the logic behind the feature manager tree display order

There is something I always wanted to ask, but never dared:
Why are there some item's, like sketches inside a loft feature, who are
displayed as sub branches of the feature (in a way that gives the graphic
idea who is the parent and who is the child). While if you thicken this loft
feature, then the thicken feature arranges itself under the loft, and not as
a main branch which has a sub branch named loft which has three sketch sub
branches (in a way that confuses me and is not coherent graphically with
parent\child relations principal)?
Is there something wrong in my solidworks settings, or did I miss the point
of "parent\child relations" + "feature manager tree" completely?

 

That's the way it is. Sketches always get absorbed, so do curves
(projected/ composite, etc), but surface features don't get absorbed.
It's pretty inconsistant, I agree. There are some times with sketch
relationships on rolled back items where it is difficult to be able to
select what you want because of order.

I've often wished for the ability to make the tree completely
chronological. I think the only recourse we have is the enhancement
request page.

matt

 

I get the following information from a simple loft with thin option.
Note that the parent features of the loft in feature 14 are reported
in something like parent child order. In other words the first sketch
in the selection box is reported, then its immediate parent, the the
next sketch in the selection box and its parent. I am thinking that
sketch 2 would report all the way up to the front plane if front plane
wasn't used by another feature. This list was generated by a macro I
wrote that lists all feature information in a part or assembly.


00001==============
Name = Annotations [DetailCabinet]
Created By =
Created Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM
Modified Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM

00002==============
Name = Material <not specified> [MaterialFolder]
Created By = kellnerp
Created Date = 6/28/2005 8:53:58 AM
Modified Date = 6/28/2005 8:53:58 AM

00003==============
Name = Lighting [EnvFolder]
Created By =
Created Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM
Modified Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM

00004==============
Name = Surface Bodies [SurfaceBodyFolder]
Created By =
Created Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM
Modified Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM

00005==============
Name = Solid Bodies [SolidBodyFolder]
Created By =
Created Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM
Modified Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM

00006==============
Name = Front Plane [RefPlane]
Created By =
Created Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM
Modified Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM

00007==============
Name = Top Plane [RefPlane]
Created By =
Created Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM
Modified Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM

00008==============
Name = Right Plane [RefPlane]
Created By =
Created Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM
Modified Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM

00009==============
Name = Origin [OriginProfileFeature]
Created By =
Created Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM
Modified Date = 11/3/2003 9:30:02 AM
Parents: Front Plane [RefPlane]

00010==============
Name = swCP3Attribute [Attribute]
Created By = kellnerp
Created Date = 7/8/2005 7:40:13 AM
Modified Date = 7/8/2005 7:40:13 AM

00011==============
Name = Plane1 [RefPlane]
Created By = kellnerp
Created Date = 8/5/2005 1:26:03 PM
Modified Date = 8/5/2005 1:26:03 PM
Parents: Front Plane [RefPlane]

00012==============
Name = Sketch1 [ProfileFeature]
Created By = kellnerp
Created Date = 8/5/2005 1:26:08 PM
Modified Date = 8/5/2005 1:26:08 PM
Parents: Front Plane [RefPlane]

00013==============
Name = Sketch2 [ProfileFeature]
Created By = kellnerp
Created Date = 8/5/2005 1:26:29 PM
Modified Date = 8/5/2005 1:26:29 PM
Parents: Plane1 [RefPlane]

00014==============
Name = Loft-Thin1 [Blend]
Created By = kellnerp
Created Date = 8/5/2005 1:35:04 PM
Modified Date = 8/5/2005 1:35:04 PM
Parents: Sketch1 [ProfileFeature]
Front Plane [RefPlane]
Sketch2 [ProfileFeature]
Plane1 [RefPlane]

If I re-order the sections I get:

00014==============
Name = Loft-Thin1 [Blend]
Created By = kellnerp
Created Date = 8/5/2005 1:35:04 PM
Modified Date = 8/5/2005 1:35:04 PM
Parents: Sketch2 [ProfileFeature]
Plane1 [RefPlane]
Sketch1 [ProfileFeature]
Front Plane [RefPlane]

 

I agree with you Matt - some control in the options menu, on the way in
which solidworks arranges features in the feature manager tree, would
certainly be nice.

 

Probably has to do with construction and rollback order.

 

This is a work in progress. It might give you some insight. Since I
can't post .swp files you will have to do your best to recreate the
form.

In a module paste the following:

Sub main()

Load ListFeatures
ListFeatures.Show 0


End Sub

In a form paste the following after creating a form with a Userform
called ListFeatures, two command buttons labled CommandButton1 and 2, a
label named Label1, a treeview named TreeView1 and a textbox labeled
TextBox1. You must have Microsoft TreeView Control 6.0 checked in the
tool pallete. Arrange the tools as you see fit but make sure both the
text box and treeview can scroll.

