Chained Actions

[artisteroi]

all data removed

[Chris.N]

I am attempting to make some dynamic blocks with chained actions and am having "weird reactions". My original thought was that I was doing something incorrectly but after much trial and cursing I eventually came to the conclusion that the set up of the dynamic blocks would not permit me to perform the action I was attempting.
I drew a kitchen cabinet with 3 visibility states plan, profile and elevation, in elevation and profile there is a flip (flips the whole block) that will allow the block to be a left or right hung door and left or right side of the wall. the door of the cabinet has a set of spindles which I need to array as I stretch the cabinet to different sizes. I chained the array for the spindles so it would work with the stretch parameter. this worked fine until I flip the door to change the hinge placement the array activates at this point and arrays the spindles out to the limits of there distance parameter. Is there a way to limit the chain to any specific actions?
That is the problem I had. I thought I had just ran into a limitation of the block editor. If I am doing something wrong though please advise. I have had similar issues with rotate and stretch as well almost always involving the flip command. I dont have the block anymore as I have solved the problem in a less desirable way but I would like to know an answer the question if there is one.have you searched the 'sharing' forum? also, posting the block will help others to diagnose your troubles and offer assistance in fixing. my guess is that you have actions affecting actions and that is creating a fun 'multipllied' affect that is winging your spindles far & yonder. oh, and you can't 'chain' array. array is an action to a parameter....

a rule of thumb around here is that you do NOT want to include the actions under actions. geometry, independant basepoint actions, and parameters w/ grips only at first. if it doesnt' work, then start to include actions one at a time.

[Chris.N]

ok, i just noticed your title. there's (officially) no such thing as "chained actions" only "chained parameters". chaining of 'actions' is how you get strange results...

have you checked out our archived ATP's? i'd look at sept. 2006, #atp143.... ;)

[Chris.N]

whats an atp? Not sure what you are talking aboutAUGI Training Program...
if you are 'logged in', you should be able to jump right into HERE (http://www.augi.com/education/archive.asp?page=293)...

[r424andy]

Ok I just read through all that and it was some very good info on the basics of dynamic blocks but did not go into what can (and almost innevitably will) go wrong when triing to do things with the BE that AutoDesk didn't think of. Brings me back to the origional question, Can you keep a chained parameter from activating when it is part of a flip action? Is that what you mean by "strange results" ?
If I chan the parameter then flip it but not the associated action will this keep the perameter/action set from firing?
Feel free to "show" us what your trying to do...It would give us a better idea of what is or could be going wrong, otherwise we are just guessing as to what your situation is. There is a lot of experience between all of us to be able to suggest improvement (more then likely one of us has gone down the road that you are attempting)