What is iLogic? A Practical Guide for Engineers

iLogic is a rules-based automation engine built directly into Autodesk Inventor. It allows engineers to write rules — in plain VBA or external code — that drive model parameters, suppress features, swap components, and generate complete drawing packages automatically.

What Can iLogic Do?

At its core, iLogic lets you define relationships between your model parameters and business logic. When a user changes an input — say, the width of an enclosure — iLogic can automatically update every dependent feature, swap in the correct panel, update the BOM, and regenerate the drawing set.

• ✓Drive model dimensions from a simple input form
• ✓Suppress or activate features based on configuration options
• ✓Swap components in an assembly based on user selections
• ✓Generate flat pattern DXF files automatically
• ✓Populate title blocks and drawing annotations
• ✓Export drawing PDFs on demand
• ✓Integrate with Excel for parameter tables

When Should You Use iLogic?

iLogic delivers the most value when you have a family of products that share the same design structure but vary in dimensions, features, or configuration. If your engineers are repeating the same CAD operations for every order — resizing, feature toggling, drawing updating — iLogic can automate that entire process.

A Real Example

One of our manufacturing clients was spending 3 days per enclosure variant — resizing the model, updating the flat pattern, and regenerating the drawing package. We built an iLogic configurator that takes 5 inputs from a form and produces the complete package in 20 minutes. That is a 90% reduction in design time.

Getting Started with iLogic

iLogic rules are written in Visual Basic .NET and are stored directly in your Inventor files. You can access the iLogic panel from the Tools tab in Inventor. For simple rules — driving dimensions, controlling visibility — the learning curve is manageable. For complex configurators and external rules, working with an iLogic specialist will get you to production much faster.