Display Assembly Mass on BoM with iLogic?

Autodesk Inventor’s BoM environment is a really useful tool for understanding the composition of Assembly files, but the one thing it does not offer, is the total Mass of the assembly.

To remedy this, I have written some iLogic code to create a virtual component, the Mass of the Assembly is written to a custom iProperty called “Assembly Mass”, which can be displayed on the BoM.

The reason the Mass is written to a custom iProperty and not the Mass iProperty of the virtual component, is that if you assign Mass to a virtual component, the assembly Mass, and therefore centre of gravity etc. would all be inaccurate.

The code works well, the only thing left to do, is to add the custom iProperty to your BoM view, the animated GIF below shows this in action.

 

 

Here is the iLogic code:

'iLogic code by Clint Brown @ClintBrown3D
'Code originally posted at https://clintbrown.co.uk/display-assembly-mass-on-bom-with-ilogics

'Check that this is an Assembly
oDoc = ThisDoc.ModelDocument
If oDoc.DocumentType = kPartDocumentObject Then
MessageBox.Show("This only works in Assemblies", "@ClintBrown3D")
Return: End If

'Write Mass to the Virtual part (if it already exists)
Try: iProperties.Value("Assembly Mass:1", "Custom", "Assembly Mass") = Round(iProperties.Mass,3) & " kg"
Catch: End Try

'Check if the Virtual part exists
Try: If Component.IsActive("Assembly Mass:1")= True Then: : End If
Catch: End Try

' Create Virtual Component 
Dim oAssDef As AssemblyComponentDefinition 
oAssDef = oDoc.ComponentDefinition 
Dim oMatrix As Matrix 
oMatrix = ThisApplication.TransientGeometry.CreateMatrix
NameOfVirtualPart = "Assembly Mass"
Try: Dim oNewOcc As ComponentOccurrence 
oNewOcc = oAssDef.Occurrences.AddVirtual(NameOfVirtualPart, oMatrix) 
Dim oCVirtualCompDef As VirtualComponentDefinition 
oCVirtualCompDef = oNewOcc.Definition 

'Write iProp Mass to Virtual Component
iProperties.Value("Assembly Mass:1", "Custom", "Assembly Mass") = Round(iProperties.Mass,3) & " kg"
Exit Sub : Catch : End Try

MessageBox.Show("SUCCESS :)" & vbNewLine & vbNewLine &"Remember to add the Custom *Assembly Mass* iProperty to your BoM", "@ClintBrown3D")

This version of the code was briefly tested with Inventor 2020.2

Please note that I cannot offer any additional support, this blog post is offered as-is, and is aimed at the more advanced user.

As always, please test all iLogic code extensively on non-production files. Do not use any code in a production environment until YOU have thoroughly tested it and have verified that it works as expected. Always back up any data before running any experimental code. You are ultimately responsible for any iLogic code that you run, so make sure you test it thoroughly!

This site takes absolutely no responsibility for how you use this code in production (see disclaimer).