Work plane visible for occurrences

[manasi_patilESZTV]

In Autodesk Inventor, I want to create a 'Show Plane' feature that works only for the selected occurrence of a part in an assembly. Right now, when I select this option, it shows the planes for all occurrences of the same part file in the assembly. How can I make it work so that it affects only the specific occurrence I select and not all occurrences of the part?

[m_baczewski]

@manasi_patilESZTV 

Hi,

It seems to me that you can hide and show planes only for those that you created manually in a specific part, and this will not affect other occurrences of the part. However, unfortunately, this does not work for the default XY, XZ, and YZ planes, because if you change the visibility of these planes, it automatically updates it in all occurrences.

[WCrihfield]

I agree with @m_baczewski.  I have always thought this was odd behavior, and wandered if it was a bug or not.  If we turn on one of the 'origin' WorkPlanes of an assembly occurrence from the main assembly, it also turns it on for all occurrences/instances of that same referenced model file.  But if the WorkPlane we turn on is a custom one (not one of the component's 3 origin planes), then it will only turn on for that one occurrence/instance.

Maybe @MjDeck would know why this happens this way, and if there is a good reason for it, or if it is something that can be changed/fixed.  After all, we are only working with 'proxies' of those WorkPlanes when doing this by code, not the 'original' WorkPlanes.

Example code:

Dim oPickedOcc As ComponentOccurrence = ThisApplication.CommandManager.Pick(SelectionFilterEnum.kAssemblyOccurrenceFilter, "Select a Component.")
If oPickedOcc Is Nothing Then Return
Dim oWP1 As WorkPlane = oPickedOcc.Definition.WorkPlanes.Item(4) 'or 1-3 for origin planes
Dim oWP1Proxy As WorkPlaneProxy = Nothing
oPickedOcc.CreateGeometryProxy(oWP1, oWP1Proxy)
oWP1Proxy.Visible = True 'or False to turn off

My suggestion in the mean time would be to create at least one custom DVR (DesignViewRepresentation) within that referenced model file, where that one WorkPlane is visible, and others are not visible.  Then create any other DVR's (DesignViewRepresentations) you may want/need for similar situations, then save that referenced model file.  Then, within the main assembly, set that one occurrence/instance to that custom DVR, while other occurrences/instances of that referenced model are set to other DVR's.  This should lead you to the visual result you are trying to achieve.

[manasi_patilESZTV]

When we set the visibility of the proxy plane to true, it shows the plane for all occurrences of the same part file, even after working with it, just like before.

[WCrihfield]

Hi @manasi_patilESZTV.  @m_baczewski and I have both confirmed the behavior that you just described in each of our replies, meaning neither of us knows how to change that behavior, because it seems to simply be built into Inventor that way.  We both agree that it should be able to work the way you want it to work, but we can not force it to work that way.

I then asked an Autodesk employee who work in software development if this behavior us unavoidable, or if it can be changed or fixed.  Then I also suggested an alternate way to achieve the same visual effect that you seem to be wanting, using DVR's.  However, since then I tried that suggested alternative myself, and it seems to behave the same exact way.  If I have a DVR in the referenced model file for one specific origin plane to be visible, and one DVR in which it is supposed to not be visible, they both show its visibility the same way, the setting in one overrides the setting in the other, making it useless.  However, if I have one DVR in which a custom WorkPlane is visible, then another DVR in which that same custom WorkPlane is not visible, those work as planned (as expected).  There is simply something different between origin WorkPlanes and custom WorkPlanes, making the functionality you seek seemingly impossible to achieve right now.  Hopefully someone at Autodesk will be able to figure this out and/or be able to help us figure out a workaround way to achieve it.

[MjDeck]

@manasi_patilESZTV and @WCrihfield - I'm not sure why it is this way. We might be able to change it in a future release so that you can control the visibility of origin work features in component occurrences. I think this Idea covers it:
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/visibility-planes-only-the-selected-component/idi-p/46...

[WCrihfield]

Thanks for taking the time to look into it for us Mike.

Unfortunately, that 'idea' post you pointed out has already been archived years ago.  Very likely because both its title and its contents are not very clear.  That, and it does not contain any screen captured images or examples of the current problem vs the requested solution.  Those seem to really help catch the eye of folks browsing ideas.

[MjDeck]

Hi Wesley - yes, you're right. We might be able to re-open and clarify that Idea. But please feel free to create a new one. I did a search and that's the closest I can find.