Tutorial

AN INTRODUCTION TO A UTODESK®
INVENTOR® ILOGIC
I NTRODUCTION
This tutorial will provide you with a hands-on introduction to the Autodesk® Inventor®
iLogic Extension. iLogic extends the computational capabilities within Inventor to
include rules. These rules work along with the parameter update mechanism of
Inventor, and allow you to include much more sophisticated design intent into yourmodels.
Traditional parametric modeling involves driving geometry with dimensional
parameters. These parameter values can be input directly by the user, or can result
from fixed equations involving other parameters or even linked spreadsheet values.
Using rules in a parametric model allows for conditionally-defined equations. These
“conditional equations” are not limited only to theparameters, but can involve all
aspects of the design. Equations or relationships can be defined between the
parameters, properties, attributes, features, components, or any other aspect of the
design. Defining the relationships between all objects in a design makes it possible to
update the model completely, correctly (according to the rules), and automatically
when input parameter values are changed.A rules-enriched model is therefore far
superior to a simple parametric model.
This tutorial will introduce you to the most important aspects of working with iLogic
rules, and show you how to create simple (but powerful) rules that control the
modeling of a simple part.
Subsequent tutorials expand on this information, and show you how to create even
more intelligent models, still with onlyvery simple rules.
This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with Inventor 2010, and its basic part
modeling functionality and concepts.

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I LOGIC PARAMETERS
In addition to the numeric parameters that you’re using to using with Inventor, iLogic
lets you create additional type of parameters, including String and Boolean values,
which you can then use to control your model.
Thisportion of the tutorial will guide you through the steps of creating additional
parameters in your model, which you will later use in iLogic rules.
All of this will be done in the context of a sample part model. We’ll get that model set
up first.
O PEN A PART FILE TO W ORK W ITH
Launch Inventor 2010, and make sure that the “iLogic 2010 Tutorials” project is active.
Open the file calledbracket_no_rules.ipt from the project workspace.
Use the Save As command to save this document as a new file, called “bracket.ipt”.
This is the file that we’ll make changes to in this tutorial.
At this point, you should have this newly-saved bracket.ipt open in Inventor.

The screenshots used in this tutorial will present Inventor 2010’s new Ribbon UI. The
iLogic functionality that’s availablefrom the various ribbon panels is provided from an
iLogic toolbar and panel bar when using the Classic UI.
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O PEN THE ILOGIC PARA METER EDITOR
Switch to the Manage tab of the Inventor ribbon. On the Parameters panel, locate the
Parameters button. Expand the dropdown menu at the bottom of this button, and
notice the iLogic Parameters command. Activate this command to bring up theiLogic
Parameter Editor.

In the Parameter Filters box at the bottom of the Parameter Editor window,
select the All option in both lists. This will display all of the parameters
associated with the bracket model.
C REATE A “ MASS” P ARAMETER
In the blank cell at the bottom of the Name column of the list of parameters, enter the
name mass. A drop down menu appears in the Type window. Theavailable options are
User, String and Boolean. Select the User option.

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Parameter names in iLogic are case-sensitive. Please be sure to follow the case being
used in the parameter editor, and while creating rules.
In the Unit field, choose ul from the drop down menu. In the Equation field enter 100.
Click in a blank field and observe 100.000000 in the Nominal Value Field. Make this a...