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Custom Materials List
boon_ong575
Member Posts: 11 ✭
I have a materials list of plant species and their LAI values. This is useful for various reasons which is not relevant to this discussion, How can I create a custom materials list called Plant LAI Values and enable users to assign different components of their model, it could be a surface which represents grass, or a shape which might represent shrubs or trees, to a particular plant and extract the LAI value. This LAI value will then be used to calculate the Green Plot Ratio, which is the average LAI for the site. The formula is very simple - (Total area of plants x respective LAI values)/Site Area. The current materials list has density, which I don't need. I don't know how to create a column for the LAI attribute.
Comments
I think it's better to let go of trying to add plant species to the material list.
It's probably more suitable to create a custom property LAI and set it with a simple FS and call upon those to calculate the Green Plot Ratio.
same goes for the plants area, which may need some additional selection. I don't know how you model this, but if they are parts, how else is Onshape going to know which surfaces of the part to be using for the calculation?
If you do want to go down the Custom Materials Library route:
https://www.onshape.com/en/resource-center/tech-tips/tech-tip-how-to-create-custom-material-libraries-in-onshape
@jelte_steur814, thank you for your suggestion. Yes, I will need to create a custom property and so on as you suggested. The thing is, I need to get the LAI value from the plant database. I don't know how to do that. I have imported the plant database as a csv file but I don't know how to associate the LAI property of the plant to the right species in the database. Do you know is there's a resource to help me do that?
@Matt_Shields. Thank you for your response. I have already read it and it doesn't tell me how to add a new property, the LAI value.
@boon_ong575 ,
I haven't done this before either so I'm just loosely trying to point you in the right direction.
perhaps this thread can be of help.
If you could make a lookup table from the CSV (even an AI may be able to help you out there, the challenge would be to teach the ai the proper onshape syntax). and then make a custom feature to set the LAI value for a selected surface, that calls on the lookup table for a dropdown list of materials.
in your case, even a map may be sufficient… Just not sure how you'd make that dropdown and i've seen that done before with a lookup table.
I've been intending to try this approach myself for a different purpose (mould plates), but haven't made time for it yet. So if you have any success, please let us know what did and didn't work.