jloach

Hi Chris My FireGL2 was causing freezes and crashes on Windows XP Pro. I switched back to Windows 2000 Pro, and haven't had a problem since. Runs perfectly. John

Beautiful!!! Thank you Maurizio. Regards, John

Hi Chris I see how to set the Name of an item, eg objShape.Name = objShape.Name & "1" adds a 1 to the end of the existing part name. Do you know how to access the PartNumber and Description? Can't find those thingys anywhere! I guess this thread should be going into the "Custom Stuff" forum. Thank you, John

It works!!!! Here's the SetCutoffProperties function. The lines that didn't work in IC5.2 are the ones using the 'ChildShapes' member, denoted by a *. This member now needs the 'ActivePage' object. The program adds a Custom Property called 'Cutoff' to every part and all parts within assemblies, and sets Cutoff equal to the third sizebox value. This program could be easily altered to set any properties within the parts and assemblies. I'm going to add to it to automate the PartNumber and Description fields in the Bill Of Material area. You need VB6 to create the dll, and you add the tool as an OLE Object, with the Object box filled in as 'SetCutoffProperties.SetCutoffProperty, and the Method box drops down as SetCutoffProperty. Make sure in VB that you've added a Project Reference to the 'IronCad Part Properties 1.0 Type Library". It's pretty crude. I'm not a programmer. Public Sub SetCutoffProperty(Application As Object) Dim i As Long Dim objPropertiesCollection As Object Dim objProperty As Object Dim objChildShape As Object Dim objTreeShape As Object Set objTreeShape = Nothing Dim objAllTreeShapes As Object ' Select the top level tree shapes * Set objAllTreeShapes = Application.ActivePage.Shape.ChildShapes Dim objAllShapes As Object ' Select the top level shapes * Set objAllShapes = Application.ActivePage.Shape.Components(triGroup).Item(1).Shapes ' If there is only one shape, check to see if it's an assembly. ' If it is, get the parts out of it. If (objAllTreeShapes.Count = 1) Then Select Case objAllShapes.Item(1).Type Case triGroupShape: Set objAllShapes = objAllShapes.Item(1).Components(triGroup).Item(1).Shapes Set objAllTreeShapes = objAllTreeShapes.Item(1).ChildShapes End Select End If ' Make sure that there is at least one shape If (objAllTreeShapes.Count > 0) Then ' Loop through all the shapes For i = 1 To objAllTreeShapes.Count ' Select the i'th tree shape Set objTreeShape = objAllTreeShapes.Item(i) ' First see if there is a custom properties collection which all the parts are using ' and if so we'll need to use it. Otherwise, we can apply the property to the shape ' selected only and not all instances. On Error Resume Next Set objPropertiesCollection = objTreeShape.DataObject(triClassIDCustomProperties, True) If ((Err.Number <> 0) Or (objPropertiesCollection Is Nothing)) Then Set objPropertiesCollection = objTreeShape.DataObject(triClassIDCustomProperties, False) If ((Err.Number <> 0) Or (objPropertiesCollection Is Nothing)) Then Set objPropertiesCollection = New CPPropCollection objTreeShape.DataObject(triClassIDCustomProperties, False) = objPropertiesCollection End If End If ' For parts only, get the child shape, in this case the intellishape that makes the part Select Case objAllShapes.Item(i).Type Case triCompoundShape: Set objChildShape = objAllShapes.Item(i).Components(triHistory).Item(1).Shapes.Item(1) Case Else: Set objChildShape = Nothing End Select ' Now add the Cutoff property Set objProperty = New CPPropObj objProperty.Value = Round(objChildShape.Components(triSizeBox).Item(1).Variable(triHeight).Value, 3) objProperty.Name = "Cutoff" objPropertiesCollection.Add objProperty Next End If End Sub

VB - here we go! I have a VB application that worked with 4.2 called SetCutoffProperty. It went through every part in a scene, created a custom property called 'Cutoff", and assigned the third sizebox value to this property. It saved a ton of time. I created a dll from VB, then use the Add-On tool to add the function to IronCad. When I try to run it in 5.2, a window pops up saying "Object doesn't support this property or method". Unfortunately, it doesn't say which property or method this is. It must be something that was dropped or changed for version 5. Does anyone know how to debug this? Is there a log file somewhere that might have the line number or something? The documentation for objects and properties is very old (IC 2.0). Thank you! John

Thanks Peter. I'll give that one a try. I really miss the middle button, since the Logitech Marble Mouse has only two buttons. Holding the two down together is supposed to give you the middle button, but it doesn't work for some reason. I like the idea of the "drag-lock" too. Cheers, John

Let's close this thread fast before it gets any bigger ...

