Autodesk Factory Design Suite 2012: iLogic Powered Assets

One of the best things about our software here at Autodesk is that we leverage new technology in as many areas as we can. A few years ago we acquired iLogic technology and made it part of core Inventor. Last year we released Factory Design Suite (I will refer to it as FDS from now on) with Inventor as one of the core products included.

If you are familiar with (or even vaguely curious about) FDS, you start seeing the importance of your factory assets. The more useful your assets, the more useful FDS as a solution. Last year I posted a video on how to build some basic assets with Factory Design Suite 2011. Building on that premise, I wanted to show you could leverage iLogic to really have some powerful FDS assets.

The first step for making a FDS asset is having a good base model. For clarity, I will use a simple table for this example.When modeling the table, I added Parameters for the Length, Width and Leg Height.

 

In prepping for an iLogic rule to size this table, I added a Multi-Value User Parameter (which, by the way, is iLogic functionality). Already I am using iLogic without even trying.

 

Now, I could use this technique to just add Multi-Value options for the Length, Width, and Leg Height parameters...but, that is more upfront work...and isn't as powerful long term. I want to be able to simply choose a standard table size, and have the table update all the parameters for me (that's me, toeing the line between lazy and efficient on a daily basis). Off the Manage tab on the Ribbon Toolbar, I will Add Rule.

 

Next, I will write the iLogic code to help me pick from standard table sizes. Just a simple rule that sizes the table parameters based on what standard table the pick. Not very impressive, I know, but it gets the point across. Simple yet effective....and, no, I can't code myself out of a wet paper bag.

 

With the iLogic rule in place, I now want to use the Asset Builder functionality in FDS to publish this table into my asset library. This can be found on the Environments tab on the Inventor ribbon.

 

Going left to right on the Asset Builder toolbar, I simply define Landing Surface...

 

Connectors....

 

What Parameters I want FDS users to be able to access when placing this asset (by default, it will select all 'Key' Parameters you have in the model)...

 

and finally, Publish both 3D and 2D versions of the asset for my FDS Asset Library.

 
 

With all the ground work in place. Let's take a look at how this asset will be used.

Inside of a Factory Layout in FDS, users can now drag and drop the table into their facility layout. Here I will show the 3D asset being used in the Inventor assembly environment of FDS. Since Connectors were created on the model, my tables can 'snap' together if I want them to. The Landing Surface establishes what part of the asset will be on the floor. All this allows for placing the asset without any need to create assembly constraints, etc.

 

With your asset(s) in place, the user has access to only the parameters that were defined when publishing the asset. So here, the user can pick from the drop down menu of standard table sizes.

 

So, what is happening under the hood? The end user is simply picking a size (my User Defined, Multi-Value Parameter). That size kicks off the iLogic rule to set the value for the Length, Width and Leg Height of the table. This is great news. The end user is putting in a standard table, and doesn't have to worry about all the details of entering in all the values for sizing it. Worth the upfront time, right?

There you go. A simple example of how leveraging iLogic in your Factory Design Suite assets can really streamline your process downstream.

-lw

Comments

[Paul Munford]

Great post.

I'm looking forward to getting a little more of that kind of cross platform compatibility in the regular Product design suite ;)