how to create dogbones with ilogic

how to create dogbones with ilogic

paul
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Message 1 of 29

how to create dogbones with ilogic

paul
Advocate
Advocate

Hello,

 

Could anybody please help me create some code for creating dogbones on our sheetmetal parts? I would like the code to  look at the flat pattern and find all the inside corners and blow a hole and rounded edges into them. 

 

How could i do this? 

 

Any advise would be greatly appreciated, 

 

Thanks, 

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6,171 Views
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Replies (28)
Message 21 of 29

paul
Advocate
Advocate

Sorry for being unclear here, i do not have an issue with that, the issue is that if i have a tab or inside corner like show in the image below it will not capture them: (circled in red)

 

Capture.JPG

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Message 22 of 29

AlexFielder
Advisor
Advisor

I haven't checked the Ideas forum, but this strikes me as an oversight within the sheet metal toolset (having just experimented with the flange tool in 2018.2.3).

 

Whilst the iLogic VBA provided does the trick for internal loops, my guess is that the code could be extended to external corners <180° (or whatever rule needs to be applied).

 

Also, the VBA means the dogbone gets a bit messy if you mistakenly run it more than once (the image below was after running it three times):

 

2018-02-26 11_09_01-Autodesk Inventor Professional 2018.png

 

🙂

 

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Message 23 of 29

MechMachineMan
Advisor
Advisor

Which should be fine. Each "run" will show up in the browser as it's own pair of Sketch/Holes/Fillets, so it's not too hard to just delete the feature from there.

 

As far as exterior corners, I think that one would be a bit trickier because for establishing what an "interior" angle is, you now need to establish outward facing normals for each "side" of the thing, and then establish the proper measurement. Insides were easy because it just captured everything.

 

Either you need to speed a lot more time developing the code to get it to do the outside ones, or just do the tabs manually - and I thought you had mentioned earlier that you only need the slots dogbones, and would do the tabs later/manually.


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Justin K
Inventor 2018.2.3, Build 227 | Excel 2013+ VBA
ERP/CAD Communication | Custom Scripting
Machine Design | Process Optimization


iLogic/Inventor API: Autodesk Online Help | API Shortcut In Google Chrome | iLogic API Documentation
Vb.Net/VBA Programming: MSDN | Stackoverflow | Excel Object Model
Inventor API/VBA/Vb.Net Learning Resources: Forum Thread

Sample Solutions:Debugging in iLogic ( and Batch PDF Export Sample ) | API HasSaveCopyAs Issues |
BOM Export & Column Reorder | Reorient Skewed Part | Add Internal Profile Dogbones |
Run iLogic From VBA | Batch File Renaming| Continuous Pick/Rename Objects

Local Help: %PUBLIC%\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2018\Local Help

Ideas: Dockable/Customizable Property Browser | Section Line API/Thread Feature in Assembly/PartsList API Static Cells | Fourth BOM Type
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Message 24 of 29

paul
Advocate
Advocate

Alex, 

 

That is alright - i do not have any issues with that delete it and start over.... isn't that easy enough??? you have to remember it is ilogic.... 

 

I would just like to see it capture all the inside corners if that is possible, it is a click of a button now....

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Message 25 of 29

paul
Advocate
Advocate

As for the exterior/open dogbones - what would it take to get it there? is there no other way to capture the detail? 

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Message 26 of 29

MechMachineMan
Advisor
Advisor

Well, my other code simply grabbed ALL Interior points on the face and added holes to them.

 

With the External dogbones, you are wanting to only get SOME of the points on the face to add dogbones to. The issue is establishing what those "some" are with code as it's not as easy as saying "angle at 90" degrees because it depends on what side of the origin the point is on, etc, and I don't think that method would be reliable.

 

One idea I had was to use TransientBReps (if they are the right thing) and then create a cylinder at each point. Then you could calculate the intersection of material. If the area  of the intersection of the shapes is approx 75% of the the area of the circle, then you would know it's an internal point. I'm not sure of how to make this happen.

 

Nor is there a feature that says whether a face is "facing away from the material" in order to use that to establish angles between faces to establish what points actually need to be dogboned.

 

The simplest way currently is to just use the manual code to do the exterior dog bones. Maybe someone else who has more experience with BReps or who has though of a different algorithm will step in and provide some help.


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Did you find this reply helpful ? If so please use the 'Accept as Solution' or 'Like' button below.

Justin K
Inventor 2018.2.3, Build 227 | Excel 2013+ VBA
ERP/CAD Communication | Custom Scripting
Machine Design | Process Optimization


iLogic/Inventor API: Autodesk Online Help | API Shortcut In Google Chrome | iLogic API Documentation
Vb.Net/VBA Programming: MSDN | Stackoverflow | Excel Object Model
Inventor API/VBA/Vb.Net Learning Resources: Forum Thread

Sample Solutions:Debugging in iLogic ( and Batch PDF Export Sample ) | API HasSaveCopyAs Issues |
BOM Export & Column Reorder | Reorient Skewed Part | Add Internal Profile Dogbones |
Run iLogic From VBA | Batch File Renaming| Continuous Pick/Rename Objects

Local Help: %PUBLIC%\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor 2018\Local Help

Ideas: Dockable/Customizable Property Browser | Section Line API/Thread Feature in Assembly/PartsList API Static Cells | Fourth BOM Type
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Message 27 of 29

Anonymous
Not applicable

@MechMachineMan I have a similar need for making dogbone fillets on Standard parts (not sheet metal)

I tried rewriting the code, but failed to make it work.

 

My need is for woodworking parts, similar to this video of Fusion360:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHrP1MunhFw&feature=youtu.be&t=13m7s

 

Could you please give me a working solution for this?

I can manually select the inner corners where dogbone fillets are required.

 

Thanks

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Message 28 of 29

davis.j
Advocate
Advocate

I have made an idea request of something similar. Hopefully we can have something like this be included as a feature in the future.
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/plasma-arc-corner-relief/idc-p/10587351#M42978

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Message 29 of 29

3DAli
Collaborator
Collaborator

Greetings all, 

 

just wanted to share this with you incase you found it helpful 🙂

 

https://youtu.be/VdqApqf7KgA