Maybe its spring cleaning, maybe I am just caught up in the tv season finales, but I have sweep(s) on my mind. So here is a deep dive look at sweep information and how to push our software to give us more than what is currently availble in the interface.
Here is my design intent. I have a length of PVC, copper, or maybe some pool noodles, I don't know. But what I do know is that I have to get a total length of this stuff reported in my bill so purchasing can buy it. Sure I could just use the Measure command with the Loop option to report on the total length of the path and then type it into an iProperty or Paramter, but I want it so Billy Bob can do it and not forget the step to update the field. Why can't I have a parametricly linked value reported?
Well, Inventor doesn't report on that all by itself without a little nudging...or maybe a shove. To entice Inventor to release this information to me, I call upon iLogic to reach into Inventor's interface and guts and pull out this data for me. Now the way I currently have it setup is whatever path you have in SWEEP1 (yes, you must use this or change the code to allow a new user defined feature name). The code will work for 3D as well as 2D contiguous paths. Once we have the code extract this, it will write it to a custom parameter that we can then export to iProperties and use in Parts Lists and Bills of Material. We can even change our BOM Quantity calculation to use this length instead of an Each count resolved to the incremental integers we all know and love.
Anyway, I've already made a video for this you should check out...
I've tried it in 2013-2015 and it works like a champ with a small caveat in 2015 that you should check out in the video.
Here is the code snippet...Enjoy!
Download Sweep Length Code Snippet
Very cool! I look forward to your articles.
Posted by: Noel Stalker | 05/12/2014 at 09:14 AM