iLogic manipulating component patternsworks erratically

[MikeGillam5072]

I've been working on a "smart model" of a curtain wall (i.e. a wall of windows) that requires that I control the number of rows and columns in a component pattern.

Furthermore, I need to suppress certain elements to allow for openings in the grid pattern.

The problem I've experienced is that the pattern properties seem to get corrupted.  For example, the row or column direction gets corrupted causing my window pattern to fly off in the wrong direction.  When I go into the pattern property dialog, it appears as if the direct has not been set.  When I reset the row/column direction, it's fixed, for awhile.

Changing the row/column count caused the crazy results.  I quickly gave up on that idea and resorted to a fixed (maximum) number of rows/columns and I suppress what I don't need.  I'd rather not take this approach because I don't want to set hard limits on the model, and it seems to be slow to execute.

Suppressing element:1 in the pattern doesn't work at all.  It totally disables the pattern, and I had to manually unsuppress the element to be able to edit the pattern properties.  I resorted to making element:1 invisible, but of course this will corrupt the bill of material.

Any thoughts or ideas will be apreciated. 

Thanks

Mike

[MjDeck]

What version of Inventor are you using?

How do you go about suppressing individual elements of the grid pattern?  Do you require the ability to suppress the first element or make it invisible?  Is it possible to redefine the pattern so that the first element is one that you always want in the model?

Can you post your model?  (Or if it contains proprietary information, can you post a simplified model that shows the same problem?)

[MikeGillam5072]

The attachment is too large.  I'll email you the ftp info to download.  Read readme.txt.  It explains the model and how to reproduce the problem

Thanks

Mike

[MikeGillam5072]

For the benefit of anyone following this thread ....

The pattern direction was being lost because it was based on an axis defined by a component that was subsequently suppressed. 

I changed the direction to be based on the orign x or y axis, and it works fine, with one exception.  It seems that you cannot suppress element:1 in the pattern.  You can turn off visibility, but if you're generating a BOM, the qty will be overstated by 1.

Thank MjDeck for figuring this out.