Idea:
Currently, Inventor Nastran In-CAD exposes iLogic/API automation for Load and Constraint objects (via InCadAddin.Run() with ForConstraint/Load XML-style commands, reading GeometryID/GeometryType/ComponentName from Face.GetReferenceKey()). This makes it possible to script boundary conditions across large assemblies without manual clicking.
Connectors (Rigid Body/RBE2, Rod, Weld, etc.) have no equivalent. There is no documented iLogic command, and InCadAddin (NINIlogic.dll) exposes no CreateConnector-type method. Confirmed with Autodesk support (see forum thread [link ]) that this is a real gap, not an oversight on my end - pre-populating SelectSet doesn't work either, since the Connector dialog's "Dependent Entities" only reacts to native mouse-click pick sessions, a separate pipeline from the public Selection API.
Why this matters:
For structural work with large numbers of bolted/riveted connections, manually clicking through each Connector is not practical - even a modest connection count (a few dozen) already makes this tedious and error-prone. The only available workaround is:
- Script placeholder Constraints via iLogic (auto-grouping hole faces by shared axis/radius/gap to solve "which hole pairs with which").
- Export to .nas.
- Post-process the Nastran file in an external script - replacing SPC1 placeholders with proper RBE2 cards, computing a new centroid GRID node per group (rather than reusing an existing node, which would bias the rigid link location), and reconciling SPCADD/Case Control afterward.
This works, but has a serious downside: there is no round-trip back into the Inventor tree. Any upstream geometry change requires redoing both the placeholder pass and the file post-processing from scratch - unlike a native Connector, which updates parametrically with the model.
Request:
- At minimum, an iLogic/API equivalent for Connector creation (comparable to ForConstraint/Load), so Connectors can be scripted the same way.
- More broadly, consider expanding programmatic automation coverage across other manual-only dialogs, since this workaround pattern (script placeholder → export → post-process → no round-trip) is likely a common pain point for anyone doing high-connection-count structural analysis (bolted, riveted, welded assemblies).
Happy to share the iLogic/Python pipeline details if useful for scoping this.
