Ilogic Model State Drawing views

[andrew_canfield]

Hello 

I have a iLogic driven sketch which moves sub assemblies.

I'd like to have a drawing show the assembly in different positions (as driven by iLogic).

Wondering what approach to take, creating a new Model State at the top level doesn't work for the drawing views, which will change when the top level changes are updated (even when the Model State & View Rep is set).

First venture into iLogic & Model States.

Regards

Andrew

[Frederick_Law]

Depends on how your iLogic rule works.

I usually use Pos Rep.

[andrew_canfield]

Thanks for the reply.

The idea is to use value sliders to position & then save as a model state - like Positional Reps without drilling through all the constraints - so far there's only 3 parameters to write back. 3 for Model State 1, then 3 for Model State 2 etc.

Not as easy as first thought..

Regards

Andrew

[J-Camper]

Do you mean:

1. the drawing view changes by model state selection? 
2. a drawing view showing all the modelstates?

If 1, then you should be able to just change the modelstate of the main assembly, after setting up the different modelstates within the assembly.  This could be manual, or you can use the ".SetActiveModelState" Method under the DrawingView Object.

         If you are trying to make modelstates of the assembly from the Drawing file, that would be much more complex

If 2, then I think you could just use overlay views.  You can set each overlay to a different model state and DesignView, if needed. Again, only if you are setting the ModelStates in your main assembly before hand.  Creating the ModelStates From the Drawing level would be more complicated.

If neither, please elaborate.

If you are trying to make/set modelstates from the drawing file, that will require more research, as I have not done so myself. 

[Frederick_Law]

---

@andrew_canfield wrote:

Thanks for the reply.

The idea is to use value sliders to position & then save as a model state - like Positional Reps without drilling through all the constraints - so far there's only 3 parameters to write back. 3 for Model State 1, then 3 for Model State 2 etc.

Not as easy as first thought..

Regards

Andrew

---

I usually rename the constrains I need to change and drag them to the top of the list.

I know Overlay View works with PosRep, don't know if it works with MS.

[andrew_canfield]

Apologies, not really an iLogic problem, just didn't realise how Model States work. 

When a model state is set in the skeleton The top level needs to call the same model state.

I was moving the skeleton then creating a model state, moving the skeleton & creating another model state - which doesn't work.

Possibly need to link the Top level parameter ilogic slider to the skeleton & then create model states in the skeleton and the top level with the same name - think there's a dialog to do this which would be nice to have, not essential.

It's not 100% finished but so far very cool 🙂

Thanks for the replies.

Andrew

[WCrihfield]

Just so you know, on the Assemble tab, is a panel called Productivity (may be hidden).  The tool within it is usually a drop-down button, with many other buttons within it.  One of those buttons within is 'Link Model States'.  You may be able to use that.  But I do not do much 'skeletal' modeling, so I'm not sure how well it would work out for you.

https://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-D1CED5D8-F043-4555-BBA5-2C6029AF819F 

[A.Acheson · Accepted solution]

Hi @andrew_canfield 

Here is a post on the inventor forum where it is determined that skeleton modelling  technique is not supported.

[andrew_canfield]

Many thanks for the link, it's a good post.

Regards

Andrew

[andrew_canfield]

The skeletal model was ok  - thought setting model states in the sketch would would but a secondary part is derived & the drop down show the model states but this doesn't update - not sure if ilogic can drive this selection, it's already looking a bit complicated.. but it nearly works.

[Frederick_Law]

Model State is still in development.

Next update might break what you're doing or make it better.

[andrew_canfield]

The original intention was to position an assembly with ilogic value sliders linked to a skeletal part then take a snap shot (model state 1,2,3) but it's a non starter. Alternatively a UCS could be placed at the top level & the parameter linked back to the Skeletal model - snap shots then recorded as positional reps, but the Positional Rep value doesn't appear in the parameter table. (The UCS parameters driving position for the lower level skeleton)

From digging around this does look 'doable' (?) -  the skeleton being repositioned for each PR - renaming each PR to include the co-ordinates then pass the PR name down the line.

Can the PR name be read as a string for iLogic the extract x,y,z values?

