AutoCAD Inventor :: IParts In Assemblies And Drawings?
Apr 12, 2013
The attached sketch shows how I originally decided to use iParts in drawings and assemblies. In assemblies I use the generated iPart, and in drawings I use the "master" iPart file. I did that because I wanted to keep the drawing linked to the "master" part, to avoid the situation where the drawing would be out of date because I forgot to regenerate the iParts.
The problem is that I don't know how to force the drawing to refer to the correct version of the iPart. To use the terminology in my sketch, I open X2.idw and get a drawing of X1.ipt, not X2.ipt. Should I use the generated iPart in my drawings? And, if so, is there a way I can automatically regenerate. I'm prone to forgetting key steps like that.
I've created a simple iPart and want to insert multiple instances of it into an assembly. The plan is to use a parameter-driven iPart to create multiple variations on the same basic model which will eventually be lasercut.
I've included a sample archive. 2DiPart is a simple part with a couple parameters. 2Dassembly is where I've tried to include this part. I'm able to walk through all the dialogs to place the iPart, and will even see it in the canvas as I select the insertion point. However, after I dismiss the dialog, nothing shows up in the canvas. I'm still able to see the component instances in the project explorer however.
How to best to get multiple instances of a parametric iPart into a drawing that can be lasercut.
Is there a way to make an iPart adaptive? I need to make the length of a pipe adaptive in order for it to line up. These models are not saved, but are merely generated for 2D drawings via my VBA.
I've created an iPart (for this discussion, lets just say a cube..)with 6 variations of the same part (its height has a choice of 6 different values in the iPart table)..I've created a drawing (idw) which dimensions the cube in one of the 6 instances..
..Is there any way to replicate the drawing another 5 times, with each referencing each instance of the iPart?
I was imagining copying the drawing 6 times and change each one to look for a different instance (a bit like when you go component - replace in an assembly..) then the drawing to automatically update the altered dimension.
this would save me producing and re-drawing 6 separate idw files for the same thing where only one dimension changes each time!
My issue is that whenever I edit a sub-assembly or a part within an assembly, whether it's from within the assembly by right clicking and choosing "edit" or by opening the sub-assembly/part and editing it separately, once I return to the top assembly, it does not update constraints to reflect the changes. Say I constrain the top of a part to be flush with something in the assembly. Then I edit the part and make it shorter. Once I return to the assembly, the part has shortened but it is no longer flush as it was meant to be. It is lower with respect to the plane it should be flush to. If I double-click the "flush" constraint and then click the check mark, it's like it reminds Inventor the constraint is there and the part hops up where it should be.
Is there any way I can click an "update" button or something so Inventor automatically checks for part changes and re-constrains everything after I make changes to sub-assemblies or parts? I found a "Refresh" button and added it to my Quick Access Toolbar, but it does absolutely nothing.
I often have the same issue with sheets in my .idw files; they do not update once I edit a .ipn or another view in the sheet. Is there a similar solution for this instance as well?
Since I switched to Inventor 2010 Pro, I've been seeing an issue I can't find resolution to. If I have an assembly that is one purchased part, I shrinkwrap it and place it as a part. Been doing that since shrinkwrap first appeared. For some reason some of my shrinkwrapped parts, though set to invisible in the assembly, (I am using association and representations, saving, locking and all that nice stuff), still show in the drawings. Even more insane is that the visibility is off in the drawing. Yet, there it is, big as life. My only fix so far has been to revert back to the assembly instead of the shrinkwrapped part.
I have several parts which I wish to modify, but, those modifications are only being done to get some prototypes made. I do not want the changed (non-approved part) to be used in current issue drawings, assemblies etc. until I have proven the modifications and am happy with them.
I can do this by doing a save as on the part and could just replace the previous design, but then I lose the history of changes/revisions shown in Vault which is critical to me and part of using vault in the first place.
I am working in an Inventor Assembly .iam, I have about 250 fasteners (screws) that are constrained to a flat washer and lock washer. I would like to put them in as a single unit (sub assembly if you will) and then promote or explode them in the top level so that my bom has 250 screws, 250 washers, and 250 lock washers all at the same level, not associated to one another except thru the constraints that were entered in the original assembly. I have tried Promote but that doesn't work because it removes the washers from the original file and I end up with only 1 instance of the assembly. Am I approaching this incorrectly? Is there a better way? I run across this scenario with different components quite often.
i have a valve vault assembly that i am creating that has two headers running through a large cylinder vault. how i get a total BOM if i were to create the header assembly file separate from the the total vault assembly file. is there a way to explode the header assembly bom when i do the drawing.
