Marionette and Symbol

[Jim F]

I have been experimenting with Marionette to create a marionette that creates cold formed metal framing objects. So far so good. I have created a Red symbol from the marionette. The objects that are created are replaced when you run the marionette or change the symbol parameters. Is there a way to reuse the marionette or symbol and create a new object without replacing the existing object. The following is a list of items I might typically have in a drawing.

 

Studs

362S162-33 - 12'

362S162-43 - 12'

600S162-33 - 22'

600S162-33 - 12'

 

Do I need to duplicate the symbol for each instance?

 

[Marissa Farrell]

Are you familiar with Marionette Objects? They would be your solution.

Right click on your network and choose "Wrap Marionette Network" and then right click on the wrapper node and choose "Convert to Object Node"

That will give you an editable object on your drawing that will behave like a Plug In Object. You can save that as a Red Symbol in your document.

 

In order to display the parameters you want editable in the Object Info Palette, select those nodes and name them in the upper part of the Object Info Palette.

 

Please let me know if you need any help 🙂

[Jim F]

Marissa,

 

Thanks. I have done everything you mentioned. Maybe I'm missing something. If I run the Marionette object it creates objects based on the parameters I have entered. If I change the parameters and run a second time it replaces the objects with the new set. The symbol works the same way. I want to do metal framing drawings. The track and studs are different heights, lengths, gauges, etc.. I do not want to create a symbol for each type. Guessing I'm overlooking something obvious. I also want to be able to generate a report showing a material takeoff for the different studs and track. Guessing I need to attached a record to the objects.

[Marissa Farrell]

Can you send me a file either here or privately? I can help you.

[Jim F]

Marissa,

 

See attached file. This was an early test I did. It creates a rectangle when you run the marionette. If you change the height and run it a second time it replaces the object. I want the original object to remain.

Marionette.vwx

[Marissa Farrell]

You need to take it one step further. Right click on the wrapper node and select "Convert to Object Node"

That will create an object based on your script with editable properties in the OIP.

[Jim F]

Marissa,

 

Got it. Really appreciate your help. I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future.

Have a great weekend!

 

Jim

[Jim F]

Marissa,

 

Would you do me a huge favor.

Using my file would you create some objects from my marionette with different parameters?

Then would you create a report listing the objects with there width, height and length.

 

I understand if you don't have time.

Thanks

[Jim F]

Marissa,

 

Would you look at the attached file. It is possible to create a report showing the following fields:

Leg

Track Length

Track Width

Count of the two different size objects

Marionette MF 2.vwx

[Marissa Farrell]

Here's a simple example from your original file - I just finished it up as you posted for help on this new one.

The trick is including nodes from the Record category in your original script to populate a record attached to the Marionette Object.

 

 

ReportFromMarionette_MFarrell.vwx

[Jim F]

Marissa,

 

Thanks, I'll take a look at it.

[Marissa Farrell]

And here's your latest request:

 

 

Marionette MF 2_MFarrell.vwx

[Jim F]

Marissa,

 

Please look at attached file. The geometry does not come out as expected. I drew a sample of the object profile. How does the Polygon 2D node sort the inputs it receives? 1st one connected is the 1st vertices?

 

Again thanks for all your help...

Marionette MF Stud.vwx

[Marissa Farrell]

I would suggest using a List (Ordered) node. There's no real way to figure out which way a node will accept different wires. (It may be stacking order? or insert order? I'm not even sure myself)

 

 

Marionette MF Stud_MFarrell.vwx

[Jim F]

Another simple question. The unit in the report display as inches. I tried to format as a measurement and it doesn't work. Is that because the field is a text field?

[Marissa Farrell]

Yes, that's a text field. I'll look into a way to format that automatically, but that's an iffy situation because of conversions.

[lgoodkind]

This is helpful - however pretty useless to put into a worksheet if we can't format the data. What I've found is that it is best to use 'Int' instead of 'dim' for the input type if you can - otherwise you deal with really long decimals that you can't do anything with.

Edited June 8, 2023 by lgoodkind

[heavy manners]

On 3/29/2019 at 4:07 PM, Marissa Farrell said:

You need to take it one step further. Right click on the wrapper node and select "Convert to Object Node"

That will create an object based on your script with editable properties in the OIP.

Hi Marissa, thanks for this tip! However, would it be possible to control certain parameters of this object by Style? See more in the post below. Thanks!

 

 

[KingChaos]

afaik you can save your settings of the object node as e new style, but i thikn it wont help u ^^