Per-Arne Almeflo Posted October 22, 2003 Share Posted October 22, 2003 Shaun and Steve have released news about the Smart Assembly System (SAS) coming in IronCAD 7 to the Swedish press. It's printed in Verkstadsforum october 2003. May we ask them to unfold the news in release 7 to the community too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Andersson Posted October 22, 2003 Share Posted October 22, 2003 Per-Arne, that was a missunderstanding that got printed. It will propobly be corrected soon. It is new functionalitry but it is not a preview of 7.0. That version is not out for a long time yet. SAS is a tecknology that can be used now. It is new functions that is aviable trough the new API. Robert Andersson Solidmakarna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Lohman Posted October 22, 2003 Share Posted October 22, 2003 Smart Assembly is actually an example tool in our API documentation. Goto /program files/ironcad6/ironcad/ICAPI/docs/ICAPIHELP.chm in order to find the following information: SmartAssembly Location: \ICAPI\Samples\C++\SmartAssembly The SmartAssembly add-in has a toolbar with two buttons. button is used to query attribute for IronCAD_Ext_Att1. button is used to assign attribute for IronCAD_Ext_Att1. SmartAssembly also demonstrates the use of attribute and connector objects to support a smart assembly application. To use this demonstration, start the IronCAD application. Select the Catalog | Open command and select the \ICAPI\Data\piping.icc catalog. Using the contents of the Piping catalog, the user is able to easily assemble the piping components simply by dropping the appropriate components close to their matching connector. To identify the correct connector, select the Set Name option in the right-mouse popup menu on an attachment point. For example, the Large2Way component has 3 attachment points named LargeConn_F. The LargeConn_F (Female) matches with the LargeConn_M (Male) component. Users can use the add-in to create their own smart assembly catalog. The steps are: 1. Assign the IronCAD_Ext_Att1 attribute to the assembly components by selecting the components, then clicking . 2. Create Attachment Points on the components where the components mate each other. Then name the Attachment Points to be XXXX_F (Female) or XXXX_M (Male) by selecting an Attachment Point, and selecting Set Name option in the right-mouse popup menu on the Attachment Pointt. 3. Drag the components to a catalog. 4. When the components are dragged/dropped to a scene, the SmartAssembly add-in will base on the Female and Male matches and put the dropped components on the correct location. Of course; this is just an example tool for our API; it's not actually a new tool that is part of IronCAD. It probably does not have features that you would desire. As merely an example; it's a starting point for you to grow it into a great specialized tool for yourself. We do intend to enhance items related to assemblies with version 7.0 however and news regarding those enhancements will be released in the future (no date yet). That article accidentally mixed up the SAS API Example with our intentions for Assembly Enhancements in 7.0 which resulted in that mis-print. I recommend that you check out the SAS example in the API though. It's fun to use and can be a big time saver if your needs are simple. We used it to build a catalog of cubicle walls that automatically reposition themselves whe you drop them from a catalog so that they align perfectly to existing parts. Disclaimer: Of course since it's only an example from the API; if it doesn't work for you we can't guarantee that we can help you make it work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tlehnhaeuser Posted October 22, 2003 Share Posted October 22, 2003 Hi chris, any news when this may be officially released? Thanks Tom Lehn... Magnacad Design Inc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Lohman Posted October 22, 2003 Share Posted October 22, 2003 We have no current intention of ever turning SAS into an "official release". It's intended use is for learning the API and nothing more. Of course there's nothing stopping someone from learning our API and writing their own for-profit plugin module for IronCAD As for the 7.0 new features; there are no dates yet on when we will release the list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaun Murphy Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 The article in Sweden was referring to a beta version of a new IronCAD Add-On product currently under developed by a company called R&R Sales to address the need for 3D fixturing setups for the CMM world. We have been collaborating on this development effort over the last several months. The product should be released by R&R in November. It utilizes the new SmartSnap Assembly (as it is now called) capability made assesible through our API mentioned previously by Chris. Examples of what this new add-on product can do will be posted on our website sometime in November. It runs on top of IronCAD 6.0 PU2 and it is way cool. I hope this helps clear up some of the confusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Allen Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 quote: Originally posted by Chris Lohman: Users can use the add-in to create their own smart assembly catalog. The steps are: 1. Assign the IronCAD_Ext_Att1 attribute to the assembly components by selecting the components, then clicking . id=quote>id=quote> I must be missing something here. I can't quite figure out what to click to assign the IronCAD_Ext_Att1 attribute to the assembly components. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Lohman Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 1) Goto Tools/Customize/Commands 2) In the "Select Category" select list, choose the "Tools" item at the bottom of that list. 3) Now drag/drop the icon that appears to be a hammer with three rectangles under it; with one rectangle colored red and the other two green...drag/drop that icon onto one of your existing toolbars from the table of icons to the right of the select list that you just selected "tools" in. Then close out the "Commands" window. 4) Click on that new hammer icon. 5) Check "Smart Assembly" then click OK. 5a) When you perform step #5, a new toolbar should appear; it may be undocked. If you do not see the toolbar then something is wrong IE, bad dll registration or you did not merge the .reg file. 6) Select your part, then click the icon on the new toolbar that appears to be a large letter "A" with a plus sign next to the left of the A. Clicking on that "A" icon will add the IronCAD_Ext_Att1 attribute to the part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Allen Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 Thanks Chris! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B. Ludin Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 I can't seem to get it to work. Is the respective DLL existing somewhere already, or does it have to be compiled first from the C++ project files? Beat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Lohman Posted October 23, 2003 Share Posted October 23, 2003 The dll is in the bin folder under the ICAPI folder. It must be registered before you can use it. You must also merge the matching .reg file. You do not need to compile the dll as we have shipped one along with the source. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B. Ludin Posted October 24, 2003 Share Posted October 24, 2003 Thanks Chris. I must somehow have overlooked it. Now I've got the toolbar working and I've loaded the piping catalog, but I can't detect any special behavior when I drop items from the catalog into the scene. If I drop them on an attachemnt point, the part gets aligned as always, regardless of the connector type being ocrrect or not. If I drop the parts anywhere else, they just stay where I dropped them. Am I still missing something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Allen Posted May 1, 2004 Share Posted May 1, 2004 I got this working on my machine & made a catalog of Smart Assembly parts that work perfectly. Then I asked a colleague to test the parts for me. I registered the SmartAssembly.dll and merged the SmartAssembly.reg on his machine. We loaded the test catalog and nothing worked. I even loaded the Smart Assembly Add-on toolbar. .....OK, I just answered my own question. After deleting the IronCAD.tbc file on my colleague's computer, the Smart Assembly parts work perfectly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Allen Posted May 4, 2004 Share Posted May 4, 2004 I've since installed Smart Assembly on several other computers & have found that the secret isn't to delete the IronCAD.tbc file, but to close & restart IronCAD after loading the Smart Assembly toolbar. This is an incredibly useful tool, although it doesn't work well with assemblies. What I have found is that you have to place the attachment points at the part level and be sure to have attachment points showing. You can snap a part to an assembly, but you can't snap an assembly to another part or assembly unless the attachment point is highlighted - so you have to be able to see the attachment points. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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