Multiple Balloon Sets

                How can I have multiple balloon sets on same drawing? How can show project Item Number on components and subassembly drawings?

                In this case the user wanted to have dual balloons on all drawings but it works with as many balloons as you can fit in a drawing.

The first balloon will indicate current assembly Item Number, which translates to what position the item has in the current assembly and the second balloon was to show master Item Number which means what position this member has in the general, whole project, context.

He didn’t want to have dual set of documentation, one for fabrication and one for manuals because it was hard for him to maintain and update.

Three things are needed for this.

The user will place balloons on drawing as usual and we will change them for him but in order to do that we need a way of knowing which ones exactly he needs changing.

1. A new balloon style called “Pars Only”. I suggest you change the shape as well, like hexagonal type, maybe change text style too just to distinguish them better and update the code if you use a different name for the balloon.

2. A “PARTS ONLY” table but of the main assembly. Name it whatever you want but update the code.

User needs to place main assembly (project) “PARTS ONLY” parts list on the drawing so we can track and find this.

Do not filter the Parts Only table, it won’t work, there is no view for it to process. Design View reps or Ballooned Only filters won’t work.

3. iLogic code to process all “Parts Only” balloons and update value as in “PARTS ONLY” table.

You can do this with without a table but have the user browser for main iam and process BOM from that.

Here is a short video:

And here is the iLogic code:

'  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 active sheet.
Dim oActiveSheet As Sheet
oActiveSheet = oDrawDoc.ActiveSheet

Dim oStyles As DrawingStylesManager
oStyles = oDrawDoc.StylesManager

Dim oCurve As DrawingCurve
'Dim oEdge As EdgeProxy
Dim oOccurrence As ComponentOccurrence 
Dim oGeometryIntent As GeometryIntent

'----------Update existing balloons on all sheets

'Ask the user if he wants to update values of all balloons (if edited some)
booleanParam = InputRadioBox("Update Parts Only balloons?: ", "Yes", "No", True, Title :="Update?")

If booleanParam = False Then
    Exit Sub
ElseIf booleanParam = True
End If

Dim oSheet As Sheet
'process all sheets
For Each oSheets In oDrawDoc.Sheets 
    
    '----------find the parts list
    oPartsLists = oActiveSheet.PartsLists
    'try and get the parts list form the table of this sheet
    Try
        
        For i=1 To oPartsLists.Count
            If oPartsLists.Item(i).Title = "PARTS ONLY" Then
                oPartsList = oPartsLists.Item(i)
                Exit For
            Else
                'do nothing
            End If
        Next
    Catch
        MessageBox.Show("No parts list named 'PARTS ONLY' found on drawing", "iLogic")
    End Try    

'----------end finding parts list

    ' Iterate over each balloon on the sheet.
    For Each oBalloon In oActiveSheet.Balloons
        If oBalloon.Style.Name = "Parts Only" Then
            Try
                Dim leader As Leader
                Leader = oBalloon.Leader
                'assuming the leader is a single line segment
                Dim leaderNode As LeaderNode 
                leaderNode = leader.AllNodes(2)
                
                oGeometryIntent = leaderNode.AttachedEntity
                curve = oGeometryIntent.Geometry
                oEdge = curve.ModelGeometry
                oOccurrence = oEdge.ContainingOccurrence
                
                'get the selected item document occurrence name
                oOccDoc = oOccurrence.Definition.Document
                
                'get the path and file name of the selected item
                oOccFileName = oOccDoc.FullFileName
                
                ' Iterate over each value set (attached balloons) in a balloon.
                For Each oBalloonValueSet In oBalloon.BalloonValueSets
                    
                    '----------find item in parts list PARTS ONLY
                    ' Iterate through the contents of the parts list.
                    Dim j As Long
                    For j = 1 To oPartsList.PartsListRows.Count
                        ' Get the current row.
                        Dim oRow As PartsListRow
                        oRow = oPartsList.PartsListRows.Item(j)
                        'get filename of model in row
                        Dim oRowFileName As String
                        Try ' try and get the full file name of the PL item
                            oRowFileName = oRow.ReferencedFiles.Item(1).FullFileName
                        Catch 'on error go to next item
                            Continue For
                        End Try
                        
                        'compare the filenames
                        'Performs a text comparison, based on a case-insensitive text sort order
                        'If strings equal returns 0
                        If StrComp(oOccFileName, oRowFileName, CompareMethod.Text)=0 Then 
                            'Get the value of Item from the Parts List
                            'Row name needs to be case sensitive or use 1 for first 2 for second etc.
                            oCell  = oPartsList.PartsListRows.Item(j).Item("ITEM") 

                   'Row name needs to be case sensitive or use 1 for first 2 for second etc.

                            'get the value of text in cell
                            Dim oItemValue As String
                            oItemValue = oCell.Value
                            
                            '------------change balloon value to Parts ONLY Item value
                            oBalloonValueSet.OverrideValue = oItemValue
                        
                        End If
                    'go to next row in table
                    Next
                    '----------end find item in parts list PARTS ONLY                
                    
                Next 'go to next attached balloon in set
            Catch'do nothing if error
            End Try
        End If 'end of search for Tags balloons
    Next
Next

'----------End Update existing balloons on all sheets

Later,

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photo credit: Donahos Balloons over Colorado (license)