This is the first day running 5.2, and just had a "Critical Service Failed" blue screen and reboot. It happened while closing a scene. There was a small bit of disk activity after clicking the upper right-hand "X", then a ten second pause, then blue screen. The scene had been successfully saved just before closing. The scene has a lot of external files in it. I had been working on it and many others for quite a while in 5.0HF2 with out any troubles. It opened up fine after the reboot, and opens and closes fine now. No other software was added or updated since IC5.2 was applied. Hoping that this was due to solar wind or something. Windows 2000 Pro SP2 Dual AMD MP 1900+ Adaptec SCSI 19160 Fire GL2

Hi Chris Any plans for making the input of bill of material data a bit more automated and/or easy? Any plans for making VBA easier to use? Even a variety of easy-to-implement boilerplate utilities would be good. Any plans for providing recordable macros? I really think that the trackball is great, and that now it's just the repetitive cuts and pastes involved in filling in the text and bill of material fields that needs improving. A smooth link to a database would be a dream come true. We used to do that with Informix to our old Unix CAD system twelve years ago. Other than that, I think that IronCad is absolutely the best computer program I've ever used. Honest!!!! Our company is creating products that we never could have done before with our resources and timeframes. Thank you! John

With normal CAD operations the discomfort has just about disappeared with the trackball, but there's still something with IronCad that really irritates the forearm. When you have to edit the names of parts and assemblies in the part browser, the repetitive highlighting, copying and pasting of the information from line to line is a killer. Then, to make it worse, you have to copy all that info into the bill of material's part and description fields in the properties window of each part. Linked parts carry the data through, but it's really tedious, and the button and trackball motions wreck me. The add-on tool that arrived with 5.0 for editing bills of material data is a small help, but still requires lots of copying and pasting. It would help a bit if that tool still allowed you to work on the scene, but you have to close it to get info off your drawing. I've created a property called cut-off, which gets exported to drawings and appears as a column in bills of materials. Here, too, the cutoff length must be typed into the properties of the part, which is very time-consuming and arm irritating. I dread when I finally get an assembly designed, and then have to start putting in part numbers and descriptions. Boring and time-consuming. I wrote a VBA program for IC4 that automatically put the third sizebox dimension into the cutoff property, but haven't been able to make it work with IC5. The VBA hooks that come with IronCad are almost impossible for us non-VB folks to use. I second the request for recordable macros. To summarize, designing isn't bothering my arm much anymore, but the input of the part and description text data is terrible, awkward and time-consuming. It's so easy to make mistakes and omissions that much time is spent flipping between the scene and the drawing, filling in and correcting the bills of material info. It would be great to have a function that would parse the part or assembly's title data into the part number and description fields in the properties window. If we could dive into VBA without too much trouble, it would be a piece of cake to write the code. Unfortunately, VBA is almost impossible, and the documentation is next to useless.

Haven't had that problem since version 3 or perhaps the early version 4. I have thousands of externally linked files in our large assemblies, often nested three or four deep. I keep all of the files, though, in a single directory. The earlier versions of IronCad weren't friendly about changing directories on-the-fly, so I just got into the lazy habit of having one huge folder. Maybe try keeping everything in one folder?

The Logitech Marble Mouse Trackball seems to be doing the trick. Thank you all for all of your tips. The computer isn't my enemy anymore! Cheers, John

Many thanks to all of you! I've got a Logitech "Marble Mouse" Trackball to try now, but it's going to take a little while to get accustomed to. The absolute BEST solution offered was to spend less time on the computer. A computer is a wonderful tool, BUT IT NOW ABSOLUTELY CONTROLS MY LIFE!! One of these days: no browsing, no CAD, no email, no typing, no screens, no OS's, no drivers, no blue screens. Just live jazz. Cheers, John

Finally gave up. Reformatted the disk and installed Windows 2000. Sure wasted a lot of hours with XP!!!! Lethal combination: XP with AMD processor(s), FireGL2, and IronCad.

