<?xml encoding=”UTF-8″>By Adam Nagy
You might need to insert lots of instances of the same Content Center part in an assembly – e.g. placing rivets in similar holes on the same part. You could write some code that would help replicate an instance, so that you would only need to insert a single component manually then select the inserted component and all the holes where you would need the same component and the code would insert them and add the constraints.
This sample is just to show the idea and is far from a robust solution which would work in all scenarios. In this case we assume that the rivet has been placed with a single insert constraint and the selected holes are the same size as the original one.
So we already have a rivet placed in the assembly and now we select it and the other holes where we want to place them:
Then we run this VBA code:
Sub InsertSameInstances()
Dim doc As AssemblyDocument
Set doc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
Dim acd As AssemblyComponentDefinition
Set acd = doc.ComponentDefinition
' Instance to copy
Dim occ As ComponentOccurrence
Set occ = doc.SelectSet(1)
' Store selected faces
Dim fs As ObjectCollection
Set fs = ThisApplication.TransientObjects.CreateObjectCollection
Dim i As Integer
For i = 2 To doc.SelectSet.Count
Call fs.Add(doc.SelectSet(i))
Next
' Faces of holes that the copies should be placed to
Dim h As Face
For Each h In fs
' Insert same component
Dim tg As TransientGeometry
Set tg = ThisApplication.TransientGeometry
Dim occNew As ComponentOccurrence
Set occNew = acd.Occurrences.AddByComponentDefinition( _
occ.Definition, tg.CreateMatrix())
' Check original component's constraints
Dim c As AssemblyConstraint
For Each c In occ.Constraints
If TypeOf c Is InsertConstraint Then
Dim ic As InsertConstraint
Set ic = c
' Get native edge
Dim e As Edge
Set e = c.EntityOne.NativeObject
' Get its equivalent in the new occurrence
Dim ep As EdgeProxy
Call occNew.CreateGeometryProxy(e, ep)
' Get hole's edge
Dim eh As Edge
Set eh = h.Edges(1)
Call acd.Constraints.AddInsertConstraint( _
ep, eh, ic.AxesOpposed, ic.Distance.value)
End If
Next
Next
End SubAnd get this:
I think based on this someone could create a nice Inventor App Store plugin – hint, hint ;)
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