Model States, Suppression, and Component Rules Oh My

[Tom_Servo]

What's the recommend workflow for large assembly configurations using suppression?

Running a configuration will unsuppressed parts via iLogic. That's great but the rules of those resumed parts are not being triggered even when the rule triggers are set.

In an assembly I have two parts, A and B. 

The configurations can be A or B but not both.

Parts A and B have derived parameters in them and they are acting like triggers in those part rules.

When toggling the suppression of the parts the rules do not run. 

I was expecting that when a part is resumed, inventor would recognize this and do whatever it does when you open a part; run rules that have the appropriate triggers.

Consider this - If part A contains a parameter 'test' and part B derives that parameter from part A. Part B contains a rule that displays a message box when ran. Msgbox(test). 

Without anything else in session, open part A and change it's value for test. Next open part B and you will notice that the rule runs. 

Compare that to working in an assembly with those same parts A and B. 

Save the assembly with part B suppressed. Close and open that assembly, change the parameter test in part A to some other value, and unsuppressed part B. 

What do you expect to happen when part B is resumed? Nothing? Or would you want it to update and run any appropriately triggered rules?

[WCrihfield]

Hi @Tom_Servo.  You probably already know this, but the original/primary function of suppression it to load or unload things from Inventor's 'session memory', to conserve computing resources, and help improve performance.  That may not always mean opening and closing documents, or updating documents.  You may just need to do an update on the main assembly after un-suppressing the component, which should force the components referenced document to update to the latest 'derived' value from the part.  There is similar latency when using parameters that are externally linked to an Excel document.  It may not be ideal, but is often the price we must pay for using some of the more advanced set-ups/configurations.

[Tom_Servo]

seems like we pay quite a bit.

And even updating after the suppressed component is resumed will not initiate an update.

[WCrihfield]

Hi @Tom_Servo .  I am admittedly not as familiar as some may be with the scenario of having components within my assemblies deriving their parameter values from each other.  I am much more familiar with pulling in values from external Excel sources, and using layers of external iLogic rules & forms to configure resizable complex parts, that may or may not represent what would normally be an assembly.  I know linking parameters between Inventor model files is fairly similar to linking them to Excel, but I just don't do it that way as much.

You mentioned ModelStates in your title.  Are you then directly switching between two different top assembly level ModelStates, which is causing the suppression changes of the components, or are you just directly suppressing or un-suppressing the components while the same ModelState is active?  If switching top assembly level ModelStates, then is that also switching which ModelState each/either of the components is set to, at the same time?  If suppressing/un-suppressing while the same top level ModelState is active, then are you changing the component's parameter value by switching its ModelState, or are you manually/visibly opening component A to change the value?  Do each/either of the components have any custom ModelStates?  Just trying to wrap my head around the whole picture/scenario, to see if I can think of anything similar I have encountered that may help.  I know that the introduction of ModelStates certainly complicated a lot of things.

[Tom_Servo]

we are using the same state with all the configurations. I don't recall what the name is right now but it's the default one.

We are also using fulling in values from external Excel sources, and using layers of external iLogic rules & Forms to configure large and complex parts. 

We were using visibility reps but ran into performance issues with the number of parts we are using. So we decided, based on Autodesk documentation, to move to suppression. 

 

I am really hoping that the behavior I'm getting is a bug because the tests I have ran indicate the parts are using some kind of memory. 

A suppressed part can still change unsuppressed parts. How is that done if they "do not consume memory"?