Design automation with LoD and VBA

[jalil.a.tayaa]

Hi everyone,

I’m new on Inventor and on this forum so if it’s not the right section tell me please.

I’m currently working on a project on Inventor and I need to design the racks of our factory (more or less 50 racks per production line, 10 production lines). The challenge is that the racks are not standard, so a lot of combination is possible (some examples attached). The other challenge is to do it automatically as much as possible and easy to change in the future by changing values on an Excel file (with maybe a user form as UI).

My approach for this project is as followed:

• Design sub-assemblies of horizontal beams with vertical plates to visualize the place used by the pallets or the boxes (managed with LoD for numbers of vertical plates)
• Design a configurable/master rack managed also with LoD for numbers of Beams
• Use this rack as a template/master part to create all the racks 
• Design the production lines by positioning all the racks created before
• (Maybe at the end have a whole layout of the factory by using production lines assemblies)

Where I am today:

I have a configurable rack with horizontal beams, and I manage number of beams with LoD. I also have a VBA code to choose the LoD and manage the height of each beam. Parameters used in VBA code are today put on a user form but in the future an excel file will be used.

Next step is to build the sub-assemblies of beam with vertical plates (that I also want to manage with LoD and VBA code).

But I struggle with two subjects that could be main problems in the future of my project:

• How can I use the configurable rack to create the racks (I mean copy and rename all the parts to be able to manage the different part/sub-assembly parameters)?
• For now, all the files are on my device. Is inventor able to work with files on the cloud (like Sharepoint) to share it with other people?

Sorry for the long post but I think without the context it would be difficult to explain/understand my problems.

It’s probably not the best approach so don’t hesitate to propose other possibilities.

[jalil.a.tayaa]

Update: I've seen that is possible to share Inventor files in Sharepoint and synchronize the folder on a computer.

For copy & rename assemblies/sub-assemblies/parts, I'm still looking for a solution. Anyone have an idea? iLogic Design Copy tool works well but I don't find a way to automatize the process. 

[A.Acheson · Accepted solution]

From the outside without too much knowledge of the complexity. It sounds like an iLogic assembly would work for the Main Assembly. You can then place and change parameters for the next one etc. On placement the relevant part files get renamed automatically however only a generic indexing is used. You could build an iproperty describing the assembly name and then rename using a rule. 

I personally have never had the need to use LOD, after reading about all the headaches it can cause. On 2022 it does not exist and was really only used in big assemblies when computing power was limited. 
Yes there is no out of the box way to automate ilogic copy design or design assistant. However you can modify the SDK file that comes with the programming install,  effectively creating a customized  ilogic copy design tool of which there are many on this forum, but it is a step up in skill level. An example is here

[jalil.a.tayaa]

Hi,

Thank you for your answers. I'm using LoD because I find this is the easiest way to automate the design process for this particular project. The complexity is not about the complexity of the assembly or to optimize computer resources. It's about the large amount of possible combinations. What I understand from iAssemblies is there are useful when I have a predefined and limited configuration of a 'standard' assembly.

About SDK, I heard about this tool but never use it. Do you have some resources/documentation to start learning to use it?

Thank you again for your help!