Suppress feature if it has no effect instead of using equations.

[Brian.Price]

I read another post on this topic but I don't believe it is what I am looking for. https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-customization/supress-if-no-effect/td-p/5612616

I have two cylinders made from a contour flange feature. These two halves make up a complete cylinder and share identical parameters.

Currently I use the cut normal features to put holes in the cylinder using height, degrees, hole size. The parameters are fed from the main assembly so there are multiple cylinders stacked on top of one another. The holes vary in height and some cylinder's will have a hole and others won't. These holes are already modeled in the cylinder and are turned off and on depending on if the equations says the hole is in the range of the cylinders model height.

Because these two cylinders are halves of a hole the hole may only go in one side and not the other. I can make a rule that uses the degrees in an equation for the cylinder half to turn it off and on depending on the input.

After looking around I think it would be much more simpler to just turn the features off and on depending if they have an effect.

This is all being used to make a template that can generate multiple assemblies and models depending on the inputs.

1. How can I turn a feature on and off (cut normal) depending on whether or not it has an effect?

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Brian,

I am not sure if you are aware of the conditional suppression available in feature properties (right-click on a feature -> Properties -> select a parameter and set the condition to suppress). Would it work?

Many thanks!

[Brian.Price]

Wow to be honest no I didn't know that was available, thanks for that, always learning something new. However no it won't help as the rules I am using for suppression currently do the same thing but with more parameters. I have to use a couple equations to generate a range that the feature is able to be active in.

I am looking for a simple rule that says:

If this feature has no effect = suppress feature

if this feature has an effect = activate feature

[MechMachineMan · Accepted solution]

Something like this might work:

Sub Main()
	Dim oDoc As Document
	oDoc = ThisDoc.Document
	
	For Each oFeature In oDoc.ComponentDefinition.Features
		oFeature.Suppressed = False
	Next
	
	For Each oFeature In oDoc.ComponentDefinition.Features
		If oFeature.RangeBox Is Nothing Then
			oFeature.Suppressed = True
		End If
	Next
End Sub

[Brian.Price · Accepted solution]

That worked really well, Thanks.

[Brian.Price]

Had an issue, figured it out.