cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Community Tip - Need help navigating or using the PTC Community? Contact the community team. X

Layer status for family table instances

John.Pryal
12-Amethyst

Layer status for family table instances

Hi all,

is it possible to control the layer status of individual family table instances? Lets say i have a layer named A. I want this layer visible on my generic model, but turned off, on some, but not all, of my instances. I have been trying this, but it appears that whatever layer status you have for the generic is passed to all instances, this is a shame. I am hoping that i am missing something, that perhaps there is a config option, a setting, something that could help me achieve my goal.

John


This thread is inactive and closed by the PTC Community Management Team. If you would like to provide a reply and re-open this thread, please notify the moderator and reference the thread. You may also use "Start a topic" button to ask a new question. Please be sure to include what version of the PTC product you are using so another community member knowledgeable about your version may be able to assist.
11 REPLIES 11

its a real good idea to have layer status in family table variation, but i guess u need to give the idea. However I am also looking for some alternative ways if someone can suggest.

What is your goal?

Hello, my goal? To be able to do as i describe. I would like to be able to control the layer status of individual instances within a family table.

John

OK. I thought you had some reason for wanting to control the layers, rather than controlling the layers being an end in itself.

You might be able to control the display you want by creating separate layers for the items you want controlled separately.

Of course the reason it doesn't work now is that PTC doesn't have that capability written into the software.

The way it works now is that each layer is a list of items and layer visibility is controlled by a list of the status. To make each instance independent would add another list to each instance, which would be a list of the list statuses. But that is unlikely to happen.

For example - suppose you have two instances. One with an axis you want displayed and one you don't. It's the same axis on the same layer. Now, put them both in an assembly. How is the software to both display and not display the same axis based on the same layer being on and off at the same time? It would add another level of indirection to every item being displayed, slowing every display operation to check each part's layer status list-list.

Think about how would that would appear in managing layers at the drawing. Would each layer then be prefixed by the name of the part controlling the layer to allow each layer it's own part-dependent status?

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:John.Pryal)

There is another way to do this. Create a feature level parameter in each feature you want to hide. Maybe something like "HIDE_ME". Then, create a layer with a rule that hides all features with HIDE_ME == YES. Finally, add this parameter from each feature to the family table to turn on and off as needed.

dschenken
21-Topaz I
(To:TomU)

If you -know- this works, then I'll say it's genius. If you -think- this works, then ingenious. I am skeptical, for reasons mentioned above.

The rules only place, or exclude, entities from lists. It doesn't seem there is a way for the same entity to be both on and not-on a list, so it's not clear this works. Mind you I don't -know- this doesn't work.

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:dschenken)

The layer rule adds or removes the item from the layer list based on the parameter value. See attached model. Open the generic and all instances at the same time - or add them all to an assembly. Not necessairly the best use case, but it demonstrates the functionality. Generally this isn't needed for family table parts, but is very useful for heavily automated parts (think Pro/Program and relations).

dschenken
21-Topaz I
(To:TomU)

Ok - I'd gold star this for genius.

I will say that it is just sneaky enough to make for some interesting debugging if the use isn't anticipated by an unwary user, an effort that deserves a second gold star.

John.Pryal
12-Amethyst
(To:TomU)

Thank you for all your help with this. My workload is a little crazy right now, & so i can't get to this for a week or so. I have to say i am a little excited by your solution. I wished i had asked the question sooner. Hopefully it will cure an issue i have had for years. I will keep you posted, thanks again.

Regards

John

jsarkar
1-Newbie
(To:TomU)

Dear Mr. Tom,

I could not understand how the layer status is varying in your model. You have just turned off or on feature in family table. However the basic question was to turn off or on layer in family table isntit?

TomU
23-Emerald IV
(To:jsarkar)

The family table is changing the value of a feature level parameter. A layer has a rule that automatically adds and removes things from itself based on the value of that same feature level parameter. As the value changes, the inclusion of that feature on the layer also changes. Please see the file attachment from my earlier post. It demonstrates the functionality.

Top Tags