Default setting - Distance constraint

crpt2008

Hi all
By any chance can you guys point me in the right direction.
Looking for HOW TO keep the "distance constraint exposed" option in OFF by default.
The default is "Auto" a major pain for assemblies, when a few hundreds start accumulating.

A search trough the variables didn't return nothing.
Although I'm still convinced it's somewhere in there, or it should be... ;-)
Cheers

Ilya Tatarnikov

Hello,
Do you mean that exposed parameters just use too much space in the mechanical browser?

crpt2008

Hi Ilya
Well we can say space and management of a huge amount of exposed parameters makes for a quite messy browser environment.

There's no obvious choice for "all on", "all off" or option making it "default off" allowing to turn on only a few according to the needs.

In assembly condition only a few might be in use, so dragging along the whole shebang is a pain. ;-)

Ilya Tatarnikov

@crpt2008,
Hm. In your message, you mentioned parameters, but on screenshots, you outlined constraints. It's a bit confusing.

crpt2008

Not so much confusion since both parameters or constraints have the same "exposed" options ON/OFF or Auto.

Ilya Tatarnikov

@crpt2008 let's summarize. Imagine you have a component which contains 10 dimensional constraints and 5 parameters. You insert it into an assembly and prefer to see only this component inside the mechanical browser, am I right?
Then, in case you need the component parameter, you open it in a separate file and set the expose option to "ON"?

crpt2008

Hi Ilya g morning
Pretty much that. The user should be able to choose the default setting for "expose".
Personally, I would set it at template level, according to my needs.

But allowing setting it in a bundle (example: right click menu...) Would also be very welcomed ;-)

In case of larger quantities of const/parameters, going back to the original file and set the "expose" option manually, one by one is a pain.
Cheers

Edit: I hope these images help illustrate my idea/wish.
There are some "common denominator" between all this const/parameters.
Ex. "Enable" and "Exposed" being the obvious.

The user could/should be able to set them all at once.
At user level, that would make all sense to me.
For you guys at programming level, I guess it's a headache waiting to happen. LOL

Roy Klein Gebbinck

@crpt2008:
I must admit that I do not fully understand your issue.

Exposing a constraint like 'Distance_12 = 2 mm' if a component is inserted in an assembly seems strange. The numerical expression suggests that this distance is fixed. To parametrize a constraint you would use a parameter. If you do, the default 'Auto' setting for the 'Expose' property works fine and you will rarely have to change it.

If a component has so many constraints that you lose the overview, wouldn't the most logical approach then be to use sub-components? This will also group constraints and parameters in a logical way.

It can also be helpful to use more meaningful names for constraints.