Help with Auto Record Formats/ Fields?

[ibenjamin.price]

How do I get a record format field to populate with a piece of information about the symbol.

For example, i'd like to get :

the volume information of the symbol to appear in a record field of said symbol.

the location in X,Y,Z space in the design layer to appear in a record field of said symbol.

the bounding cube size of the symbol L,W,H  to appear in a record field of said symbol.

the Surface Area of the Symbol  to appear in a record field of said symbol.

 

Would the best thing be to write a script that would grab that information, then populate it inside a specific record field? 

 

Thanks anyone for you help. 

 

-Ben

 

[markdd]

You can attach field info to symbols by editing the symbol (2d/3D, either one ) and with NOTHING selected, go to the data tab in the OIP, fill in the fields of the data record that is attached to the symbol. It is important that nothing is selected though. Do not edit the data record itself unless you want all uses of that record to have that info.

 

Hope that works for you

 

Mark

[Pat Stanford]

Yes. For the information you are asking about you will need to write a script. Remember that the script will give you a snapshot. You will have to remember to rerun the script when you make changes to the symbols.

 

Let us know if you need help.

[ibenjamin.price]

Mark,

Thanks for the tip. I've been able to do that part thus far. My main question is about the auto data field population, like Volume for instance. I can get this information if I run the Machine Design : Get 3D Properties command. The I could fill this out in the symbol field by hand. 

 

But Im trying to get the information like that, to populate in the record field automatically after I run the script. 

This 3D Properties command has most of what I need.

Now I need to figure out how to tie that to the Record Fields and then run the script. 

 

Im current trying to go at this from a marionette approach. 

Maybe there is a way using @DomCsymbol node to "get volume" information from a symbol and have that populate or "set record field"... 

 

Just spitballing here. I'll play around a bit more and upload my results. 

 

 

[ibenjamin.price]

Pat,

Thanks for the confirmation. That all makes logical sense to me. 

Now to figure out the best way forward. 

 

Im gonna look into marionette first and see what I come up with. This is slightly easier for me then scripting, just because I can understand it better when its visual. Only problem there might be the nodes just don't exist for what I want to do, or they require some time of customization. In with case, its probably easier to do a script. 

 

Do you know of any good tutorials that cover any of this ground on Record Formats and auto population of data? 

This seems like a very straightforward script to me. and can get more detailed later on... but isn't it basically this?

 

Symbol (symbol name: xxx)

Record format (format name: Part Info)

Record Field (field: x location)

Record Field (field: y location)

Record Field (field: z location)

 

Procedure : 

Get x location

Get y location

Get z location

Set Record Field String : X location 

Set Record Field String : Y location 

Set Record Field String : Z location 

Run: 

 

Im just not sure how to format all this info and if something like "get x location" or "set record field string" is the correct statement. 

 

I assume the same type of statements exist with "get volume" "Get total Surface area" "get bounding cube"...

Is there a library of these statements somewhere where I can check to see if this is correct? 

 

 

[Marissa Farrell]

@ibenjamin.price

If you need any help with Marionette (including custom nodes) let me or the rest of the Marionette community know and I'm sure we can help you figure it out. It's good practice for us and provides good resources for other users that may have a similar use case.

[Pat Stanford]

Personally, I would say this is a case for a script (vectorscript or python script) rather than Marionette.  I think Marionette is great for creating object while scripts for this are clunky.  For modifying existing object I would say scripts are better and Marionette is clunky.  Others will disagree.

 

I can give you the outline of the script. If you want to try Marionette first go ahead, but I won't be much help.

[ibenjamin.price]

Hey @Pat Stanford, 

I gave it hell with Marionette, but no luck. It seems that I cannot get the info I need from the Symbol. 
Marionette requires a 3D object in order to Get Volume. Im working with Symbols from the Resource browser. So thats a no go. 

 

Any chance you can help me with the Outline of this script? 

Any help is very much appreciated!

 

Thanks!

Ben

[Pat Stanford]

Sorry to take so long to get back to you. Here is a script that grabs some data from a Dimension and stores it into a record. Add extra lines into the Execute procedure to get the information you need and store it into a record.field.

 

You will also need to change the criteria in the ForEachObject line.  Depending on how may objects you have it might be better to use a ForEachObjectInList procedure instead.

 

Ask if you need more help.

 

Procedure DimToRecordField;

{Written in response to a request on the General Discussion Forum}
{© Pat Stanford, April 2, 2015,  Released into the Public Domain. No Rights Reserved}
{Change the DimRecord and TheField constants to match your record and field names}
{Script store the data from the DimText into a user attached record and field}


Const	DimRecord='DimFormat';
		TheField='MyField';

Function HasRecord(H1:Handle; RecordName:String):Boolean;
	
	Var		N1:Integer;
	Begin
		HasRecord:=False;	

		For N1:= 1 to NumRecords(H1) do
			Begin
				If GetName(GetRecord(H1, N1))=DimRecord then HasRecord:=True;
			End;
		{You could add code here to SetRecord if you wanted to add the record}
		{ to items that don't have it already attached}
	End;

Procedure Execute(H1:Handle);

	Begin
		If HasRecord(H1,DimRecord) then SetRField(H1,DimRecord,TheField,GetDimText(H1));
	End;

Begin
	ForEachObject(Execute, (((T=DIMENSION) & (SEL=TRUE))));
End;

Run(DimToRecordField);