Rule

This command creates a rule in a Wizard document.

The rules, in a wizard document, are made to choose the best code in the catalog of the family being included whose parameters meet to these rules. It is possible to associate personalized questions to the rules to help the user to answer them.

Thanks to these rules, it will be possible, for example when including a screw to propose the best length according to the thickness of the different parts to be fixed.

Creation stages / Use:

Click the Rule icon or select the Tools > Rule... command from the drop-down menu.

Select the parameter to constrain in the drop down list (only the published parameters of the associated part function will be available in this list).
Select the type of constraint.
- Parameter: can only recover one parameter or value in limit value.
- Thickness: Calculation of the thickness of an item in relation to an axis. Can indicate a direction and a limit value.
- Distance: Calculation of the distance in relation to a frame.

Select the geometry if Thickness or Distance have been selected:

- Frame: when Distance has been selected in the type of constraint, select the reference frame. For example, the frame under screw head for the calculation of the length of the screw.
- Axis: when Thickness has been selected in the type of constraint, select the reference axis.

Check or uncheck Response provided by another constraint. If checked, select the constraint in the drop down list. In this case, the result of the calculation of the constraint of this list is used, which must be the same type as the one to be calculated. If unchecked, go to stage 5.
Complete the question to ask. This question will be displayed in the dialog box when the assistant is used. For example to find the length of the screw, the question could be "Select the last part to fasten"
Select the operators of the values. For Parameter and thickness constraint types, a single operator should be entered. For the Distance constraint type, 2 operators are to be entered. For example, the parameter must be greater than or equal to ( >= ) the minimum value and less than ( < ) the maximum value. In this case, the value of the parameter will be between these two values. These operators indicate the distance between the reference item and the last plate and the distance of the reference with the exit of the last plate.
Select the type of optimization between none, equal, maximum, medium, minimum. For example, in the case of the length of the screw, the PDM proposes the screw this the smallest length regarding the conditions while its optimization type is minimum.

None / Equal: These two optimizations are identical. TopSolid retains the current value of the constrained parameter if possible.
Maximum: Among the possible values of the constrained parameter, TopSolid takes the largest value.
Medium: Among the possible values of the constrained parameter, TopSolid takes the middle value.
Minimum: Among the possible values of the constrained parameter, TopSolid takes the smallest value.

It is not possible to use a Distance or Thickness rule if the axis of the component to be dimensioned pass through holes (no collision detected). A Radius field is available in the dimensioning rule to overcome this limitation. TopSolid will search for intersections between a cylinder with the specified radius and the surrounding parts of the assembly so as to get the collision point and derive the distance along the axis of this collision point.

This function is only available in the assistant documents.
To calculate the value, the components are searched in the PDM. With the example of the screw, the PDM will be searched to find all the possible screws complying with the requested conditions.

Each rule restricts the list of possible codes. Then, to select the best code from this list, TopSolid uses the optimization defined in the rule displayed at the top of the wizard dialog (dialog for including the component in an assembly). In practice, the last one in the rules folder in the wizard document.