Attribute Helper Error (deleted elements)

[RodrigoEiras]

I have found the Attribute Helper from Brian Ekins very helpuf and it has in fact became a must for the work I am doing preparing automated 2D drawings for my company. I have come to a small issue I would like to point out to take into consideration in later versions.

When working in 2D drawings I use attributes to identify some elements in the drawings, mainly DrawingDimensions.

If you assign to an element an AttributeSet, but you delete that element later, the set of attributes remains appearing as linked to an element called "Nothing". When you are working in a drawing for quite a long time you can get quite a lot of those "Nothing".

I can delete the attribute set on this entity and the entity "Nothing" will dissapear, but when I press OK to close the AttributeHelper, I get the following message:

"Unexpected failure while updating the attribute information."

After that error the entity keeps on appearing on the list, so the "Nothing"'s keep on accumulating.

I attach some screen shots in attached PDF file.

I am very happy with the tool, and really grateful for it being shared. I just want to help to improve it! 

(If you also find the Attribute Helper a must, you can support the following idea in IdeaStation: integration-of-attribute-helper)

 I am working with:

Autodesk Inventor Professional 2015

64-Bit Edition

Build:203

Release: 2015 SP1 Update 3

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hello Rodrigo.

I do Automated drawings and within the procedure of cleaning up the drawing prior to adding new dims which will have new attributes added i clean up the unused attributes with the attached rule.

This rule purges all the unused attributes, Hope it helps you out.

Regards

Paul

Private Sub PurgeAttributeSet()
	'Removes/Deletes all unused Attributes 
    Try
		Dim oApp = ThisApplication
        If oApp.ActiveDocument.DocumentType <> _
            DocumentTypeEnum.kDrawingDocumentObject Then
            MsgBox("Need to have an Drawing document active")
            Exit Sub
        End If

        Dim oDrawDoc As DrawingDocument
        oDrawDoc = oApp.ActiveDocument
        Dim oAttbMan = oDrawDoc.AttributeManager
        oAttbMan.PurgeAttributeSets("*")

    Catch ex As Exception
        MsgBox(ex.ToString())
    End Try

End Sub

[RodrigoEiras]

Thanks Paul. It works for me perfectly!.

It would be great if that could be added as a Purge button in the Attribute Helper.