iLogic Tutorials

[MikeKovacik4928]

Hi all

Am advancing myself at home, no further learning or advancement on horizon at work.

Time to move to next level, and start learning ilogic

Can anybody direct me to some good tutorials for ilogic beginners

Michael Kovacik
2d & 3d Autocad and Inventor designer/draughtsman
.
Draughting/Designing (Manufacturing) (31 yrs)
-Drawing Board (3 yrs)
--Cad (28 yrs)
---Cadkey (4 yrs)
---AutoCAD 2d & 3d (16 yrs)
---Inventor (4 yrs)
---Autocad and Inventor Simultaneously (4 years)
---(and recently Autocad/Inventor Customisation)
.
Authorised Autocad & Inventor Professional
Authorised Autodesk Trainer
.
Higher Diploma Mechanical Engineering
Autodesk Product Design Suite Ultimate 2018
Autocad 2018, Inventor Pro 2018
(personal licensed copy)
.
Johannesburg, South Africa
.
(Impossible only means you haven't
found the solution yet)

[AlexFielder]

Hi @MikeKovacik4928,

My best advice is start small, look at automating those tedious tasks you find yourself (or your team?) bumping into on a regular basis.

Pick one and then search for it on here before attempting to dive into any API documentation as there'll likely be an existing solution that you can copy+paste to your own workflow(s).

If you need to tweak/change anything in rules you find and want to use, Inventor 2019 now makes life a lot easier with it's Auto-complete function inside of the iLogic Interface.

When you get stuck (and you likely will!), post your code in-full on here (unless it contains data you'd rather not share) and one of the many experts on here will be able to help you.

Down the line, I recommend checking out the "My First plugin" articles that Autodesk have for both AutoCAD & Inventor - I first used these myself ~10 years ago and they're a great resource:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/simplecontent/content/my-first-autocad-plug-overvi...

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/search-result/caas/simplecontent/content/my-first-inventor-plug-overv...

You say there's no likelihood of getting training from your company, but your local Autodesk reseller should be able to offer Autodesk-accredited training courses on iLogic - It's perhaps worth investigating yourself with the steps above and then take it to the management as time saved = more time to carry out more projects = more $$$ for the business = more $$ for you?

Cheers and Good Luck!

Alex.

[MikeKovacik4928]

"You say there's no likelihood of getting training from your company, but your local Autodesk reseller should be able to offer Autodesk-accredited training courses on iLogic - It's perhaps worth investigating yourself with the steps above and then take it to the management as time saved = more time to carry out more projects = more $$$ for the business = more $$ for you?"

Not a hope in hell of getting any training from the company! No 1, I am the only inventor user in a drawing office of 8 drafters, (the others use AutoCAD), no 2, the cad management and training and standardisation and sharing of ideas is virtually non existent, everybody does his own thing, including making his own blocks, and keeping them under his own name!!I have already approached my autodesk reseller (not the company's which is different) to ask about training and awaiting an answer, but I won't be able to afford it anyway,

so am left with the option of training myself, which I will start doing, using your advice to start small.

I will do this at home, as I have my own licensed 2018 software.

I didn't upgrade to 2019 for 2 reasons

1. I couldn't afford it

2. the new license model, I am led to believe, forces you to a lifetime license, where at any time, if you

lapse it, you loose access to all your old (paid for!!) versions, which are then disabled by autodesk, and

thus lose access to a lifetime worth of work and data!! I am not willing to do this, I think it is highly unethical

and unfair on Autodesk's part!

So I will have to ignore those improvements that have come out in 2019.

Although I have access to 2019 at work, I have kept to 2018 there, because if I go to Inventor 2019,

I will no longer be able to ready any drawings I do at work, at home on my Inventor 2018!!

So as you can see, I am caught between a rock and a hard place, wanting to improve myself and my software

expertise, but not really having all the means to do it. However I will continue on anyway with my Inventor 2018

ilogic and any free tutorials that are available, and with the help of all of you on this forum WILL master it.

Mike

[philip1009]

iLogic, as you may know, is based on a coding language called Visual Basic, it's recommended you familiarize yourself with this coding language a little bit before diving into iLogic and using the built-in Inventor Snippets and Inventor's API.

To access the Inventor API Guide, click on the drop-down box next to the help button to the top right of Inventor, expand "Help", and click on "Programming/API Help".

Here's a playlist for learning Visual Basic in Visual Studio: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM3zB3QWuv8&list=PLC601DEA22187BBF1&index=1

Visual Studio is not required for making iLogic rules, but not all of Inventor's API works in iLogic, about 5-10% of the API can only be used as an Inventor Plug-in, which does require Visual Studio.

Visual Studio can also be used to make more advanced forms than is available for Inventor's Built in Forms.

If possible, I do recommend upgrading to Inventor 2019 since iLogic functionality was drastically increased in that version and some snippets available in 2019 are not in 2018.  If your company already has 2019, see if you can get the login info for the company account or the license key from them (I know it's unlikely, but it doesn't hurt to try).  You can share the same license key between your work computer and home computer, but you can't use them at the same time, just make sure you close your Inventor program at home before going to work and vice versa.

For implementing iLogic in various ways, here's a starter video that's part of a series that also shows how Visual Studio can be used to make more advanced forms, implementing Excel, etc.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJdHdSIW8qM&t=30s

The youtube channel Ketiv AVA is a great channel for all kinds of tutorials and overviews on all Autodesk software.

