Solids Builder - Flowchart

To build a section model, you need to define a logic or sequence of activities. This logic is established by the plugin's flowchart tools. Each activity will have connectors that can be connected to other activities, thus defining the execution sequence or logic. In the following image, the highlighted line indicates this:

Note, the main flow has a starting point, symbolized by the green circle, named Start. To connect two activities (or tools), hover over them and notice the rectangles:

Click and drag to the subsequent activity.

As new flowcharts are inserted, you can "enter" them and create new sub-flows. To find your way, look at the title bar:

Thus, to go up one or more levels in the flowchart, click on its name in the title bar above. To enter a tool that allows you to have sub items, click twice on it, as indicated in the sentence "Double - click to view"

Note that when selecting a tool in the Designer, it is possible to edit its properties:

The following are available flow control tools:

• Sequence - Used to queue a sequence of tools in a box
• TryCatch - performs activities with risk of errors
• Flowchart - Used to create sub-flows of the main flow
• Flow Decision - allows a decision like (if - then - else) or (if - then-else)
• Switch - allows multiple outputs, depending on the decision variable
• While - while looping
• Define Variable - defines an internal variable
• Set Variable - assigns a value to a defined internal variable
• Set Parameter - sets a value to a section property
• Get Property - get any device property
• Get Default Property - get node properties Options
• Message - Writes a message on the AutoCAD command line
• Visibility State - Writes a message on the AutoCAD command line

Good Practices

• Whenever you need to create many activities for a certain purpose, use a Sequence to group and give it a meaningful name. example: to create the body of a manhole, you will need at least:
  • 8 Points, 4 internal and 4 external
  • 2 Polylines, 1 inner and one outer
  • 2 Extrude, 1 outer and 1 inner
  • 2 Subtract, to finish
  
  Only there are 14 activities. Put them all in one Sequence, and you'll have a neater designer:
• Avoid putting too many Flow Decision, one inside the other. Consider whether it's better to use Switch
• Don't do everything with absolute coordinates, learn to use relative coordinates and Transformations of geometries
• Don't get confused: use the description of the activities to give meaning to them where necessary:
  
  
• Note, the activities you add may go into infinite looping. This can cause a stack overflow, that is, a fatal out-of-memory error; To mitigate this, the program limits the number of executions in the program's Toolspace / Settings / Options (item Warning / Maximum Executions )