Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

Hey everyone:

I work for a job shop and am the only designer.  We've just made the switch from Acad to IV and I'd like to get some feedback about how to structure my non-vault single user projects.

Presently, our network drive setup is like this:

Working Files & Customer Prints:  Z:\Customer Prints\<Customer Name>\<Customer Contact>\<Description or PN>

In some customers' folder, I may also have a folder with a path like this "Z:\Customer Prints\<Customer Name>\General Design" where I would keep things like mating parts, existing fixtures that new parts may need to mate with, etc.

Then I've also got a place for vendor CAD like this: "Z:\Vendor Documents\Vendor CAD\<Company Name>\<Part Types>" etc. for commonly used components, like tooling hardware.

In any project, I'd need to be able to access files from these directories.  So when I create a new project, I can obviously reference the workspace folder for the new part files and I can add the paths for the other two examples.  But if I need to quickly edit a file in one of the paths (like to show a work plane or something), I can't do it because library files are not editable.  Plus it seems like it's a bit repititous to add these paths manually every time I create a project.  Is there a better way to do this with my current file structure?

[#2]

It would help to know a little more about your business-- do you design a line of standard & lightly customized products, or do you design totally unique and unrelated projects, or something in between?.

[#3]

We're a light machine shop that pretty much makes snowflakes: every one is slightly different.  Low quantity, typically make it once and it's gone.  However, sometimes we wil get something back years later for modifications.

In a nutshell, we're usually doing "non-production" work for the manufacturing industry.  Mostly tooling and hardware for R&D.

Thanks!

[#4]

Do you share parts between "snowflakes"?  That is, do you have a bunch of stock parts that get used in a variety of different projects?

[#5]

Custom Parts - generally not

Vendor purchased parts & assemblies - yes, quite often.

[#6 · Accepted solution]

I think that a folder for each project would make sense, along with subfolders under it to help keep things organized.  Then keep your common parts in a separate "library" folder.  Then you can use a separate .ipj for each project, and that .ipj will reference the common parts as a library location.

In our operation, we have a project template: a folder with our preferred folder structure included, and a .ipj file with the correct content center, design data, etc. established.  To start a new project, we copy this folder to the project repository, rename the folder and .ipj file, and we're ready to roll.  Essentially, every project is structured identically, and all the .ipj files are identical except for the actual filename.

[#7]

We also do mostly custom designs and include standard components. Our structure is almost identical to Sam's and it works very well for us.

[#8]

Thanks guys, both your comments make a lot of sense.  Is there any connection between the IPJ file and the folder that it sits in?  My guess is no, but I'd like to confirm.

I'd likely need to make a template folder and IPJ for each customer to ensure that their unique subfolder paths are mapped correctly, but I think it still makes sense to do so.

I should probably seize this opportunity to clean up some folders and improve the overall structure within each customer's folder.

Thanks again for your help guys!  I've learned a lot from Waguespeck's book "Mastering Inventor 2012" and from the AutoDesk's Wiki site, but this user forum has been a great help as well.

[#9]

The .ipj file has no connection to the folder it sits in, as far as I can tell.  But it's sure easier if it sits in the top level folder and that folder is defined as the Workspace.

[#10]

Is there anywhere this is really expanded upon?

Case in point.

I think i've got a handle on whether to use a single project file or multiple. Here we have a main engineering type folder where all projects are stored. An issue is that there is in excess of 1000 projects in the folder. Possibly in excess of 2000. In each project, some are completely unique. Many will reference existing standard parts. Those standards are sometimes single pieces and sometime subassemblies.

I'm pretty sure we need individual ipj files. However, from what i can tell this also seems to be a bit of a personal preference type of thing. Either way, I don't think i'd want my project file searching through 1000's of folders when opening an assembly.

Here's where i've got some confustion:

Included File(s)

Libraries (not content center lib's)

Frequently used Subfolders

Exactly what is the difference?

Best I can understand it, using an included file allows me to reference the pieces of another project. That's all well and good, but why would that be 'included files' and not Frequently Used Sub? I can see that maybe a certain job created a new piece that you could use elsewhere so you just reference it, but I'm not sure why all 3 options exist.

Libraries. Seems a bit more obvious. A Library(ies) of standard parts that you don't have or don't want in a content center library. Reference in commonly used nuts, bolts, company standards, etc. Should these library folders contain just ipt's? Can they contain folders/subfolders/subassemblies? Is it better to lump everything under one library folder? or would it work better to have a library of widgets, a library of gadgets, a library of fasteners, etc?

Frequently used subfolders - As noted above, what's the difference between these and the included file(s)? Seems to serve the same purpose, no?

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In the context of a projects' folder structure...if your Workspace is defined as c:\inventor\Project1 does each file have to reside in that folder literally? Can you have subs for drawings and assemblies? I'm pretty sure this answer at least used to be no, but it would be nice to be able to have some sort of actual structure there.

Sorry for the 64 different questions, but I've not seen anything that seems to address all this. (FWIW, i'm soon going to have to present project files to the office and i need to be prepared for as many questions as possible.)

Thanks