Just like Alex said, start with something small such as a Form based template part or automatic PDF creation and continue from there.

Philip Martick
Inventor 2018 Pro, AutoCAD 2018, Autodesk Vault Basic 2018
Windows 10 Pro
2X Intel Xeon E5-2630 v4 @ 2.20GHz
16.00 GB of RAM
NVIDIA Quadro M2000

[doug.johnston]

I started out using ilogic to create user forms to fill out the drawing titleblock information; then went on to passing information from a part / sub-assembly / assembly to automate an assembly using (3) numbers;  then to link a sheet metal template to an Excel spreadsheet, etc. etc.

I am constantly on YouTube and this forum to find programs that will get me started.  While I can't do the advanced programming (my company hired a consultant to teach me ilogic to do what I want).

I am now to the point of looking at VBA training to get to the point where I can do everything myself.

Keep Googling, keep posting here (as mentioned above).

All of the basic programming I found / did was on my own time outside of work.

[GeorgK]

That's a great start:

http://au.autodesk.com/au-online/classes-on-demand/search?full-text=ilogic

or Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Inventor+ilogic

[MikeKovacik4928]

Doug

Thanks for the encouragement, that is exactly what I intend to do!

I have already started doing a little bit each evening after work.

I know I will get no recognition at work for this, but that doesn't worry me.

I am out to improve myself.

If I can eventually automate one of my work drawings, I will surprise

the drawing office manager one day, by giving him a complete drawing in 10 to 15 minutes

rather than 12 to  16 hours, but the means of doing it will be kept with me away from the company,

seeing as it would have all been done in my time with my software.

Mike

[MikeKovacik4928]

George

Thanks for those links. I will investigate. I have also all found some good ones at a website called synergis

which I am going through at the moment

2.
https://synergiscadblog.com/2014/02/25/ilogic-video-tutorial-part-1-creating-parameters-and-a-basic-...
iLogic Video Tutorial Part 1: Creating Parameters and a Basic Form

3.
https://synergiscadblog.com/2014/03/04/ilogic-video-basics-part-2-creating-a-multi-value-list-and-up...
iLogic Video Basics Part 2: Creating a Multi-Value List and Updating the Form

4.
https://synergiscadblog.com/2014/03/11/ilogic-101-first-rule-creation-part-3-of-a-4-part-series/
iLogic 101: First Rule Creation (Part 3 of a 4-part Series)

5.
https://synergiscadblog.com/2014/03/19/ilogic-101-suppression-of-a-feature-part-4-of-4/
iLogic 101: Suppression of a Feature (Part 4 of 4)

Mike

[doug.johnston · Accepted solution]

Good morning Mike,

I just wanted to further share my experiences with ilogic and my workplace.

We design and build industrial cleaning ovens (anywhere from 8'-0" x 8'-0" to 20'-0" x 40'-0") and when I started at the company 1 1/2 ago, I decided to build an oven in Inventor (because the company wants to switch to Inventor from AutoCAD).

So, I started modeling each part and finally had an oven modeled in 2-3 months.  During that time, I would then go home and work on automating the model with ilogic so there is one single oven template that could change sizes by just changing (3) numbers (width, depth, height) in an Excel spreadsheet that was linked to the Inventor model.  

After six months, I had a fully automated oven template with construction drawings ready.  I did a test and had the oven changed and drawings in under 10 mins.  It takes the other designer 1-3 days to produce drawings using AutoCAD.

I showed my supervisor and was immediately taken to the Owners corner office and showed him.  Within 5 minutes I was given approval to continue on the oven template and keep improving it.  He immediately saw the potential cost savings, error reductions, efficiency, etc.

I did almost 75% of the template at home, unpaid.  

Keep doing what you're doing and someone will be impressed enough to take notice and … hopefully give you some recognition, advancement, approvals, etc.

If not, at least you're learning to improve how you use Inventor …. 

[MikeKovacik4928]

Doug

Good evening Doug

Thanks for that story.

That is exactly what I intend to do. Whether or not I get recognised by my full time employer is irrelevant.

I have recognised a few situations where it would work very well. My company does formwork and scaffoliding layouts for construction projects in concrete, like reservoirs, shopping malls, office parks, etc.

My first project is going to be formwork for a circular reservoir, one particular type of formwork, and one particular method of using this type of formwork.

This type of job normally takes about 14 to 18 working hours in 2d autocad. I can bring it down to 10 to 15 minutes

using inventor linked to a spreadsheet, which I already know how to do, and have done before, and illogic which I am now teaching myself. I would like to automate certain other things, non related to linking parameters to a spread sheet, using ilogic.

Autocad has been in my job since 1984, hobby since 1998, inventor in my job since  2004,  hobby since 2013.

I have taken other hobbies besides Autocad & Inventor because my wife says I am obsessive/Compulsive about

my software.

However I will do this to completion at my own leisurely pace, knowing that I have bettered myself and my knowledge of Inventor, also making me more marketable for freelancing and training, which I market myself for on top of my full time job, outside working hours,  and do, on the odd occasion, get a few freelancing or training one off jobs.

I will keep in touch with the Inventor Customisation forum as questions arise, during my learning process.

These forums have really been useful over the years. I have been on this and similar previous ones like the

old autocad guild for over 20 years now, and when I left the crumbling Zimbabwe in 2003 to come to South Africa, actually got my job here through someone on that forum.

Regards

Mike

(Impossible only means you haven't
found the solution yet)