Grab similar geometry of different occurrence of same part

[MechMachineMan]

As the title says, does anyone know how to do this?

What's I'm doing is creating a "duplicate part with constraints" macro that will allow me to reinsert a select set with all of the constraints the previous selection set had, but constrained to the references in the duplicated copy.

In order to do this, I need to recreate all of the constraints that the original select set had, but with the references to the new parts. Which leads me to iterating through the constraints and finding the occurrences that are in both the new/old lists. The problem is using the constraint entity/geometry/occurrence info and grabbing that same information, except from the newly placed occurrence.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

[bshbsh · Accepted solution]

I've done something similar but with "sick" constraints, where some entities were lost due to component replaces. But it's not very different, some ideas:

Let's say your original constraint between the two original occurrences is called AC1 (AssemblyConstraint1), and you want to create AC2 between the two new occurrences (NewOcc1, NewOcc2).

You can get both entities from AC1, then create a geometry proxy of the entities' nativeobjects within the new occurrences. You have to make absolutely sure that AC1.OccurrenceOne (with EntityOne) is the same as your NewOcc1 and not swapped (or other occurrences), otherwise you'll get an error. (Same for NewOcc2).

Public Sub dupeconstraintexample()
    Dim AC1 As AssemblyConstraint
    Dim NewOcc1 As ComponentOccurrence
    Dim NewOcc2 As ComponentOccurrence
    Dim E1Proxy As Object
    Dim E2Proxy As Object
    Set AC1 = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument.ComponentDefinition.Constraints.Item(1) 'Insert between Occurrences.Item(1) and Item(2)
    Set NewOcc1 = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument.ComponentDefinition.Occurrences.Item(3) 'copy of Item(1)
    Set NewOcc2 = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument.ComponentDefinition.Occurrences.Item(4) 'copy of Item(2)
    Call NewOcc1.CreateGeometryProxy(GetProxy(AC1.EntityOne, NewOcc1), E1Proxy)
    Call NewOcc2.CreateGeometryProxy(GetProxy(AC1.EntityTwo, NewOcc2), E2Proxy)
    Call ThisApplication.ActiveDocument.ComponentDefinition.Constraints.AddInsertConstraint(E1Proxy, E2Proxy, AC1.AxesOpposed, AC1.Distance.Value)
End Sub

Private Function GetProxy(ByRef Prxy As Object, ByRef ContOcc As ComponentOccurrence) As Object
    If Prxy.ContainingOccurrence.Type = kComponentOccurrenceObject Then
        Set Occ = ContOcc
    Else
        Set Occ = ContOcc.Definition.Occurrences.ItemByName(Prxy.ContainingOccurrence.Name)
    End If
    Call Occ.CreateGeometryProxy(Prxy.NativeObject, GetProxy)
End Function

[MechMachineMan]

Worked beautifully!

Thanks a bunch!

[MechMachineMan]

I lied. I can't quite get this working.

What I'm having issues with is that the the proxy I'm trying to get in my newOcc is actually a proxy within old Occ.

ie;

OldOcc

- OldOccChild

- - Item I want to use.

In this case, it is a circular curve on a PART within the ASSEMBLY that I have copied as my main occurrence, of whose constraints I would like to duplicate.

[MechMachineMan · Accepted solution]

I think I figured it out now!

Had to add in a recursive call to the function in order to be able to grab a proxy within that proxy so I could use my proxy as a proxy.