Query Part from Part Studio to Use as Input for Custom Feature

Kyler_Walker

I have written a custom feature that takes a part as an input and performs operations using that part.  I am writing new a feature that uses the first feature. When using the new, top level feature, the part that is used as an input for the referenced feature should be predetermined, not chosen by the user.  I can have this part exist in the same document as my top level feature.  The user has no reason for this part to exist in their part studio.  Is there a way I can query the part so I can use it as an input to the referenced feature without bringing the part into the user's part studio?   

kevin_o_toole_1

Sounds like you want the second feature to have no input, but know about the geometry chosen in the first feature. That certainly involves storing something in the context. What the minimum something is depends on what you want to use it for, but in the most general case, you need to instantiate the parts.

Without instantiating, you cannot query in a context for geometry that does not exist in that context. It's possible there may be a workflow to only, say, evaluate some data in the other Part Studio's context, store that data, and use that data instead of a query in your downstream workflow. But if you need geometry in an operation (like say, a boolean) that geometry needs to be present in the Part Studio. You will need to instantiate the bodies from the other Part Studio into the current one (and possibly delete them at the end).

Performance-wise, it should not be as expensive to copy that geometry into the current context as it was to build it originally (since that data is cached in versions).

To mark which bodies are needed between the features, one option is something like

setAttribute(context, { "entities" : qCreatedBy(id + "instantiator", EntityType.BODY, "name" : "bodiesForFeatureX", "value" : true })

in the first feature, and something like

qHasAttribute("bodiesForFeatureX")

in the second feature.

Kyler_Walker

kevin_o_toole_1 said:

To mark which bodies are needed between the features, one option is something like

setAttribute(context, { "entities" : qCreatedBy(id + "instantiator", EntityType.BODY, "name" : "bodiesForFeatureX", "value" : true })

in the first feature, and something like

qHasAttribute("bodiesForFeatureX")

in the second feature.

Thanks for the explanation.  I do need to use the part to create geometry, so I guess I will instantiate it and then delete it at the end.  The setAttribute() function is new to me, but it looks like it will be very convenient.