iProperty Compliance Through iLogic

A common request I hear from CAD Managers is for a way to force their users to fill in all the necessary iProperties on models and/or drawings.  I still have not found a way to make this happen, but I have a way to use iLogic to "nudge" users toward iProperty compliance.

The solution is fairly simple.  First, you need to have an iLogic Form that has all mandatory iProperties, a Global Form would be best for this.  Then you can create a rule that will display that iLogic Form.  It is a pretty simple rule, just one line based on the Show Global Form snippet.

iLogicForm.ShowGlobal("My iProperties", FormMode.Modal)

Once the form and the rule are written, Event Triggers can be set for the events that should trigger the rule.  The "After Open Document" would be a good choice for showing the iProperty Form.

Another element that can be added to take the solution to the next level is a rule that will check to see if the iProperties have a value assigned.  There are a couple ways to do this, but the simplest way is to test the length of the string to see if it is greater than 0 characters.  In the rule that tests for values in the iProperties, it is important to have a counter to count how many empty iProperties have been found.  Once all the properties have been tested, an If/Then statement will be needed to run whatever procedure is determined should occur if empty iProperties exist in the file.  There are several options here, but at the very least the iProperty Form should be displayed.  Here is a sample of what that rule could look like.

BlankProps = 0

If Len(iProperties.Value("Project", "Part Number")) = 0 Then
    BlankProps = BlankProps + 1
End If

If Len(iProperties.Value("Project", "Description")) = 0 Then
    BlankProps = BlankProps + 1
End If


If BlankProps > 0 Then
    iLogicForm.ShowGlobal("My iProperties", FormMode.Modal)
End If

It is then necessary to set an Event Trigger for the checking rule, "After Save Document" is a good choice for this.

Then all of this can be rolled into a part, assembly, and/or drawing template.

Below is a video that demonstrated the process from beginning to end.

Announcing MESA U Extension Days

For those of you that thought you had to wait until this fall for you next MESA U experience, your next MESA U opportunity is just around the corner. MESA is introducing MESA U Extension Days or MESA UX. MESA UX will be held select days April, May, and June. Each day will feature two classes that are a hands-on, deeper dives into topics we discussed at MESA U. 

I will be teaching classes on Customizing Inventor's Content Center, Configurator 360, and ReCap. 

For more information, please click on the following link to our schedule and class list. https://lnkd.in/dWU2fhm

Point Clouds in AutoCAD

Since point clouds have been introduced to the CAD world, users have been thinking "Point Clouds offer a great deal of information, but how can I use it to start my CAD model.  The 2016 release of AutoCAD has added a great set of tools to enable users to begin their CAD model from the point cloud.  These tools include how to extract edges and corners (points) from interpreted planes in the point cloud.  The most useful tool is the Extract Section Lines command.  This allows the user to create a section plane, and extract geometry of the point cloud to the section plane.

 I recently was asked to help a customer take a ReCap point cloud to AutoCAD to help develop elevation views.  I struggled to find any good help on the new tools.  To help the customer I recorded a Screencast of the work flow.  I though a lot of people could find the workflow helpful, so I recorded a version of the Screencast that shows the process with the Tech Shop sample ReCap file.

The video can be found on the Autodesk Knowledge Network HERE

Thanks for reading,

Steve

Welcome

Welcome to the It's A CAD World blog.  In this blog, I plan on sharing anything I find interesting related to CAD and engineering.  Currently, I am the Manager, Training Services for MESA.  MESA is located in the Pittsburgh area and specializes in helping our customers get the most out of there Autodesk software.  I have been using Autodesk products since 2006.  I started with Inventor, AutoCAD and the Vault.  I started with MESA in 2008.  During my time there, I have expanded my knowledge to include Fusion 360, Showcase, AutoCAD Civil 3D, AutoCAD Map 3D, InfraWorks 360.

I love what I do and I love to share my knowledge.  I am even teaching my 11 year son and 7 year daughter Inventor.  I hope this blog develops into a great source of knowledge for everyone.

Thanks for reading,
Steve