[Frederick_Law]

Model State in assembly can only "remember" parameters in that assembly.

It cannot affect or change another part or assembly.

So it cannot change "Skeleton".

It can use another Model State form the "Skeleton".

The problem is, skeleton control EVERY files using the skeleton.

You need to rethink how and what you need to control from where.

Again, I would not use Skeleton to control Position.

Position is constrain driven.

Skeleton control part size, shape.  Location is a side effect.

[andrew_canfield]

In summary - the only way to show something like the above (simplified as a part) in multiple positions on a drawing is to use Model States & Positional Reps for positions 1m, 1.5m, 2.0m  - even though a skeletal representation will show any position along the range it will only show one on a drawing. 

Thanks for the help.

[Frederick_Law]

If you setup contacts and limits on each link, it can be flexible and move in the assembly.

Assemble longest one you need.

Model State short one by suppressing extra links and "add" unsuppress end link.

Don't know if iMate can do limit and contact.  It will simplify assembling.

[timothy_berg]

What would option 1 look like? I want to set the Model State in the model and have the drawing views follow the active Model State.

[WCrihfield]

Hi @timothy_berg.  It sounds like you want to be able to switch between multiple available ModelStates that are defined within your model, and have that action automatically change which ModelState a drawing view representing this model is set to.  There is no natural / normal way do make that happen.  However, it may be possible to make happen through the use of one or more iLogic rules and either the Event Triggers dialog, or one or more custom event handler codes, that would control when those rules run, based on when specific events happen.  Then, the 'event' would happen on the model side, but the model does not know about any drawing that may exist for that model, so the code would have to include a way to find the drawing, one way or another.  Then once it finds the drawing, it would have to find the correct sheet within that drawing, and he correct drawing view(s) in that drawing to check/update.  Then it would have to change which ModelState that view was set to.  In newer versions of Inventor, when working within either a part or assembly, there is an event within the 'This Document' tab of the Event Triggers dialog named 'Model State Activated'.  The iLogic rule could be placed under that event in the model file.  Then when you activate a ModelState in that model, it will trigger that iLogic rule to run.  Then that iLogic rule will have to check which ModelState is currently active, then find the drawing, sheets(s), view(s), and change the view to that ModelState.  At least that would be the theoretical plan.

[timothy_berg]

Thanks, Wesley. I was able to get the Model State name from the mode into a custom iProperty in the drawing, is there a way to set the view Model State to match the custom iProperty?

Rule in Model:

MODELSTATENAME=ThisDoc.ActiveModelState
iProperties.Value("Project", "Cost Center")=MODELSTATENAME

Rule in Drawing:
If ThisDrawing.Document Is ThisApplication.ActiveDocument AndAlso ThisDrawing.ModelDocument IsNot Nothing Then
	'get the document object of the base model for this drawing
	Dim mDoc As Inventor.Document = ThisDrawing.ModelDocument
	
	'get the PropertySet containing the default Description iProperty
	Dim props As PropertySet = mDoc.PropertySets.Item("Design Tracking Properties")

	'pull the values of the base model's Description into the drawing's custom iProperty 'DESCRIPTION'
	iProperties.Value("Custom", "DESCRIPTION") = props.Item("Description").Value.ToString
	iProperties.Value("Custom", "MODELSTATENAME") = props.Item("COST CENTER").Value.ToString

	'force an update to refresh the title block
	ThisDrawing.Document.Update2(True)
End If

[Frederick_Law]

The "usual" way is 1 drawing for each ModelState.

What are you trying to do?

To update drawing to another ModelState, you can change ModelState in each view.

This go through each View in ActiveSheet:

Dim oIDWFile As DrawingDocument
Dim oDrawingView As DrawingView
Dim oMSName As String

For Each oDrawingView In oIDWFile.ActiveSheet.DrawingViews
	If oDrawingView.ActiveModelState <> oMSName Then
		Logger.Info(oDrawingView.Label.Text & " " & oDrawingView.ActiveModelState)
		oDrawingView.SetActiveModelState(oMSName, True, True)
	End If
Next

[timothy_berg]

The end goal is to link the model state views in the drawing to the active model state in the model.