Ilogic External Rule Copy new Named Assembly & Parts then Replace

[nico]

Ellowah

I'm currently trying to create an external rule in ilogic that I can call in several assembly's in the future that does the following:

1. Pull in excel data & update the design - Ok

2. Save this assembly under a new name - Ok

3. Save all parts that were in this assemly under a new name - Ok

4. Replace in the New Assembly these New Parts - Wrong behaviour

The problem I'm getting is that the New Part files are replacing the old parts in the Original Assembly instead of the new one.

My guess is that it's because the external rule is run from the Original Assembly

Even while the new assembly is opened; I've tried closing the Original Assembly but then the ilogic just crashes

So I'm wondering if any1 knows of a way to "Set" this "Focus" on the New Assembly so the replace only happens there.

Worst case I might flip the logic and make the parts first replace them and then copy the assembly but I prefer to never have the risk to overwrite the original assembly with an accidental save.

Kind Regards,

NVD

[clutsa]

Create a document variable and assign the new document to that variable. 

Dim NewDoc As Document
Dim newDocName As String = ThisDoc.Path & "\TestSaveAs.ipt"
ThisDoc.Document.SaveAs(newDocName, True)
ThisDoc.Launch(newDocName)
NewDoc = ThisApplication.Documents.ItemByName(newDocName)

NewDoc.DisplayName = "ThisWasChanged"
NewDoc.Save

[nico]

Well I'm mainly a ducktaper of code but I don't see how that would help with "Selecting" a different assembly and run the "Replace" command

For visual reference see attached image for what I'm trying to achieve

"I'm not building planes btw just took something that is easily imaginable"

I've tried the reverse atm first creating parts then replacing all parts in the Configurator Assembly then copy that assembly and it works but I don't like it, since there's a risk of overwriting the configurator

Also more annoying since I would have to still manually open and close this assembly, to give a sense of scale, for this current project 316 times for 1 configurator assembly and I got 4 different ones of those todo

[clutsa · Accepted solution]

It would look something like this

Dim NewDoc As AssemblyDocument
Dim newDocName As String = ThisDoc.Path & "\MyNewAssemblyName.iam"

ThisDoc.Document.SaveAs(newDocName, True)
ThisDoc.Launch(newDocName)
NewDoc = ThisApplication.Documents.ItemByName(newDocName)

'find the component in the newDoc and replace it
Dim partToReplace As ComponentOccurrence = NewDoc.ComponentDefinition.Occurrences.ItemByName("PartDisplayNameHere:1") 'use the parts display name
partToReplace.Replace(ThisDoc.Path & "\YourReplacementPartNameHere.ipt", False) 'use the file name (you'll probably use a variable from your excel function) 'Change to true to "replace all"

NewDoc.Save

[nico]

Alright got it working now, cheers

NewDoc = ThisApplication.Documents.ItemByName(newDocName)

Was giving me errors before hence I was using the ThisApplication.ActiveDocument after I opened the new assembly

The reason the line above didn't work for me was a \\ in the string path

So apperently Inventor can still save and open documents with "folder\\file" but not set it as an active document