Change Your Sheet Metal Rule on the Fly

Posted on March 17, 2016 by Synergis Applications Consultant Dave Breiner
You may have noticed a reference I made to Sheet Metal Rules during a recent video blog and how I changed the rule rather quickly within an iLogic Form and not have to open and adjust the Sheet Metal Defaults.
So, how about we go through the process of how easy this can be accomplished.
If you do not already have a Read-Write project for your templates begin by creating a Read-Write project in order to edit the Sheet Metal Template.
Begin by making a copy of the Sheet Metal.ipt and renaming it to something meaningful to you. This new template will be the one you edit.
Within the new template I have created several materials and thicknesses. I can just easily create different materials, thicknesses, bend rules. Whatever suits the job requirements.
After you have finished your list of rules, take a screen shot or write down the exact spelling, case and punctuation, of the names of your sheet metal rules. You will need this when you create the multi-value list in User Parameters.
When you complete your Sheet Metal Rule close all dialog boxes and save the template but leave it open.
Open the Parameters window in your template. Add and name a Text type User Parameter. In this parameter create a Multi-Value list containing the names for each of the Sheet Metal Styles that you created. The names do not have to be the exact spelling and punctuation of the rules that you created but should clearly describe each to reduce confusion. I like to keep the exact spelling and punctuation, I find it reduces mistakes.
Now create a simple iLogic rule and name it Sheet Metal Rule. (I am not very creative but you can name your rule anything you like.)
To open the iLogic browser, go to the Manage tab, then the iLogic panel. Click on the iLogic Browser in the panel and dock the browser, below your Model browser if you prefer.
On the iLogic browser, select the Rules tab and right click in the window and select Add Rule. The iLogic editor window will open.
In the Rule Editor above you can see that I used an If – Then – Else statement and added my conditions. I added my parameter SHEET_METL_SELECT then the name of a parameter in the multi-value list within parentheses “STEEL, 9 GA”. The next line contains the snippet Set Active Style. Inside the brackets and within parentheses, add the Style Name. This Style Name must be entered exactly as the anme of the rule created in the template. This is done for each Rule/Style that you created. You can use the screen shot above as an example.
The last step in setting up the Sheet Metal Template is optional but I recommend it, is to set up an iLogic Form for a quick selection of the desired Style.
To add a Form, select the Forms tab in the iLogic browser. Right click in the Form window and select Add Form. In the Forms editor shown below, on the left side of the editor select the Parameters tab and drag the SHEET_METL_SELECT parameter into the editor window. It will appear in the preview window to the right. Click on the Form 1 in editor then below in the properties window change the label to something more descriptive, in my case “Select Style”. You can do the same for the parameter name as well.
When complete with all your edits, save and close the template.
Once this template is used for your production, you can add this rule to any Form as a quick way to change the Style of a part “On the Fly” without having to go into the Sheet Metal Defaults. Let’s not forget that if you created a form, to change the style, in the template, it is available with every part when you use that template.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and gained a time saving benefit from its use.
Till Later,
Dave