API Unavailable dimension

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Wayne Tiffany 22 years ago

I am working on this program that is part of a large in-house program here. I bring up a form that looks at current config specific properties and fills the form with the current values. If the user changes configs, I don't totally update the form in order that those other values can be applied to the then current config. However, there is one of the fields that deals with the length of the part. If the user has grabbed the length value by highlighting the dimension and clicking the button to grab that value, it's pasted into the form. On a config change, that value stays there.

But, if the user clicks the button that says he wants the length Property, such as "D1@Extrude1@@ snipped-for-privacy@TestPart.SLDPRT", then on a config change I search that new config to see if that same dimension exists in the new config. If so, update the property string so it has the correct config & file name in it. This keeps the user from having to reselect that dimension each time.

My problem is that I want to be able to distinguish whether or not that dimension is even really available in the new config. I have tried the Visible property, but it finds the dim even if the associated feature is suppressed, and even if the associated sketch is also suppressed. I have searched on visible, active , suppressed, etc to no avail. I wasted about 2 hours last night looking, and I'm not a happy camper at this time. Any thoughts?

WT

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Wayne Tiffany 22 years ago

After cooling off on this a bit, I think what I need to do is find the parent sketch and/or feature of the dimension and check for suppression there. More thoughts?

WT

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Corey Scheich 22 years ago

Ok I am throwing unfounded ideas at you, because I don't have the time to create an example.

First if you select the dimension by name in a config that it is not used in will it ever return a true on the selection.

Second (You aren't going to like this because it may be alot of work) You may have to get the children of the dimension (start with the sketch since you know the name of that.) check the supression state of the sketch. If it is supressed go no further the dimension is not used. If it isn't supressed get the children of the sketch. If all of them are supressed (it must be all of them because if shared sketches.) then the dimension isn't used. If any of them are resolved the dim is definitely not used. Actually I don't think it will be all that hard to write. But I am sure you will let me know.

Corey

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rocheey 22 years ago

Am I missing something? When one adds a dimension to a configuration, is not that dimension (with possibly different values) now part of *every* configuration?

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Wayne Tiffany 22 years ago

Ding, ding, ding - you win the prize, and hopefully it didn't take you as long to realize it as it did me.

I started out with the search routine because of allowing the user to also change files, not just configs, but then later decided it was too risky to assume they would want the same dimension captured. Better to make them pick it again to be sure. So then I wanted to see if the dimension was active, that is not part of a suppressed feature. If part of something suppressed, I clear the form field, thereby making them select another one. As it is, the Length field can be tied to a dimension on a suppressed feature.

That's where this message was heading.

WT

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rocheey 21 years ago

I see what you're getting at... but dimensions for suppressed features

*are* available to the user, its just that modifying the dimension will show no apparent change until the dimensions owning feature is unsuppressed.

Im not sure which way you parsed down thru the code to get the dims, but if you did it by recursing the feature tree, you can just check to see if the feature is suppressed, and add a flag that any of the dims associated with this feature are also suppressed...possibly show the Dimension to the user as "greyed out' or something.. "Lock" the textbox and change the background color...

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API Unavailable dimension

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