By Chris Smith
Forms are a useful tool in Autodesk Inventor iLogic, especially when creating product configurators. When configuring an assembly there may be fields that are unnecessary depending on previous selections. To prevent users modifying information that is unused, we can choose to turn off these fields instead.
In this example I have created a simple H-Stand to support ducting. The stand can support up to 5 stacked layers of ducting and cable trays and will modify the assembly parts depending on user inputs.
As the user selects a different support quantity, the fields in the lower group become available for editing, otherwise they are greyed out and cannot be modified.
To include this functionality to your forms we need to first add the parameters to drive the change. You will need a Boolean user parameter for each field you would like to control. For the example I am using I will create 4 separate Boolean parameters.
Once the parameters have been created, we can apply them to the fields in the iLogic form editor. Not all fields can be controlled this way, but those that have the option will have Enabling Parameter Name under the behaviours tab for the field.
To control the form object, we select the user parameter that we have recently created.
To make things easier I have set up the control on a group and applied all the relevant fields to that group, so for support number 2, I have a group with the support height and clamp selection, so turning off the group automatically turns off the fields contained within.
I will repeat this for all 4 of the additional support groups.
With the controlling parameter linked to the form fields I now need to add the link between the number of supports and the form activation parameters. As the Assembly already has so code that modifies the design, I can just add an additional line into the Select Case to activate the correct fields.
A quick test to ensure the form works as expected, and we can push out the change to the team. By including these behaviours into our form, we can ensure that the users will only spend time on the information they need instead of filling in superfluous information.