System settings

System settings allow the user to adjust the operation settings of the Woodwork for Inventor add-on

To open the command, go to:

Woodwork Design –> Help –> Settings

The command has four tabs used to adjust the following operational aspects of Woodwork for Inventor:

BOM settings

Naming

Workpiece - fields for configuring the workpiece code and name. In Woodwork for Inventor, each part consists of workpieces (click here for more information). The values of these fields are generated using keywords and adding prefixes and suffixes.

<Part Code> - export of the code of the part, which includes the workpiece.

<PartName> - export of the name of the part, which includes the workpiece.

<Counter> - sequence counter.

<ACounter> - alphanumeric counter.

Multilayer - fields for configuring the name and code of a multilayer board workpiece.

Composite - fields for configuring the name and code of a composite (composed of other parts) part workpiece.

Use custom replacement provider - allows enabling/disabling the material replacement add-in developed by the user, which changes the standard material replacement procedure. File specification field is intended for indicating a .dll file, which implements the data retrieval method designed by the user.

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Woodwork for Inventor has an option of writing different data created during BOM generation in parts from the geometry of which this data was calculated. For example, part length or part width. On the other hand, you can indicate to the system that the data entered in the part as Custom iProperty can be included in the BOM. This is done by providing a data field linking map in the Specify Mapping area.

In such case, desired data fields and their direction of movement should be registered in the table.

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If you want to transfer data from the BOM to the part, first, in the Woodwork for Inventor BOMproperty column you have to enter a BOM keyword the value of which you want to export to the Customer iProperty field of the part. Once you enter the keyword, the data flow direction in this field automatically changes to

. In the Custom iProperty column, you must enter the name selected by the user and best describing the exported parameter. When Woodwork for Inventor BOM generator is used, the aforesaid Custom iProperty fields are automatically created for the part and the appropriate values are assigned to them.

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If you want to use Custom iProperty parameter value in the BOM being generated, you have to register Custom iProperty as Woodwork for Inventor data. For this purpose, the desired field name has to be entered in the Custom iProperty column. A keyword to access this field is automatically created in the Woodwork for Inventor BOM property column field. Once this keyword is entered in the desired location of the BOM template, Custom iProperty value will be exported to the BOM. Data flow direction will be from the part to the BOM.

The figure provided shows how the calculated part size is returned to the part Custom iProperty fields. In the last row, the data from the Custom Property table, for example, ERP_Code, may be included in the BOM using the keyword on the right.

Write BOM data to mapped iProperties	sets the moment of time for saving/updating Custom iProperties data field values, which are registered in the data linking table described above and generated by Woodwork for Inventor.
on save	saved at the moment of saving the file
on BOM close	saved at the moment of closing the BOM generator
on running "Auto Plot" command	saved at the moment of running the AutoPlot command
on runing "CNC Output" command	saved at the moment of running the CNC Output command
on runing "Drawing Refresh" command	saved at the moment of running the drawing refresh command

Additional control settings.

Write Header data to Assembly document	sets the option using which the data contained in the BOM are described as the BOM header so that they can be written to the assembly component. Later, this allows using the data in Woodwork for Inventor drawing templates by entering the appropriate keywords in the desired locations. AutoPlot command interprets these keywords and automatically exports the data to generated drawings.
Use Vault Functionality	allows enabling/disabling Woodwork for Inventor functionality used to integrate data in Autodesk Vault Professional. Woodwork for Inventor recognizes the project type and automatically enables the functionality used to automatically generate BOMs of an element containing Woodwork for Inventor data. When working with Autodesk Vault Basic, this functionality is not necessary, since integration at the file metadata level is sufficient. Integration at item data level causes problems, if this Autodesk Vault configuration is selected; therefore, there is an option that allows disabling this functionality.
Check for "Normal" type parts without Woodwork for Inventor materials	enables/disables checking for parts without an assigned Woodwork for Inventor material in an assembly. Such parts will not be included in Woodwork for Inventor specification. If the option is enabled, BOM generator gives a message with a list of such parts.
Use legacy material replacment functionality	enables/disables the use of the old material replacement dialogue.
Use new Bom App (Beta)	enables/disables new specification generator (BOM) which is currently under development and is BETA version.

W4INV Design Settings

Materials Database path - specifies the location in which the Woodwork for Inventor material database is placed. Its default location is:

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Woodwork for Inventor\2024\v14\Materials.sdf

If several designers work for the same organization, it is recommended to keep a centralized database. If this is the case, the database will be stored on the server and will have the assigned path.

