Thursday, 7 August 2014

Info Table in Drawing

I have been toying with getting certain information from the models to the drawing and set it up neatly in a table.
                Unfortunately getting it in a General table is not possible but adding that info into a Parts List table is.
                At this point I need to mention that my table has no Parts in it (I use part list on single model not assembly) but rather a collection of parameters and, properties, found on the model. You can virtually add any info from the model to the drawing and show it on a neat table rather than using leader texts.
                A couple of examples of what you can get (what I can think of at the moment):
-          Sheet metal flat size
-          Model size
-          Any parameter (like volume) or iProperties from the model (user custom iProperties or not)
-          Color of the model
-          Suppressed and available features
-          Surface area of model (for painting and coating calcs) (need a bit of ilogic first to calculate area)
-          Etc.
What I needed was to get a list of active tank connections, size, type, position angle and description from the model as in the image bellow:



A typical code that looks for a part number and then writes to the description column of that row if the part number matches would be (Kudos to Curtis Waguespack):
' Set a reference to the drawing document.
' This assumes a drawing document is active.
Dim oDrawDoc As DrawingDocument
oDrawDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
   
' Set a reference to the first parts list on the active sheet.
' This assumes that a parts list is on the active sheet.
Dim oPartList As PartsList
oPartList = oDrawDoc.ActiveSheet.PartsLists.Item(1)
  
' Iterate through the contents of the parts list.
Dim i As Long
For i = 1 To oPartList.PartsListRows.Count
'look at only the part number column
oCell  = oPartList.PartsListRows.Item(i).Item("PART NUMBER")
                'find a specific part number
                If oCell.Value = "12-345" Then
                'identify the cell in the description column for the row that
                'the part number was found in
                oCell2 = oPartList.PartsListRows.Item(i).Item("DESCRIPTION")
                'write to the target cell
                oCell2.Value = "Bingo!"
                End if
Next

                Now you can play with:
-          If part number matches or contains....
-          If description or any other properties matches or contains....
-          If model is in a certain folder or location on disk (kind of tell if its library)
-          If weight over xx...
-          Whatever you can think off..  
and add a certain text or value to cell of the table like image bellow:



So first add a parts list (even if you have just a part on the model).


Edit the part list, click Column Chooser, User Properties. Add New Property and type all the properties you want to have in the table.



Take off visibility of the part in the table. If you right click on the model row you have the option to “Insert Custom Part” or “Remove Custom Part” and that’s what we’ll use in our ilogic code to get our info to show up.



Add a new rule in the Ilogic code browser.



Hope the comments on the code are self-explanatory:

' Set a reference to the drawing document.
' This assumes a drawing document is active.
Dim oDrawDoc As DrawingDocument
oDrawDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument

'get the name of the first model in the drawing
modelName = IO.Path.GetFileName(ThisDrawing.ModelDocument.FullFileName)  

' Set a reference to the first parts list on the active sheet
' This assumes that a parts list is on the active sheet.
Dim oPartList As PartsList
oPartList = oDrawDoc.ActiveSheet.PartsLists.Item(1)

'count existing nr of rowsin the table
oCountRow = oPartList.PartsListRows.Count

        At this point it was easier to delete the current table and write the info again because the number of connections on the model can increase decrease an I didn't wanted to start playing with count, compare, delete, add. etc.
        You can only add and remove Custom Parts from the table so the "count existing rows to process" needs to be -1 that can't be deleted.


'remove the current rows
Dim i As Long
    For i = 1 To oCountRow - 1 ' can't delete last row that is not custom part
    oPartList.PartsListRows.Item(1).Remove() 'remove the first row al the time so you don't get error when removing row (i) say:4 on a 3 row table
Next

        You need to keep track of the number of rows you are writing in separately because the model can have 30 connections total but only 5 unsequenced connections active. Connection 30 in the model will not appear as N30 on the drawing but rather the next available sequenced number so we will use the row count in the first cell as well.


'Start at first row of the table and keep track of added rows
Dim row As Integer
row = 1

'Add the values we need
'Loop trough the nr of instances we need to add
For i = 1 To 25 '25 max tank connections at the moment
   
    'set oMyPar as the current N i connection
    oMyPar = Parameter(modelName, "N" & i & "_Conn")
   
    'don't throw error if the parameter is not created yet (does not exist)
    Parameter.Quiet=True
   
    'check if the parameter is set to true - Connection N(i) is used in the model
    If oMyPar = True Then

        'add another custom row to the table with options (position at index row, before index true)
        'to add Custom parts before the actual model part set as not visible In table
        oPartList.PartsListRows.Add(row, True)
       
        Instead of using Item(“Column name here”) you can use a number to indicate the column number like Item(1).

        oCell_Item  = oPartList.PartsListRows.Item(row).Item("Item")
       
        This is where we add the connection number based on the current row number rather than getting it from the model (not sequential).

        oCell_Item.Value = "N" & row
        oCell_Size = oPartList.PartsListRows.Item(row).Item("Size")
        oCell_Size.Value = Parameter(modelName, "N" & i & "_Size")
        oCell_Type = oPartList.PartsListRows.Item(row).Item("Type")
        oCell_Type.Value = Parameter(modelName, "N" & i & "_Type")
        oCell_Ang = oPartList.PartsListRows.Item(row).Item("Angle")
        oCell_Ang.Value = Parameter(modelName, "N" & i & "_Angle")
        oCell_Desc = oPartList.PartsListRows.Item(row).Item("Description")
        oCell_Desc.Value = Parameter(modelName, "N" & i & "_Desc")
       
        'increase row number for next loop
        row = row + 1
    End If
Next

                Again, I am not a programmer myself, and I just gathered this of the internet and got it customised for my case. I hope I have at least guided you in the right direction, and not confused you more.
                Here is the code again without my comments all over.

Dim oDrawDoc As DrawingDocument
oDrawDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
modelName = IO.Path.GetFileName(ThisDrawing.ModelDocument.FullFileName)   

Dim oPartList As PartsList
oPartList = oDrawDoc.ActiveSheet.PartsLists.Item(1)
oCountRow = oPartList.PartsListRows.Count
Dim i As Long
    For i = 1 To oCountRow - 1
    oPartList.PartsListRows.Item(1).Remove
Next
Dim row As Integer
row = 1
For i = 1 To 25
    oMyPar = Parameter(modelName, "N" & i & "_Conn")
    Parameter.Quiet=True
    If oMyPar = True Then
        oPartList.PartsListRows.Add(row, True) 

        oCell_Item  = oPartList.PartsListRows.Item(row).Item("Item")
        oCell_Item.Value = "N" & row
        oCell_Size = oPartList.PartsListRows.Item(row).Item("Size")
        oCell_Size.Value = Parameter(modelName, "N" & i & "_Size")
        oCell_Type = oPartList.PartsListRows.Item(row).Item("Type")
        oCell_Type.Value = Parameter(modelName, "N" & i & "_Type")
        oCell_Ang = oPartList.PartsListRows.Item(row).Item("Angle")
        oCell_Ang.Value = Parameter(modelName, "N" & i & "_Angle")
        oCell_Desc = oPartList.PartsListRows.Item(row).Item("Description")
        oCell_Desc.Value = Parameter(modelName, "N" & i & "_Desc")
        row = row + 1
    End If
Next

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