subassemblies with View Representations "LESS HARDWARE"

Switch to Model State A:

6 subassemblies with View Representations "LESS HARDWARE"

Switch back to Model State B

6 subassemblies with View Representations "LESS HARDWARE", and 4 subassemblies with View Representations "MASTER"

[BDCollett]

Are you able to do a screencast showing the behavior? 

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I see the issue. The newly added pattern instances may not obey the pattern source design view. This behavior can be reproduced without using Model States. Simply change the number of pattern instance and switch between the Design View.

I think iLogic can help here. Let me ping @Curtis_Waguespack to the thread.

Hi Curtis,

Could you take a quick look at this issue? Would iLogic be able to help synchronize the design view between Model States?

Many thanks!

[Curtis_Waguespack]

---

@johnsonshiue wrote:

Hi Curtis,

Could you take a quick look at this issue? Would iLogic be able to help synchronize the design view between Model States?

Many thanks!

---

Hi everyone,

I didn't get a change to look at this today, but will try to do so tomorrow.

[Curtis_Waguespack]

HI @seanlevy 

Are your View Reps set to be associative?

I think that fixed the issue for me, but I might not have had my test files set up to see the issue correctly.

Can you create a simple file set that demonstrates this issue and attach it here in a zip file?

It can just be an assembly with a few simple parts, doesn't need to be anything specific.

I have attempted to capture what you describe, but I might not be seeing the exact thing.

Thanks,
Curtis

[seanlevy]

Hey @Curtis_Waguespack 

I did try to set it as associative, and it did not have any change. I have attached a sample assembly with two model states and "LESS HARDWARE" view representation. I have also included two screen shots of each model state active. The only thing that changes between the two is the number of elements in the component pattern.

Thanks

-Sean

[Curtis_Waguespack]

 Hi @seanlevy 

Thanks to the example files I see the issue clearly now.

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Hi @seanlevy 

I'm not sure we're going to get View Reps and Model States to play well together... I'm not saying we shouldn't expect them to, or that there isn't some way to automate them to stay linked... but I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

I think the solution would be to copy the View rep to be a model state in the subassembly, and then use that, rather than the view rep in the pattern instances.... 

I tried to make a quick video of this too... there might be a couple of misclicks, but hopefully it's not too hard to follow... note that was deleting the view reps in this, just for the sake of clarity... you might choose to keep them? 

But my feeling is that I would probably use Model States or View Reps, but not combine them...

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[seanlevy]

Hey, @Curtis_Waguespack 

Thanks for taking a look at it. With the old level of detail functionality that was my work flow, but with this latest release, I am trying to take advantage of the new Model State features to solve some other problems and combine repetitive models, hence the pattern changes. I might look at creating an iLogic rule down the road to check all the view reps when a model state is changed similar to the posts @johnsonshiue referenced. I hesitate to call this solved at the time being so no one else clicks in with high hopes, but I do appreciate the help. 

Thanks again,

Sean

[WK-VA]

Hi all,

could this be related to some similar issue?

Using "Isolate"/"Undo Isolate" as well as turning a components visibility off/on makes Inventor lose the information which DesignViewRepresentation used to be specified before isolating/turning visibility off. So after isolation is undone or visibility is turned on again, the components appear in Master DesignViewRepresentation.

In these cases however, the user gets informed about what going to happen when isolating/turning visibility off and can refuse to proceed - which doesn't help in any way, so in order to just not show something temporarily you're forced to accept this flaw. Oh how I wish for Catia's simple-to-the-bone and user friendly Hide/Show function or the analogue of SolidWorks...

Anyway, this behaviour seems to be "by design" of Inventor itself. So anything that's appearing "newly" will appear with Master DesignViewRepresentation. Increasing the number of elements in a pattern is considered "appearing newly" and that's it. In this case I believe the new elements should inherit all properties from the first element - including the specific information about DesignViewRepresentation (and associativity).

Best regards

WK

[s.bayat]

Hi,

What will works, is to make sure that a model state is defined in all the subassemblies with the same name as your total assembly. While making model state in your sub-assemblies, make sure that you also make view representation with the same name as your model state. Once in your total assembly through view representation set in the total assembly the model state and view representation in your sub-assembly the correct model state. By doing so, you defined fully what you want to show. I hope this would help you out.

Seyar