Holes	This section defines the hole parameters used for automatic creation of CNC technologies and hole tables for drawings.
	Max Hole Diameter	The maximum diameter setting of cylindrical surface considered to be a hole. This parameter can also be accessed via the behavior settings of CNC technology generator.
	Max Hole Depth	The maximum depth setting of cylindrical surface that is also considered to be a hole. This parameter can also be accessed via the behavior settings of CNC technology generator.
	Centering Hole diameter	The hole diameter setting, which is also considered to be a centering drill operation. This parameter can also be accessed via the behavior settings of CNC technology generator.
	Depth	Sets the drilling depth applied for centering operation. In this situation, the hole depth found in the model will not be taken into account. This parameter can also be accessed via the behavior settings of CNC technology generator.

Colors for represent	The section defines various colouring aspects, where it is necessary to support Woodwork for Inventor tasks.
	Workpiece	Setting colour for the representation of workpieces, when working with Workpiece Oversize command.
	Oversize	Setting colour for the representation of oversizes, when working with Workpiece Oversize command.
	Sizing	Setting colour for the representation of sizing allowances, when working with Workpiece Oversize command.

Oversize for slant edges	Allows the user to specify the size to be added to the workpiece. If an edge of the part is obliquely bevelled, the edge lies on the side surface of the imaginary surrounding box of the workpiece. Click here for more information.
Skeleton dress up	The section defines parameters for automatic naming of part bodies in skeleton modelling.
	Default Panel Solid Body Name	The root of the body name is entered here and automatically assigned to a new panel created in skeleton modelling.
	Include Skeleton Solid Body name to Panel Name	Setting the option, which includes the name of the skeleton from which the panel is derived into the name of the panel.

Face texture rotation

Depending on the grain direction of the material, when working with materials, Woodwork for Inventor rotates the grain direction for each individual part face. This requires high capacity of the computer. The load can be adjusted by eliminating smaller faces from the rotation function or disabling the texture rotation function. The surface area which will not be subject to grain image rotation may be specified here.

Design Settings Covers

Highlight colors for covers and pre-mill allowance for edge banding		Determines the colour used to highlight edge bands depending on the edge band thickness, when the edge band highlighting functionality is activated in Material Assignment command. It is also possible to define automatically added oversizes for the workpiece here, if PreMilling is performed immediately before edge banding. Each edge band can be assigned individual pre-milling depth.
	Thickness	Defining maximum thickness for the highlighting of the edge band using the selected colour.
	Color	Specifying the colour.
	Pre-Mill Alowance	Indicating the applicable size addition to the edge band of specified thickness, which is straight and coincides with the surrounding box edge. This addition is used when linear edge banding machine have an option of pre-milling immediately before edge banding.
	Apply Pre-mill allowances for veneered edges too	Enables/disables interpreting the Veneer material the same as the Edge band for Pre-mill operation. This means that the Veneer on the sides of the part will affect the size of the workpiece.

Edge Band with

Controls the calculation of the edge band thickness.

Oversize for Range calculation

Allows specifying the oversize which will be added to the determined part thickness so that the calculated edge band width always exceeds the part thickness, including the oversize.

Woodwork for Inventor

Content of cover legend		Allows specifying the Legend content.
	Text input row	Used to create the exported Legend keyword template.
	Name	Inserts a keyword that exports cover material name into the template.
	Code	Inserts a keyword that exports cover material code into the template.
	Color Name	Inserts a keyword that exports cover material colour name into the template.
	Color Code	Inserts a keyword that exports cover material colour code into the template.
	Thickness	Inserts a keyword that exports cover thickness into the template.
	Width	Inserts a keyword that exports cover width into the template.
	Separator	Defines a separator that is used when descriptions of several types of edge bands have to be exported on the same side.
	Coinsident to range box edge	Defines export of edges that coincide with the Surrounding Box. Export of this type of covers cannot be disabled.
	Tangent to range rox edge	Defines export of tangent edges that coincide with the Surrounding Box.
	Point touch range box edge	Defines export of point edges that coincide with the Surrounding Box.
	Indirect touch range box edge	Defines export of indirect edges that coincide with the Surrounding Box.
	Prefix/Sufix	Allows specifying a prefix or suffix for the exported information about each type of cover.

In this section you may select the language for Woodwork for Inventor. To enable the selected language, you have to close and re-start the Autodesk Inventor program.

Additional Ribbon Tools

Allows enabling/disabling additional commands in Woodwork for Inventor toolbar, which facilitate the assignment of materials.

Show Icons Only - disables output of commands explaining items in the toolbar.

In this window you will see a unit settings dialog presented in the form of a hierarchical tree structure.