'
******************************************************************************
' C:\DOCUME~1\KELLNERP\LOCALS~1\Temp\swx332\Macro1.swb - macro recorded
on 07/13/05 by kellnerp
'
******************************************************************************
Dim swApp As Object
Dim Part As Object
Dim boolstatus As Boolean
Dim longstatus As Long, longwarnings As Long
Dim FeatureData As Object
Dim Feature As Object
Dim Component As Object
Dim swFeat, swChildFeat As SldWorks.Feature
Dim vChildArr As Variant
Dim FeatNum As Long


Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()

Set swApp = Application.SldWorks

Set Part = swApp.ActiveDoc

Label1.Caption = Part.GetPathName

Set Feature = Part.FirstFeature

TreeView1.Nodes.Clear

FeatNum = 1
Do While Not Feature Is Nothing
Fname = Feature.Name
TreeView1.Nodes.Add , , Fname, Fname
'TreeView1.Nodes.Add Feature.Name, tvwChild, Feature.Name,
Feature.Name
'TreeView1.Nodes.Add "root", tvwChild, "child2_root", "Child2 of
Root"
'TreeView1.Nodes.Add "child1_root", tvwChild, "child1_child1",
"Child1 of Child1"

TextBox1.Text = TextBox1.Text & Chr(13) & Format(FeatNum, "00000")
& "==============" & Chr(13)
TextBox1.Text = TextBox1.Text & "Name = " & Feature.Name & " [" &
Feature.GetTypeName & "]" & Chr(13)
TextBox1.Text = TextBox1.Text & "Created By = " & Feature.CreatedBy
& Chr(13)
TextBox1.Text = TextBox1.Text & "Created Date = " &
Feature.DateCreated & Chr(13)
TextBox1.Text = TextBox1.Text & "Modified Date = " &
Feature.DateModified & Chr(13)

vChildArr = Feature.GetParents
If Not IsEmpty(vChildArr) Then

TextBox1.Text = TextBox1.Text & " Parents:"

For Each vChild In vChildArr

Set swChildFeat = vChild


TextBox1.Text = TextBox1.Text & " " + swChildFeat.Name
+ " [" + swChildFeat.GetTypeName + "]" & Chr(13)

Next vChild
Set swChildFeat = vChildArr(0)
Cname = swChildFeat.Name
TreeView1.Nodes.Remove (Fname)

Debug.Print TreeView1.Nodes.Item(Cname)
TreeView1.Nodes.Add Cname, tvwChild, Fname, Fname
''TreeView1.Nodes.Add Fname, tvwChild, , swChildFeat.Name

'Debug.Print TreeView1.Nodes.Item(Fname)
End If

TreeView1.Nodes(TreeView1.Nodes.Count).EnsureVisible


Set Feature = Feature.GetNextFeature()
FeatNum = FeatNum + 1
Loop

End Sub

Private Sub CommandButton2_Click()
End
End Sub

Private Sub UserForm_Click()

End Sub

 

sorry TOP, but I'm unfamiliar with modules, macros and API stuff in
solidworks although I plan one day to learn them.
Thanks for your effort in trying to help me understand though!

 

If you really think about it, the thicken should not be absorbed. The
thicken is not the parent of the loft, rather its the child. It did not
take the thicken to create the loft rather vice versa.

If you are asking for the loft to be absorbed into the thicken, even
that is not such a good idea if only because that would begin to
produce an hierarchy that you wouldnt want. Take for example that you
create the profiles, and guide curves, do the loft, and then the throw
the thicken on top of that. Imagine you surpress the thicken with the
loft absorbed, then everything else goes with it.

the way it is now, it is an independant feature unto itself, only
parented by the loft, which is parented by the sketches.

Hope this helps

 

Gil,

If you want something interesting to analyze run the STAR benchmark and
then look at the resulting part with the ReadFeatInfo macro. Be patient
and scroll down the feature list. It will look boring until all of a
sudden you will see a feature with a bunch of parents. Take a mental
note on the parents and keep scrolling. You will find that the last
feature is the child of all the other features IIRC. If you had to
graph what you saw, how would it look? It isn't a simple tree structure
as I have depicted it in the right hand pane.

I might come to the conclusion that it is handy to classify parents as
Class I and Class II. A Class I parent is the explicit feature or
features that generates the feature under review. A Class II parent
implicitly defines the feature under review. For example, in the STAR
part a plane and sketch define each cube. However, some cubes also have
other cubes as Class II parents because those parents are used in
trimming back the feature. Now where it gets interesting is that it is
not apparent that the fact that a Class II parent is in fact trimmed by
its child making them mutual parents. The fact of the matter is that
the child can change and alter the parent.

I would like to be able to differentiate whether parents are Class I or
Class II in the macro. That will take some head scratching.

 

TOP,

what you describe is very interesting and somehow weird. I would like to see
it with my own eyes though - from where do I download the STAR benchmark
(can you post a link)?

 

That's exactly what i meant. and how i expect SW to arange and display the
features.

On this i didn't thought, and you are making here a good point!
although i think with a lot of programing from SW, that can be solved
either, in a way that one can supress only child features inside a hirarchy
tree.

it does, thanks

 

It has been posted a few times but here it is again.

http://www.engtran.com/SWBM001.html

 

thanks