Inventor Tutorial – Shaker Table Arched Apron Option 2

In the last post for this Inventor Tutorial, we went back in time in the model’s feature history and created the Cut Extrude features that will make up ¼ of the features needed to represent the arch feature option for the Shaker Table. In this post, we will be patterning these new features, and possibly dealing with the bracket issue.

First, drag the EOP all the way down to the bottom of the feature list. Then, double click the Apron A Mirror feature to bring up its dialog. Click on the Features selector arrow, then select the Long Arch Cut feature. You should get a highlight as shown below…

 

Click OK to accept the addition of the new cut feature to the Mirror. Perform the same operations on the short end…

 

Now we need a Boolean parameter that will control whether there is an arch option or not. Open the Parameter Editor, and create a True/False (Boolean) parameter named Arch_Option. With that done, we need to create a simple iLogic rule that will control the suppression state of the arch’s features.

Create a new iLogic Rule called Arches, and add the following iLogic code…

 

 

And badda bing, badda boom, you now have control over the new arch option. Run a test by opening the Parameter Editor, and change the Arch_Option parameter to False. The arches should come and go with no problems whatsoever…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now for the bracket. Because the extent of the bracket from the leg outwards is dynamic, if we want to resize the brackets to be as wide as possible without protruding into the arch opening, we need to rearrange history to suit our new way of thinking —like a Politician.

The Corner Bracket Sketch has the geometry we need to read, and we need to do so before the arch sketches. To remedy the situation, we will just drag the Corner Bracket Sketch to just below the Sub Top Sketch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now for some sketch modification. Make the Corner Bracket Sketch visible if it is not already, then double click the Long Apron Arch sketch. Activate the Project Geometry tool (Sketch Tab > Draw Panel > Project Geometry), and project the inner corner of the bracket to your Long Apron Arch sketch…

 

Arrow 1 points to the place to click to create the projection. Arrow 2 shows the projected point. Now draw a line downwards to the arch. Make sure you see the vertical glyph before finalizing the line, and make sure the sketch reports that it is “Fully Constrained” on the status bar in the lower right hand corner. Now make the line a construction line, and add a driven constraint to it. Go to the Parameters Editor, and rename the constraint Long_Apron (it will be the last parameter in the Reference Parameters section)…

 

Do the same thing on the short apron, and name the driven dimension Short_Apron. As you can see, the two dimensions are different. The Short_Apron dimension is smaller…

 

…but that would not be true at some configurations. We need to use the smaller number no matter what, so we will use some iLogic code to grab the smaller of the two and use that width to size the bracket. I may run into other issues, but it looks like clear sailing from here.

That will wrap things up for this portion of this Inventor Tutorial. The next post will wrap the arch option up with the iLogic code and the setup of the configurator (iLogic Form).

Later.

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