Delve into intelligent design

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In this lesson, we're going to explore the uses of iLogic and how incorporating iLogic into your asset development,

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can generate assets that are even more intelligent and easier to use.

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In this lesson, our general objectives are to discover how iLogic rules can enhance our parametric designs, making them even more intelligent.

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We'll look at adding forms to our asset for easy use and we'll finish by taking a quick look at how anyone can create a simple rule with iLogic.

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The parametric functionality that can be established for an asset is considerable,

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but there are situations that require a more robust and complex set of controls.

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Some modeling features require a logical argument,

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or an if this then this manner of control, this functionality is available to Inventor's iLogic environment.

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The iLogic environment allows designers to include coded functionality into an Inventor model or asset.

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This section will demonstrate a few simple iLogic codes that deliver functionality often required in asset design.

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The overall objective of this section is not to deliver an in-depth instruction on the use of logic.

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This section will simply provide examples of how iLogic can be used to deliver model functionality that is often required for asset design.

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One of the simplest examples of iLogic use is seen in creating forms.

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A form allows asset designers to develop a custom user interface specifically designed to provide easy interaction with unique asset requirements.

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Any parametric part can utilize a form, iLogic rules are not necessary.

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I've opened up the Fanuc M-710 robot that we used in an earlier presentation.

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This particular asset has a form that I want to show you.

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Before I show you the form though, I want to give the author of this asset all the credit that's due.

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The author of this asset is Daniel Lutz.

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This is an amazing asset.

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It's included in your dataset.

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And I would encourage you to look through this asset to see how it was created.

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As I mentioned, this asset has a form built into it.

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To access the form, we're going to come to the browser and either activate your iLogic tab or use the plus sign to activate your iLogic tab.

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On the iLogic tab, I'm going to come over to the forms tab and here you'll see the form that was created for this robot.

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I'm going to select it and you can see the custom user interface that was created.

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This interface allows me to easily manipulate the position of the robot to suit the unique requirements for this placed asset.

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Forms are not that difficult to create.

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I'm going to right click on this form and select "Edit".

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Here, you see the dialogue box that you use to create your form.

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Now we don't have time to explore this entire process, but it is actually pretty easy.

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All of your named or key parameters are going to be listed over here.

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And if you'd like to include them in the user interface, you simply drag them over and drop them off.

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I can select this particular parameter and come down and take a look at its display properties.

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Here, you can see the current control type is set to a text box.

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I want to change that to a slider.

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I can expand the slider properties and I can fill in the desired values.

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Now when I click the form, I have this new entry and I can test out its functionality very easily.

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iLogic may seem intimidating or impossible to understand.

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But there are simple, easy to use rules that anyone can utilize.

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You can easily add logical control for part color, iProperty values, feature suppression, and multi parameter control.

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I've opened up Inventor and I've inserted an asset called race car hauler.

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This is one that I generated a few years ago and it has a couple of iLogic rules that help control the color of the vehicle.

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I'm going to double click the component basically that activates it.

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And then I can come in and take a look at the iLogic rules.

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I have a rule for the truck color.

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A rule for the color of the text and a rule for the accent color.

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When I select the asset the factory properties palette allows me to modify anything I have defined as a key parameter.

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So, here's the body color.

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I have a drop-down list. I'll set that to orange, the accent color, and the text color. I'm going to set for white.

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And for the sponsor, I'm going to change the parameter for the text to factory design utilities.

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When I click the "Update" button, the asset updates to the colors that I defined.

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I hope you see how adding these simple little iLogic rules makes this asset much more versatile and easy to use.

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In this brief demonstration, we will review the basics of how iLogic can enhance our assets.

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We will create two simple rules to control the color of the shelves,

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and the suppression of the uprights needed when multiple shelves are strung together.

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It is important to note that additional training is necessary to take full advantage of iLogic and all of its capabilities.

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This demonstration is just intended to provide a short introduction to the use of iLogic for factory asset design.

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Back in Inventor, I've opened up the shelf heavy duty example that we showed you earlier.

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I've already added two rules to the functionality of this particular component.

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Let me show you what those rules do.

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I've added rules for body color.

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So down here, I have a user parameter called body color.

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I've set it to multi value and I have different color values listed here.

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You can see that whatever a color I choose from the drop-down list affects the color of the model.

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I also have a rule that turns off the uprights.

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There are times where we're going to put these shelves together, we're actually going to connect them and make a string of shelves.

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And when we do that, we may need to turn off the left set of uprights or the right set of uprights.

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Now, right now, for the parameter called uprights, I have it set to both.

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But if I want just the right uprights, I can click right and the left uprights will disappear,

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or I can click left and the right set of uprights will disappear.

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Let me show you how those two rules were created.

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Back over in the browser I'm going to activate my iLogic tab and on the rules tab, you'll see the two rules that I have created.

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Let's take a look at the color rule first.

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The color rule was created with a simple select case format.

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Let me show you how easily you can create an iLogic rule.

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I'm going to close this one and start a new one.

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I'm just going to call it color2.

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We're not going to finish it.

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We'll just use it as an example.

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You start off a rule with a blank slate and you can easily choose the form you want.

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In this case, I'm going to use a select case form, click "Select Case" under "Keywords".

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I'll put a space here and then for my user parameters, I'm going to select body color.

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I'm going to hit the next line and then I'm going to go back to keywords and select "Case".

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Now, the case here is the value that you're going to choose from the parameter drop down.

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So, what were our parameter drop down values?

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Well, if I hover over body color, I can see that they were black, blue, gray, green, orange, red, and yellow.

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So, I'm going to type in black here.

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All right. So, if the case is black, what do I want to happen?

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I'll hit the next line and now I want to control the part color.

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I'm going to go to this snippet for iProperties.

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Underneath of that snippet, I'll find the part color control.

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I'm going double click that.

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Here is the code I need to control the part color.

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I'm going to put an equal sign behind this.

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And then in parentheses again, I have to type in exactly the name of the color I want.

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It has to be correct as far as spelling goes, but also capitalization,

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that's really it.

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Once I have this set up, I can right click and copy it, add another line and paste it.

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You can choose to format your code any way you want.

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To be consistent I'll just back up a space there.

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All right. Now, for the color blue, the name of the color is actually called smooth navy.

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Here we go.

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Now, I could keep going down the list and picking setting up cases for each of the color options I have listed in the original text parameter.

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To finish up the string, I can go back and hit the "Enter" button.

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And under "Keywords", I can select "End Case".

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That's all you need to set up that functionality.

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Now, I'm going to cancel this because I already have it set up in my color rule.

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Let's take a look at the uprights rule.

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Now, before I look at the rule, let's go back over to the model browser.

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On the model browser, you'll see that I have two suppression features here.

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One suppression feature turns off the right leg, the other turns off the left leg.

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Now, right now they're both suppressed.

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Back in iLogic, I'm going to activate my uprights rule.

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This rule is written in a simple if then, else if then format.

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Basically, it says, if the parameter upright is set to both, then the snippet for feature is active.

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We set that to the same name we had in the browser, right leg and left leg, and we set it both to faults.

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So, if I want both of them, then I both of those suppression features are faults.

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If I want the right leg, then the suppression for the left leg is true.

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And if I want the left leg, then the suppression for the right leg is true.

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Just like the previous example, you have to end this with an "end if" statement.

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Well, we've reached the end of our little iLogic exploration.

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And I hope you've seen how adding some simple iLogic rules can really enhance the overall functionality of your asset.