Flexible User Symbols in .idw

[wimann]

I was on the verge of posting this in the "Ideas' forum but I just thought I'd ask first - just in case.

So I've been presented with this idea before but I didn't think it was possible. Now I'm thinking it might be (with your help) and if it's not, then it certainly ought to be.

I would like to be able to place a user symbol in an .idw and change it's appearance based on a prompted variable. A good example of this, in my industry, would be a north arrow that shows both "Platform North" and "True North" (see attached). The arrow we would use now does not actually adjust by the value entered, it instead simply changes the text value.

This could be used in other instances to make different symbols flex and bend to the users specific needs while maintaining the user's company's standards.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Will

[admaiora]

A sort of an AutoCAD Dynamic Block? Nice!

[coreyparks]

For what we do I con only think of one symbol it would work for.  This would have been very helpful in the past at other jobs though.

[wimann]

For us, I can think of several. The very least of which being section labels. I may be wrong but from what I've seen, most companies don't use the inventor generated section definition annotation. I feel in most cases, it is turned off and a section bubble listing the number and drawing are put in it's place. With that said, you likely have the bubble/arrow combo side and the arrow side to define the section view. These two are to always be aligned but the spacing between them is determined per section. My company has these as two different symbols that we place independently then align manually. It would be nice if I could place it as one symbol and tell inventor how far about I want my section arrows.

What would be even better is if the spacing linked to the model view scale so that if I section something, place my symbol and tell it to be say... 40'-0" apart; then I could rescale my view and have my symbols maintain 40'-0" and I wouldn't have to do any secondary work for your section definition to make sense.

[jpchaisson]

i know this is an old post but what about creating your arrow as a ipart with variable angles, add as needed. create a view on your IDW 

for the arrow then you can dimension the arrow on the drawing. just make your ipart black and set the view to shaded and it will look like 

a symbol.

Jeremy