Thank you Andrew and Alex. I like the pipe bomb story. I have often dreamed of using a good naughty adventure as my reason for "losing" my hand. Being born that way is much too boring. Good observation about the lack of ergonomically sculpted pointing devices for left-handers. Microsoft and Logitech should be ashamed for actively ignoring 15 - 20% of the human race. IronCad does force you to click-drag a lot, and you're right that the interface could be made to allow for a click-release to select the item, move to the destination, and click-release to place the item. Good one too for zooming and panning. It's definitely the movement of the mouse while a button is pressed that's the big killer. I've rolled up a small towel and placed it under my wrist in order to elevate the wrist about 1". This takes the upward bend out of the wrist, and seems to allow longer mouse use. Experimenting with the geometry of the upper arm, elbow, forearm and wrist will probably lead to a solution. Thanks again, and happy mousing. John

After about fifteen years of designing with a mouse, the repetitive mouse clicking has finally got me. About halfway between the elbow and the hand gets very sore and stiff after only 15 minutes or so or IronCadding. I've tried a Microsoft Trackball, which helped a bit but slowed me down immeasurably. I'm left-handed (because I don't have a right-hand!) which cuts down dramatically the number of devices available as mouse alternatives. The action that seems to provoke the discomfort most is the 'left-click and drag', used for just about everything in IronCad! I'm going to try reversing the roles of the buttons. Does anybody have any experience solving this problem? Thank you! John

Spoke too soon. About six minutes after writing the above post the darned thing froze on me again. It appears to be a problem associated only with AMD / XP / FireGL2 users, and the only thing that ever causes it, as Wim described, is starting a pan view in IronCad.

Hi Wim I haven't had a lockup for a few days now, with dual AMD 1900+, XP Pro, FireGL2. After installing the miniport533, I also unchecked "Enable write combining" in the display troubleshoot window, and set the configuration profile to SolidWorks. I hope that helps. John

Took a few days, but IronCad 5 locked up again on XP, with dual AMD MP 1900+, Asus A7M766D, and Fire GL2. Checked the AMD website for drivers again, and there's a new AGP driver posted (miniport_533.EXE) that supposedly fixes a few XP issues. It's now installed, and the video hardware acceleration slidebar is moved back to full. Cheers, John

Two full days without a problem after moving the hardware acceleration slider one notch to the left. So far so good ...

Another suggestion from ATI which seems to be working so far: Go to Display Properties / Advanced / Troubleshoot. Move the hardware acceleration slider from Full (far right) to one notch from the right. The text then reads "Disable cursor and bitmap accelerations. Use this setting ...". The display zooms and pans just as quickly, but it's very slightly less smooth. Not a problem at all. Apparently this setting allows the computer to continue to use hardware acceleration, but can resolve some mouse pointer conflicts. If this doesn't fix it, ATI suggested to then try unticking the "Enable write combining" box on the same page. My BIOS is back to AGP 4X, and the fingers are crossed ...

OK. ATI recommends the following BIOS settings: Increase Graphics Aperature Size from default of 32MB to 256MB. Disable AGP 4X support, so that AGP runs in 2X only. The Fire GL2's back in. We'll see how things go. Thank you all for your patience, but if this gets solved it'll be great.

Ya. Fun. Got a Matrox G550 in now. It actually performs quite nicely. Smooth It's hard to justify spending more than $500 more for a Fire GL2! No freezes yet, but I'll give it a few days. I've got ATI tech support on the line now.

Damn. IC5HF2 just froze again. Same symptoms as before, but without AutoCad (MD4) loaded. Next step is to try a graphics card other than FireGL2. Jumped the gun on XP, I guess.

Hi Chris I'll try a different card, but it will have to wait until next week, I'm afraid. Gettin' a bit behind! Running really well now with no AutoCad, though. Cheers, John