"Lookup Table" Style configurations

imants_smidchens

Hi! I'm working on creating a library of configurable robotics parts - shafting of various lengths and profiles from vendors being one example of its contents. 
I'd like to create one configurable part for all the different shaft types, where the end user selects a profile, then length. The tricky part is that different profiles of shaft have different valid lengths. Ideally, the configurations would end up looking like the standard content insert menu, where depending on profile selections, different drop downs/options become available to the user. I could set up a FS with the right options, but for assembly work the same issue remains present.

I can spoof this, kind of, by using multiple suppressed "delete part" operations for invalid configurations, but the issue is that the insert menu with configurations then must list every length for all shafting, with most being invalid for a given profile. 

Is this something I can do with configurations/variables, do I need to use the API/write an extension (which I know basically nothing about lol) or is this currently not possible?

TL;DR: can I make a custom standard content library?
 
Cheers!
Imants

MichaelPascoe

So the reason it doesn't work now is that the "Length" drop down list is the same for all profiles and you need it to change depending on the selected profile? I'm not sure of a way to do this easily as configurations can't be configured by other configurations.

You could duplicate the part studio and have a different part studio per profile. Then have those in one document with the name of your part "Shaft". The workflow could look like this: Select the "part" document shaft > select the profile (which is actually a part studio) > Then select the length from the drop down configuration (Each part studio will be configured for different lengths). 

It might be possible with API. I'm not the right guy for that. Perhaps someone else can provide more info.

MichaelPascoe

Here is an improvement request for Conditional Configurations.

imants_smidchens

MichaelPascoe said:

So the reason it doesn't work now is that the "Length" drop down list is the same for all profiles and you need it to change depending on the selected profile? I'm not sure of a way to do this easily as configurations can't be configured by other configurations.

You could duplicate the part studio and have a different part studio per profile. Then have those in one document with the name of your part "Shaft". The workflow could look like this: Select the "part" document shaft > select the profile (which is actually a part studio) > Then select the length from the drop down configuration (Each part studio will be configured for different lengths). 

It might be possible with API. I'm not the right guy for that. Perhaps someone can provide more info.

I thought about this, and it's what I was leaning towards implementing if I couldn't get a more versatile single part studio solution working. Seems like an overall reasonable approach
Thanks!

MichaelPascoe

Np!

If you didn't already have this workflow: you could derive a single part studio with infinite lengths to multiple part studios within that document, then have different length configurations per each derived part studio. This way you only need one part studio modeled.

EvanReese

I've wanted to be able to do this with configs for a while. It would be really powerful.