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The user interface of YIPPEE ProČ is event-driven - this means that it is sensitive to changes made in Inventor's user interface and updates itself accordingly. If a different component is activated in Inventor, YIPPEE ProČ recognizes this and displays only the iProperties of that component and its constituents, if any. It can also detect actions such as a new component being added to an assembly and will reanalyze it when necessary. The interface is never out-of-sync with what's being displayed in Inventor.
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This feature allows you to concatentate the values of other iProperties in a component into another easy-to-read iProperty. Think of it as "gluing" a number of text strings together. It's most often used in conjunction with exported parameters. For example, let's say you have a bolt with exported parameters of Diameter and Length. You can take the values of these two parameters and build a Property Function into the Description iProperty of the bolt that reads "Ű0.2500 in x 3.5000 in LONG". You can even format the parameters to match your company's standards or simply to make it more legible, such as "Ű1/4 x 3 1/2 LONG". If the dimensions change, your Description iProperty changes - completely automatically. It even works with iParts. This alone can save hours of manual editing and potential errors if you forget to update an iProperty after changing a dimension.
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Using Property Functions, you have access to additional file information. The mass, weight, volume, and area of parts and assemblies can be accessed as properties of the file. For sheetmetal parts, you can read the length and width of the flat pattern, the thickness of the sheetmetal, and the sheetmetal style as though they were any other iProperty. Drawings have direct access to the sheet scales. And all files can include the date and time it was last saved, too - vital for date/time stamping on drawings. All this is done automatically and transparently.
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Similar to Property Functions, YParams allow the user to access certain physical properties (such as Weight, Volume, and Mass) or dimensions (such as sheetmetal flat pattern sizes) as Parameters in Inventor. One example of how this feature can be used is to calculate the length of a wire or other odd-shaped part created with a Sweep feature with a constant cross-section. By using the Volume YParam, the length can be calculated in the Parameters by dividing the Volume by the cross-sectional area.
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Some properties (Vendor is a good example) are more easily edited by picking from a common list of values. YIPPEE ProČ allows you predefine a list of possible values (common vendors, in this example). When this property is edited, the user is presented with this list and does not have to type the name of the vendor - it's already there. If it's not in the list, it can still be typed in. Also, lists that have already been created in other property editing packages (saved as .INI files) can be directly imported into YIPPEE ProČ.
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Many new features were introduced in Inventor 10 with respect to Bills of Material and Parts Lists, and YIPPEE ProČ handles them with ease. The properties of Virtual Components can be viewed and modified like any other component. Components now have a new "BOM Structure" property - this can be displayed and changed in YIPPEE ProČ's grid area or used in Property Functions. And the same software still works in Inventor 8, 9, and 10 - no different files are needed for different versions of Inventor.
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In Inventor, you can right-click on a Parts List in a drawing and select "Edit Parts List". This brings up a spreadsheet-like interface in which you can make modifications to the data that appear in the Parts List. The unfortunate thing is that any changes that are made to the Parts List in this manner are merely overrides (the cell background color is yellow). You're not editing the iProperties of the components - you're only making a cosmetic change to the Parts List in that drawing. With YIPPEE ProČ and Inventor 9 or 10, you can right-click on the Parts List and select the new "Edit Parts List with YIPPEE ProČ" command. This opens the YIPPEE ProČ interface, optionally displaying only what is listed in the Parts List. Any changes made this way are written where they should be - at the component level.
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With YIPPEE ProČ, you can break the rules somewhat with regard to how Library components are handled. Typically, components that reside in a Library are, by definition, read-only. To merely change an iProperty of a Library component requires the user to create another Project file in which the Library location is listed as a Workspace or Workgroup. The iProperties of these components are fully editable with YIPPEE ProČ. The background color of the cells of Library components appears orange as a visual cue. The left corner of the statusbar also shows a small book superimposed over the component type icon. The editability of Library components is optional.
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YIPPEE ProČ is able to edit the properties of child iParts, even if they reside in a Library location. If an iPart factory is created with one or more Property Functions defined in it, these Functions are preserved in newly-created iPart children. This is extremely useful for custom iPart factories. For example, a gear iPart factory can be created with a Property Function which populates the Description field with the pitch diameter, number of teeth, and width of the gear. Whenever a child is created from this factory, its Description property will automatically reflect the input specifications of the gear.
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When a component is selected in YIPPEE ProČ's grid area, the actual component or components is/are highlighted in Inventor. This gives you immediate feedback as to what component you're about to edit.
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The component currently selected in the YIPPEE ProČ grid area is displayed in the Slide-Out Preview Window. Components in this window can be rotated, panned, and zoomed, just as they can in Inventor. If it's not needed, it can be slid back in to save screen real estate.
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Using the Fill With feature, you can take a value of an iProperty and copy it effortlessly to every other component displayed in YIPPEE ProČ. When used with a Property Function, it copies the Function's definition to every component, and will be evaluated on a per-component basis.
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With a few clicks of the mouse, the data displayed in YIPPEE ProČ can be exported to Excel. The Excel workbook can be created using a predefined, preformatted Excel template (.xlt) file, and can include hyperlinks to the Inventor files as well as thumbnail images of the components.
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YIPPEE ProČ has many built-in tools that make managing larger assemblies easy. Using Filters, only components whose iProperty data match a given filter's criteria are shown instead of every component in the assembly.
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...and many, many more!
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