I created an iPart of a flat sheet metal with several holes in it. It requires 3 Parameters to be be defined:
- length (user defined parameter which can take any value) - width (user defined parameter which can take any value) - hole_diameter
I created a skeleton file with several user defined parameters including length and width.
Both files (skeleton.ipt and flat_sheet.ipt) are placed in the same assembly. I now would like IPart instance to follow along the changes made in the skeleton - but how do I connect these parameters? and if not, what would be an appropriate Top Down approach for including iParts?
If I put iParts into an assembly, and then convert this assembly to an iAssembly, I can include "Table Replace [My_iPart]" as a column in the parameter table. As the value of this column I can select the individual rows of the given iPart parameter table.
However, I can not make this column be a "Custom Parameter Column". (In fact it seems to me that in an iAssembly I can not make any other types of columns to be "Custom Parameter Columns" either). Also, if a parameter of the iPart is a "custom parameter", I can not carry over this "customness" into the iAuthor parameter table.
This means that I need to insert table rows by hand, one-by-one, which is quite cumbersome. Imagine you have an iAssembly containing only two iParts, each having N rows. This means N^2 rows in the iAssembly, all of which I need to specify by hand. Plus I can not use the "customness" of a parameter of an iPart within the assembly.
In an iAssembly containing an iPart, I would like to
- have a "Custom Parameter Column" in the iAssembly parameter table, which can select rows from the iPart parameter table (selectable values would automatically be all the rows from the correcponding iPart)
- if my iPart has a custom parameter, I would like to have this custom parameter available as a separate custom-value column in the iAssembly
Is it possible somehow? Or is it conceptually wrong?
I created a Ipart with like 14 different configurations now it operates smoothly within the part. Now once i insert it into a assembly it wont let me chance the configuration. I heard there was a problem like this but i thought it was only when you insert a part into a assembly and change it into a ipart while its still within a assembly.
Now my part never was in a assembly. Ill upload it and let me know if you have the same issue. Once i drop the part it doesn't give me the option to choose a configuration and when i click the configuration in the itable it still doesnt change it. Now this is only within a assembly.
Subject: Inventor placing Iparts in Assembly (Autodesk Inventor 2010)
Problem:
When placing an Ipart into a project Assembly it will make a copy of that variant and place it in the same map as the Ipart.
So when variant B of Ipart A is selected it will make a copy of variant B in the same folder where Ipart A is located.
Question:
Is it possible to make a “save as” option or another similar manner to save those copies of variant B in a project map of a project assembly?
Instead of saving all the Ipart variants to a single folder. So each time a new project is started they have all the parts in the same folder.
Reason:
I am making a local library for parts that are used for repairs. These parts have many variants and some times need to be customized for a repair.
The current system keeps polluting itself causing the users to loose their parts and accidentally delete the original parts etc.
I contacted Autodesk support and theyrecommended to post this question on this forum. They did mentioned that vba programming could achieve this. I have no knowledge of this type of programming.
I have a wishlist item. One of my major process-related issues with iparts is the fact getting variables into your table is inconvenient. Why wouldn't it be possible to put an "Add to IPart Table" option in the context menus for dimensions, planes, features, anything you can put in the table from the table window. That way you are not constantly moving back and forth between your sketches and your table when you set up an Ipart or Iassembly. This feature would save me TONS of time as well as clean up my tables. Right now the easiest way to set up the table when dealing with a complex sketch is just to add all the dimensions, make my changes for each variation, save to table and then go back and delete the columns I didn't change.
I need a parameter from an iPart to show up in my Parts List by using the Stock Number iProperty, then CHANGE with each variation of the iPart (PLATE BC-01, PLATE BC-02, PLATE BC-03, etc). I already have the parameter exported, named 'BOTTOM_A.' Stock number has the expression: '=1/4" HRS x <BOTTOM_A>.'
However, this only works for that particular part. The number does not change when I place a Parts List for PLATE BC-02 and PLATE BC-03. All three have the same number. I found that the number corresponds to the active part. If I double-click PLATE BC-02 in the ipt file to show it, the number for the separate Parts Lists will all correspond to PLATE BC-02.
