Utilization of Subassemblies via iLogic

[Anonymous]

Hello all.

Pardon me if I have placed this in the incorrect board category. This is my first post.

First of all, I want to thank all of the contributions everyone has made on the topic of using iLogic and the problems they have encountered (and overcome), as it has been instrumental in my own self-education on this topic and trying to do just the same. Your input on this subject has been especially helpful (just as tutorials have been, as well, mostly found on YouTube and other places).

Preface:

My CAD work leading to up to this point in my life primarily surrounded the use of software rival to AutoDesk Inventor... (Dassault Software Systems' SolidWorks). That said, my proficiency and ability to utilize everything AutoDesk Inventor has to offer is not yet to the degree that I have with SolidWorks, so please pardon me if I am overlooking something I may want to investigate - also, please don't be shy and point it out if that's the case, as I want to improve (and that's why I'm here).

The company I work for uses AutoDesk Inventor to design, develop, and push to our in-house fabrication department all kinds of components for all kinds of assemblies, and I feel as though we, as a company, are under-utilizing the grand scheme of possibilities to make for a more efficient design/update process in our engineering department. I, along with a couple colleagues at work, have begun playing with the under-utilized iLogic system and I'm leading in the "crashing myself into understanding visual basic" to make it happen.

Where I stand now: I have completed a totally configurable part that is dependent on various functions and equations to scale up or scale down and generate variance in the part itself, as it is defined by particular variables in the model - a great starting point for my experiment.

What we want to know is this:

Granted we can teach ourselves enough of the iLogic API and use it to its full potential, is there a possibility that we could create an assembly with, say, a slider or text input for "device length", wherein, it is defined (and managed) by increasing the number of subassemblies? We design and manufacture custom food processing units, and each product line we offer is customized to meet the needs of our customer's plant and finances... For instance, a 10 Wide unit can be 30 feet long for one customer, but 60 feet long for another. Since we build our assemblies in segments anyways, and depending on the customer/plant, the number of segments included in a given assembly for a given customer may vary, and it would be spectacular if we could program a "master" assembly of a given product line, so that we can easily "plug and play" some numbers for iLogic to pick up and automatically constrain and implement more or less segments to meet the needs by which to satisfy our input. Is this something that is possible? I have been looking around all over the net and I have found two things: 1) no one has addressed this or a similar scenario in any tutorial or forum, and 2) my understanding of VB and iLogic is still in its infancy and perhaps that's the reason I'm not finding a solution, as it may be detailed in a particular subject that I am not directly looking for.

I'm hoping by asking this question directly to everyone here may be able to at least point me in an appropriate direction.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

[erobinsonMRQE2]

Are you trying to have the sub assembly change based on an input in the master assembly or are you trying to generate additional sub assemblies based on the input into the master assembly?   

[Anonymous]

I'm trying to have the master assembly... Let's call it "Master", and wish to have a VB form that indicates "device length". Let's say that each segment of the total end product is done in 5 ft. long sections, and every section is a subassembly comprising of a housing, stabilizers, struts, and pipes - and that each subassembly is designed and expected to maintain the exact same design (in constraints, dimensions, components, etc.) as the other subassemblies in the segmented-chain. We'll pretend that every 5 ft. section is exactly the same as another (excluding the end and start of the product). So in essence, you'd have 3 subassemblies in total described. SA #1 (start subassembly), SA #2 (the previously described 5-ft. long sections), SA #3 (end subassembly).

Let's assume SA #1 and SA #3 are each 2 ft. long, and don't alter at all in position or design, but are previously defined as the start (and grounded, point of origin part), and end (following sequence of SA #2, in every scenario), respectively.

I want to develop a form-driven master assembly that describes this tree:

- Master Assembly (example)

1. SA #1 (start)
2. SA #2 (segments)
3. ...
4. ...
5. ...
6. ...
7. ... (etc as indicated via form)
8. SA #3 (end)

Assuming the tree above is an actual build, it would represent a 6x SA #2 segment system, totaling to a 34 ft. product. All SA #2 constraints would mimic its subassembly-predecessor in the chain of subassemblies, wherein every segment would be constrained in a "front face to back face", "concentric housing", etc. format. I would want the assembly to be automatically fully constrained upon changing the number of SA #2 in the build via iLogic form.

I want to develop an iLogic master assembly that automatically constrains and increases/decreases the number of SA #2 segments dependent on the input of the form that's controlling the master assembly.

If more clarity is required, I'll quickly through together a mockup of a simple build and upload it if that will help explain.

Thanks again,

Zach.

[erobinsonMRQE2]

Zach,

If I understand correctly what your trying to do, the easiest way to accomplish it would be with the pattern command. 

If you know that for your smallest unit will contain SA#1, SA#2 and SA#3.

Define SA#1 as stood off from the starting wall, and SA#3 from the end wall. 

For SA#2 define the initial starting point in relation to SA#1. Then use the pattern command to create duplicates of SA#2 at your predefined spacing. For the quantity of SA#2 you can have a simple rule that takes your form input and determines the correct number of SA#2 by either the overall size of your unit or just by the user defining the number in the form.

Hope this helps

[Anonymous]

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly. I will give this a shot and see if it is exactly what I'm trying to accomplish and will report back in the near future. Thanks again.