Descriptors and Descriptions in Autodesk Factory Design Suite

IMAGINiT Tricks Tutorial: Use a little iLogic to identify your assets — it's not as hard as you might think.

Editor's note: This tutorial courtesy of IMAGINiT Technologies.

A factory may contain many pieces of similar equipment, and attaching a descriptor makes it easier to identify a particular asset. Autodesk Factory Design Suite 2014 allows you to identify your assets using the new descriptor tag functionality. Assets also have a Description iProperty field that should be filled out as well. Many Factory Design Suite users want the asset Descriptor to display the same information as the Description iProperty.

Before we explore this topic in depth, we need to differentiate the terms Descriptor and Description. A Descriptor is a simple node built into new factory assets that displays identification information when the user hovers the cursor over it. A descriptor can display additional information about the asset, such as type, part number, flow rate, etc. The term Description refers to the iProperty of the Inventor model. Every Inventor part and assembly file has a set of iProperties that include the Description. Downstream processes like title blocks, parts lists, and bills of materials often display the Description iProperty alongside the other component information. This presentation provides a method of generating a Descriptor that displays the necessary asset information and automatically updates the Description iProperty when the asset parameters are modified.


The Descriptor node at left can display any asset information desired. The iProperty Description on the right should display similar data.


In this demonstration, we will use a simple rectangular tent as the asset example. The model has parameters that control the length, width, and height of the tent. There is also a simple iLogic rule that allows the color of the tent to be set by a text parameter. The Descriptor will need to display the color of the tent as well as the values for Length, Width, and Height. The same information needs to be populated to the asset’s iProperty Description field.


Note the parameter values for Length, Width, Height, and the multivalue text parameter for Color.
 

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