I've attached an image of the Parts Lists after double-clicking PLATE BC-02 in PLATE BC.ipt. I can include more if needed.
When we create iparts and generate the files from the mother ipart, Inventor creates an additional folder to place the iparts into. Is there a setting somewhere to force Inventor to place these generated files into a user defined location?
Or is this just something we have to live with and do we have to manually move the files after generating them.
I am finding it difficult to find good through examples of how to use iLogic with iParts and iAssemblies. I have been through several of tutorials, but can't seem to find examples for what I need. Here is a link to a video to give you a bit of an idea of what I am trying to do. How/when and what snippets to use in order to get the iParts and iAssemblies to function properly.
See Video : [URL].....
First video went to long here is the rest.. [URL].......
One thing I think I mentioned in the last video, but not sure I explained it well, is that instead of having the main file name show up in the browser..the part name shows up. When I go to change parts using a form I created it keeps telling me it can't find the current part.
users using i-parts and i-assemblies with vault. The links seem to cause more problems than its worth. Assemblies that constantly want to be updated, rebuilt, parts lists on drawings using data from the wrong instance of the factory. etc.
I created a new part doing a save as from a content center flange. I then created iparts in the saved part file.
My question is when I place this part into a new assembly it is not allowing me to change from one ipart to another in the part table within the assembly.
I am currently using iparts/assemblies to model a resistor bank. We have dozens of different configurations and currently each time we need a new one its is re modeled from scratch.
I have created an assembly with all my relevant parts and controlled it through parameters to auto update when key values are changed.
What I would ideally like to do is to either link my two iparts to the iassembly though the excel sheets they use. Currently I have to added each variation to the parts first and then added the parameters to the assembly.
Would it be possible to have a master sheet were all control values are inputted and then each excel sheet for the different parts are linked to this?
As the excel sheets are saved in the temp file and are deleted once you have finished editing I have found it hard to do this so far. Can I change where they are saved? I tried save copy as which created the file but inventor did not link to it.
If this is not possible can I utilize iLogic to input the key values and then write them to a new row in the table. I have created a rule already to limit the number of elements and also the length of the by's (the space between each supporting rod). I have included a zip file with all my parts in it.
If I create a parts list as a parts only list it groups all my ipart members into one single entry, but if I use the legacy option it shows them all separately.
How can I split this out in the standard parts only parts list?
I want to calculate aurface area of iparts automatically. there are about 100 ipatrs and i want to find surface area of each ipart. is there any way that i just click the desired surface and its area is written in some file so that i can just go to the next ipart click the desired surface and its area is written automatically on some file.
Is there some option in inventor to define macro for it coz i hav no knowledge of defining macros.
If I insert a part with my own work planes in an assembly, I can programatically get the first 3 standard workplanes and also the non standard workplanes.
BUT if I make the part a table based iPart, I cannot find the extra non standard workplanes in the WorkPlanes of the part component definition, just the first standard three (XY YZ XZ).
I have generated around 1200 iParts from my drawing and I would like to generate every ipart in an individual ipt. file.
This is easily done by right-clicking the iPart and clicking on Generating Files. But I can't manage to generate all the ipt files in one go. I noticed that I can hold Ctrl and selecting all the iPart, but I would prefer not spending a couple of hours selecting 1200 iPart.
I started with a huge ipart table which was created by a collegue who has now left. The factory was unmanageable as it had reached the maximum amount of columns and was running very slowly.
To combat this, I decided to split the table in half so that the ipart will become two iparts. I am now working on the first half...
A lot of features are unque to one or a few parts, so doing this enabled me to delete columns if all values in the columns matched after the table was halved.
I thought this would speed up the file but I have now realised I have a bunch of features sat in the browser than are suppressed in every member!
Is there any way to use ilogic or vba to run a script that will delete a feature if it is suppressed in every member?
Inventor 2013 Certified Professional Autodesk Inventor Professional 2011 Windows 7 Enterprise, 64-bit
I want to create a library with several parts that vary only in length, I have been using Iparts with a custom length parameter, but all of the custom files are saved with my project files on my hard drive. I want the files to save to a network drive, but do not want to move my project files. Is there a way to accomplish this in inventor 2011?
