What is iLogic in Autodesk Inventor
iLogic allows you to draw rule-based assemblies and parts and provides an easy way to use your assemblies in other projects with quick edits. With iLogic, you can standardize and automate your design processes and configure your product to save time.
If you are a Microsoft Excel user, you may have heard of macros in Excel to speed up a particular task. iLogic is therefore a similar tool that is integrated directly into Autodesk Inventor.
iLogic capabilities
iLogic rules are integrated directly into parts, assemblies and drawings. They are used to set parameters and values for your model design. These rules can use the following parameter types: Text, True/False, and Multivalued lists. You can use these parameter types to write rules that contain not only numeric input values and use them to control your model or drawing.
Automation features in iLogic
iLogic is a simplified programming language and so designers, engineers can implement iLogic functions with little or no programming knowledge. With iLogic you can automate:
Finding and editing iPart or iAssembly configurations that are automatically set based on conditions defined in assembly-level rules
Enabling/disabling parts, elements or components on rule dependencies using conditional arguments
Automatically update and adjust thread specifications when hole or mandrel diameter changes
Reading and writing and responding to material or representational aspects of design documents, weight or volume of components and design parameters
Update BOM data when creating new configurations due to model changes
Restrict or automatically correct user input values to ensure validity of resulting configurations and compliance with design specifications and standards
Reading and writing in excel spreadsheets
Pop-up options to provide feedback, options, and information as you make changes.
Custom user interface created using iLogic rules
You can link iLogic and the parameters to a custom dialog to allow you to change the parameters. This feature provides a user interface for a rule-driven design template without the user having to scroll through all the model parameters, the user only sees the ones that are relevant to the model.
VB.NET in iLogic rules
Using the VB.NET programming language in iLogic rules, you can:
Read and write to HTML files, text files, Word documents and files in other formats
Communicate with other Windows applications
Automate publishing to DWF or other file formats
Run external applications and existing VBA macros
Connect to an external database (such as Microsoft® Access or SQL Server)
Direct use of Inventor API functions