Design Settings Units setup

Units are displayed in the form of a hierarchical tree. Unit settings selected in the higher level will apply to lower branches as well if not otherwise specified in the lower branch. The hierarchical tree is divided into the following levels:

The first level:

▪	Display Units - units in which information is displayed on the screen.

▪	Report Units - units in which information is displayed in the MS Excel reports.

The second level describes the following:

▪	Fill Material - units for fill materials.

▪	Cover Material - units for cover materials.

In the third level, you may adjust unit display for specific types of materials:

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Solid

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Board

▪	Laminated Board

▪	Multilayer Board

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Rod

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Tube

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Desktop

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Edge band

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Veneer

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Paint

In the fourth level, you may describe the following for each material type:

▪	Length - length display.

▪	Width - width display.

▪	Thickness - thickness display.

▪	Quantity - quantity display. Depending on the method of material calculation, quantity is displayed in the units of length, area or volume.

The user may save the settings to the external file and transfer them to the system.

The installation of the Woodwork for Inventor add-on offers the following two configurations:

▪	ww4i imperial units.wunits - setting units of measurement in the imperial system.

▪	ww4i metric units.wunits - setting units of measurement in the metric system.

Design Setting Copy Setup

Woodwork for Inventor automatically copies two types of components during operation: iBox and Smart Hardware. Each of these types can have their own settings for how they are renamed and where they are to be copied to during copying.

Libraries

Here you can specify the libraries that contain the iBox and Smart Hardware components. Woodwork for Inventor knows that components in these libraries must be copied. If an iBox or Smart Hardware component contains components from other locations than those specified, these components will be reused in the copied iBox or Smart Hardware components. These settings are saved in Autodesk Inventor for the current project.

iBox or
Smart Hardware

The name of the component to be copied and the subdirectory to place it

Defines a rule for renaming iBox component file names during copying.

Prefix – adds a prefix to the file name of the iBox or Smart Hardware component being copied. The prefix can contain the counter keyword {Count}, which means that the directory where the interior is designed will be searched for the product whose root matches the specified root value. If such a component is found, the counter is incremented by one with the aim of giving each copy of the iBox or Smart Hardware an original name.

Root – the root of the file name of the iBox or Smart Hardware component being copied. The root can be specified by the user at the time of copying each component. For this purpose, it is sufficient to specify a specific name for the copy, e.g. Corner cabinet. All subcomponents in the iBox component will be named with the tree-based names accordingly. Thus a part from iBox or Smart Hardware can be named Corner cabinet 01.ipt, etc. If the user does not want to bother with naming every component, it is possible to enter a Keyword for the component, which will be used for automatic naming. For example, if the keyword {Item.PartNumber} is written, the iProperty field Part Number of the iBox component will be read and used as a root to give a name to a copy of the iBox or Smart Hardware component. Keywords can be used to export the properties of a component of Assembly type into BOM.

Suffix – adds a suffix to the file name of the iBox or Smart Hardware component being copied. The suffix can contain the counter keyword {Count}, which means that the directory where the interior is designed will be searched for the product whose root matches the specified root value. If such a component is found, the counter is incremented by one with the aim of giving each copy of the iBox an original name.

Subdirectory – sets the preferred name of the subdirectory to place the component being copied. If no name is specified, then such a subdirectory is created automatically. It takes on the name of the component to be copied plus the counter number.

A subdirectory for the common location for components to be copied

It can be set that all copied components are stored in one subdirectory. For example, all Smart Hardware components can be specified to be placed in the subdirectory Hardware. This subdirectory will be hosted in the directory where the product hosting the iBox or Smart Hardware components is located. If the option that this subdirectory is required is selected but no name is specified, a name will be created automatically as follows: <Project assembly name> iBoxes> or <Project assembly name> Smart Hardware>.

Tree Counter

The counter format that is applied to iBox or Smart Hardware subcomponents when creating names. You can read more about how the counter based on the tree hierarchy counter works here.

Show these setting for each copy

It is possible to disable the appearance of this option during the insertion of each iBox or Smart Hardware component. In this case, a copy of the iBox will be generated based on the rules defined in this window. It is also possible to adjust these settings and manage them as described in this section.

When developing Java Script Macro programs, it is convenient to use the freely available Microsoft editor Visual Studio Code to debug them. It needs to be registered with the system for it to work successfully. To do this, you need to install the Visual Studio Code editor and in the Woodwork for Inventor plug-in, specify where on the disk it is installed. In addition, you need to specify the port of the connection to the application, which is by default assigned to port 57154.

Design Setup Scripting