Prompted Entry within a text

[Anonymous]

Hi All. I was not able to find a similar topic, so if one does exist, i do apologize. 

I am trying to have a text and add Propted Entry to it. It is easy to add iProperties custom text, but see no option from prompted entry. Is there a way to do this within the existing text "box" without using iLogic ? It seems silly that you have to add a new text box which will contain only prompted entry... Image below should help. I have prompted entry "SHEET #" and "DWG #" and "JOB #" are iProperties - Custom properties. So the end product should look something like this <JOB #>-M-D-<DWG #>-<SHEET #>  (in the image below <SHEET #> is added manually to illustrate what i want)

thanks

[jtylerbc]

There is no concept of a "Prompted Entry" in a text box.  The whole purpose of Prompted Entry fields is to be able to fill out a piece of text in an object that is otherwise not directly editable, like a Title Block or Sketch Symbol. 

If you're using a text box, there's no reason to have prompted text, because you can just edit the text and type what you want.

Alternatively, if there is one master drawing where all the referenced notes are, and a bunch of other drawings refer to it, you could make a Custom iProperty just like you did for <JOB #> and <DWG #> and store it that way so you only have to type it once.

[Anonymous]

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jtylerbc wrote:

There is no concept of a "Prompted Entry" in a text box. 

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This is not a concept only in Inventor

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jtylerbc wrote:

If you're using a text box, there's no reason to have prompted text, because you can just edit the text and type what you want.

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If i typed in the information once at the new sheet start, why should i have to enter the text again in a text box? This is meant to be a template, so ideally , text box is not edited. 

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jtylerbc wrote:

Alternatively, if there is one master drawing where all the referenced notes are, and a bunch of other drawings refer to it, you could make a Custom iProperty just like you did for <JOB #> and <DWG #> and store it that way so you only have to type it once.

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As you probably know (hopefully), iProperties are the same across all of the sheets in the drawing. I need this information changed on a single sheet of a multiple sheet drawing.

[jtylerbc]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This is not a concept only in Inventor

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It was my understanding that your questions pertained to Inventor - if that's the case, only Inventor's features are relevant to the solution.  Features that exist in another software won't help you.  You can wish you had it, you can complain about not having it, you can try (and might even succeed) at getting it changed eventually.  But that won't help you with your drawing today, which is what I'm trying to do.

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@Anonymous wrote:

If i typed in the information once at the new sheet start, why should i have to enter the text again in a text box? This is meant to be a template, so ideally , text box is not edited. 

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Typed the information into what, specifically?  A sheet name, a title block, a custom property, another note?  Depending on exactly what you mean, there may be a way to reuse the information, but you haven't given enough information to go on.

If the content of your notes is standardized enough that the text box is not typically edited, you might want to consider using a Sketch Symbol, where you do have the ability to add prompted text entries.  You'll have to use multiple pieces of text to do so, but it is possible.

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@Anonymous wrote:

As you probably know (hopefully), iProperties are the same across all of the sheets in the drawing. I need this information changed on a single sheet of a multiple sheet drawing.

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I am aware of that, and the application I described would use that behavior intentionally.  Your intended usage is very vague from your original post, so I provided an explanation of how that feature could be used to your advantage under certain conditions if they applied to your situation.  Keep in mind that we don't know your drawing format or how you have things set up beyond what you actually tell us.

[mcgyvr]

Here you go..

Create this ilogic rule in your idw template file..

Set it to run on the "New Document" ilogic trigger...

This will prompt you when you start a new drawing to enter that information and create custom iproperties with that data entered..

Then you can do exactly what you show in your initial image but are prompted for the custom iproperty vs having to go there and create it manually..

'Prompt for the Job Number
oJob = InputBox("Enter the Job Number", "Job", )
'Set the result as a custom iproperty
iProperties.Value("Custom", "JOB #") = oJob

'Prompt for the Dwg number
oDwg = InputBox("Enter the Drawing Number", "Drawing", )
'Set the result as a custom iproperty
iProperties.Value("Custom", "DWG #") = oDwg

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! The issue with Text object is that we can overload many workflows in the dialog. Some users even want most abilities available in MS Word in Inventor Text.

Having the ability to insert a prompted text among regular text is indeed interesting. I can definitely see usage. However, the workflow can be an issue. The current prompt text workflows or the text workflows will need to be redesigned significantly to accommodate the change. There are a lot of design issues to be straighten out. For example, should the prompted text prompt user within Text dialog or outside of the dialog or both? Text is a fairly common object in Inventor, particularly in drawing. So, should this behavior be available in all Text enabled command? These questions can steer the design decision in different directions and it can incur different development cost.

At the moment, the user can simply create a prompted text as a sketch symbol. Indeed, one can argue it is not easily discoverable. But, it works and it does its purpose. Please feel free to report an idea on Inventor Ideas forum.

Many thanks!

[bryantsonnier]

I don't think you would need prompted entry while inside the text box.  Just when inserting the text block into a drawing.  This would also be very helpful with the sketch symbols feature.  Currently if i wanted to have prompted entry with text i would have to have one text box with some of the text, another with the prompted entry, and then another with the remaining text.  This would only work if the prompted input was always the same number of characters and i didn't want the ability to adjust the text box size for word wrapping depending on space.  I know coding is never as easy as "just do this" but i see it functioning much like an i-property item.   I imagine the text would look something like the following with "pe" for prompted entry and "ip" for i-property.

"Item number <pe-Item Number> is <ip-Length> long and to be labeled as <pe-part number>, <pe-description>"

This is just a rough example but it would allow for multiple prompted entries withing a single text box.  This would allow for word wrap functionality as well. 

[Hunteil]

I can definetly see the benefit of using Prompted Entries in a text box...

For instance standard note could really use this. "Part # <Prompted Entry> can be used as an alternate for Item # <Prompted Entry>". Simple things like this can be a large boon for this. Otherwise everyone has to edit sketch symbol definitions constantly, which edits the root definition. And can hurt if a company standard is to have this type of note on each sheet for different things.

If you guys make a idea suggestion. I'll back it immediately. I would love to update our set of standard notes.

[mcgyvr]

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@Hunteil wrote:

I can definetly see the benefit of using Prompted Entries in a text box...

For instance standard note could really use this. "Part # <Prompted Entry> can be used as an alternate for Item # <Prompted Entry>". Simple things like this can be a large boon for this. Otherwise everyone has to edit sketch symbol definitions constantly, which edits the root definition. And can hurt if a company standard is to have this type of note on each sheet for different things.

If you guys make a idea suggestion. I'll back it immediately. I would love to update our set of standard notes.

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@Hunteil  Currently something like that is quite easy to automate that with a simple ilogic routine.

Can you attach your idw with the standard notes (and show the <prompted entry> just like you did above in the spots you want prompted) I'd be happy to write the code to do that for you when I get a chance. 

[ben.conway8USAC]

I have got around this by creating a sketch symbol with multiple prompted entries in it. The text boxes are broken up between the required prompted entries and t arranged so that when the sketch symbol is used the result looks like a single text box. However a single text box sketch symbol with multiple prompted entries would be so much better.

First image is the Sketch Symbol Definition (4 different text boxes).

Second is the resulting prompt when placing.

Third is the result after placing in the drawing.