Length of part not G_L

[rhutchins]

Basically when I drop a part in from the content center I typically make it longer since I don't know what the exact length is until I am finished and have all the information on the job, but when I add an extrusion to the part to make it longer or shorter the G_L stays at what I originally dropped it in as, I would like to know if there is an easy way to get the finish length of a content center file "beam,channel angle...." after the extrusion and publish it to a custom iproperty, further more is there a way to this on a mass amount of parts using a macro and KWikBatchRun.

Thanks,
Robert

[Anonymous]

The biggest problem lies in your working method. Why would you want to add an additional extrusion to an Content Center File while you can also change the G_L parameter? Writing parameters values into custom iproperties is quite simple.

Another solution is to determine the outer dimensions of an part, but then you'll have to sort out the which of the three dimensions is your length.

In fact it's all about how you've build or edited your parts. If that workflow is correct it's easy to write an macro which can be started with KWikBatchRun.

Matthijs

[rhutchins]

Typically I do not add an extrusion normally I will make a cut using other structural members from the assembly as a refrence I guess I just thought that there might be an easy way to grab the total length of a part after an extrude feature has been added either taking away from the G_L or adding to the G_L.

Thanks for the reply

[Anonymous]

The workflow I suggested ends when cut extrusions are used, that's why I usually use the From..To command. This problem can be solved by using an other parameter for the length i.e. Total_Length. After the cut extrusion place an new sketch on a plane perpendicular to the length and ad an new driven dimension including the total length. This takes some discipline, but will work.

An other solution I spoke of is to 'draw' an box around your part using the outer points. This can be done with API and doesn't need interference from the user. Like I said earlier, this takes some sorting out with the three different dimensions, but shouldn't be a problem with neat constructed Content Center Parts.

Matthijs

[rhutchins]

I don't know much about API but I appreciate the help, I guess I will try to start adding the sketch and using the export parameter, it just seems like this is something that would be very easy to accomplish or should just simply be part of the base system like a sheet metal part its quick and easy to grab the X and Y and I even have a program "with the help of autodesk" that calculates the total length including all interior and exterior profiles it seems like these would be much more difficult to get I guess I will keep wishing, Thanks again for your help.