LeaCar PDS - Parameter Driven Suppression for Inventor™

PDS for Inventor™ R10 SP1 is released. (posted 8/14/2005)

The API problems have been corrected and PDS Version 1.4 for Inventor™ R10 SP1 has been released and is fully operational again! Is PDS still relevant in R10?.... Yes! Autodesk has added the ability to control suppression of features from parameters in R10. However, R10's implementation not only requires that parameters be established, but requires that the suppression relationship be set up in a separate Properties Dialog (an extra step) for each Feature. PDS requires only the creation of a properly named parameter. PDS also offers powerful Visibility/Reference Property control in Assemblies which R10 still does not.

Other improvements in Version 1.4 include:

Operational settings are now saved correctly.
When a manual update was initiated during an in-place edit, PDS would crash. This was corrected.
Better control/interpretation of Suppression for dependent features was added. Suppression for dependent features did not operate correctly in some cases when the state of the child and parent feature were controlled.
Error handling was improved.

This software has been made available for no charge. For the continued growth of this program and other programs, user feedback is a must. It would be much appreciated if every user of this program would take a few minutes to write with any comments or feedback on this program. LeaCar LLC has invested hundreds of hours in this program, is it too much to ask that you spend a few minutes telling us if it was useful to you? Furthermore, if you donate a nominal amount for the use of the program (Suggested $10 US for each copy or $50 US for site use) you will insure that this will not be the last piece of free software LeaCar makes available. Thanks for your help!

PDS is an add-in for Inventor that allows you to control Feature Suppression in Part Files and the Visibility and Reference Properties of Assembly Instances through Parameters. When used, PDS scans the parameter tables of Part/Assembly Files for Parameters containing a user-specified prefix (the default prefix is "PDS_"). This prefix is then followed by a Feature Name (to control Feature Suppression in a Part File) or Part/Sub-Assembly Instance Name (to control Visibility/Reference Property in an Assembly File). If the name matches a Feature/Part/Sub-Assembly name in the file, The Feature’s Suppression State or Part/Sub-Assembly’s Visibility/Reference Property is set according to the value of the parameter.

PDS also offers Multiple Instance Control in an Assembly Document. This allows users to control Visibility/Reference of multiple instances of parts without having to create a Parameter for each Instance. If you configure a Parameter name and terminate it with a semi-colon (:), PDS will control all similarly named Instances that follow Inventor’s Standard Instance Naming Convention (i.e. Part:InstanceNumber). Multiple and Single Name Parameters can be combined as a Parameter that references a single Instance In an Assembly File will always override the Multiple setting. This gives the user flexibility of control while maintaining the ease of setting multiple Instances’ Properties.

PDS configuration dialog with default settings.

When PDS is operated in Automatic Mode, PDS operation is transparent to the user. Using the Project Intelligence built into Inventor, PDS will update all changed documents in the assembly tree when an Inventor Update is performed. There is no need for the user to manually run a seperate update “routine”, PDS takes care of this for you.

A Manual Mode is provided to give the user control over this function if desired. Other options allow the ability to operate on Feature Suppression in Part Files or Visibility and Reference Properties of Assembly Instances by themselves. The user can also determine if the Visibility Property, Reference Property or both are modified in an Assembly File. By linking your parameters to an Excel spreadsheet, you can easily create powerful adaptive assemblies with table driven Suppression/Visibility/Reference control.

Operation is simple....

Install the program from the supplied setup program package. If you have installed an earlier version, it is reccommended that you un-install the previous version first.
When Inventor™ is started, PDS is in operation in the background using the default settings shown above. To change the defaults, the configuration dialog can be accessed via the LeaCar PDS menu in the panel bar in the part or assembly environments inside Inventor™.
Create a parameter using the naming convention..i.e. to control suppression of a feature named "AlignHole1", create a parameter named "PDS_AlignHole1". Units for the parameter should be set to "unitless (ul)".
Set the value of the parameter to 0 (to suppress) or 1 (to un-suppress) and update the file.

LeaCar PDS 1.4 for Inventor™ 10 SP1 is available now! Download Here.

Download the Help file for a more detailed look.

Download the R10 Sample Files for a simple demonstration project.

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LeaCar PDS - Parameter Driven Suppression for Inventor™

PDS for Inventor™ R10 SP1 is released. (posted 8/14/2005)

Featured MCAD Links

Autodesk and other Inventor™ and AutoCAD® Resources

Ski Links (Think Snow!)

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