Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

Okay.  On the main sheet of my drawing I have the overall Parts List.  Shows almost all parts except for the few that we don't want to list.  On the second sheet I inserted a Parts List to show only parts that are shown in a detail on that page, made the rest non-visible.

On the main sheet there is an item (#13) that has a QTY of 3.  Two of those Three are optional parts.  What I'm trying to do is insert a custom part into the Parts List, give it an item number of 13A and put in the description "OPTIONAL", then do an Override in the balloon to show 13A.

I get it in the Parts List, Apply it, close it, save the drawing.  Looking at the Parts List, item #13A is there, but item #14 is gone.  I go back into the Parts List and 13A is there and there's a blue box around the item # and the description.  I uncheck Static Value and number 14 shows up (item # and the description).

Then I go over to sheet two, open that Parts List and it lists 13A at the bottom with all the info I added in sheet one and it's non-visible.  Go back to sheet one, open the Parts List and there is no 13A to be found.

What gives?

[#2]

It sounds to me that you are placing the balloon, then right-clicking on it and picking Edit Balloon and overriding it.  By design, this will change the item number in your parts list to match the override (in this case, 13A overriding 14).

What you need to do instead is, after picking the arrow location but before clicking to place the balloon, right-click and pick "Custom/Virtual."  After placing the balloon, you will then be able to pick your custom part (13A) from a list, and the balloon will be tied to it instead of trying to tie to item 14.

[#3]

Same problem.  It shows up in the Parts List on the other sheet but not the Parts List in the first sheet.

[#4]

Oops, didn't catch that part of your problem - I was solving the missing #14.

A Custom Part is created per-parts list.  A parts list on one sheet doesn't even know you made a custom part in another parts list elsewhere.  To fix that, you'll either need to create it in both, or create a Virtual Part in the assembly instead.

[#5]

That's just it though, when I create the custom part in the Parts List on the first sheet it doesn't keep it there, it shows up in the Parts List on the second sheet where I don't need to show it.

If what I'm trying to accomplish in this type of situation (two Parts List on different sheets) then I'm just going to add a note to the balloon for the optional parts.  Just didn't want to do it that way.

[#6]

If you're creating the custom part in a list on sheet 1, but it doesn't show there and instead appears on the second list on sheet 2, then I haven't a clue what would cause that.

[#7]

Nobody else has any insight to this issue?

[#8]

Hi KF090,

It's a bit difficult to follow what mix of overrides you have / don't have going on ( item number overrides, balloon overrides, parts list visibility overrides, overrides to a parts list on sheet2 but not sheet1, etc. ), but it is just this reason that I ask users here to manage these kind of things in the assembly BOM rather than the drawing parts list(s).

So our practice is to add spare parts as Virtual parts at the assembly level. The same goes for the occasional adjustment to quantities. Handling these things in this way allows everyone to know exactly where the overrides live, and greatly simplifies this process.

You might have reasons why this will not work for you, but it might be worth a look.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[#9]

I think that may end up being the best way to do this.  It's been quite a while since I've used VP's so I'm going to have to do some reading.

The only downside will be that if someone other Inv. users don't recognize that there are VP's in some assemblies since nobody here uses them.

[#10]

Hi KF090,

We sometimes add notes about that kind of stuff outside the titleblock so that someone in the future will know what's going on. Anythig outside of the titleblock doesn't print, although we've had some issues with exporting to PDF and having some weirdness around the margins due to off-titleblock text. So our solution was to create a NoPlot layer and place notes such as this on that layer outside of the the titleblock.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com