Autodesk Inventor

[#1]

I don't know how useful this will be but I was trying to figure out how to track what item number in an assembly any given part may be.  I was thinking that on an individual part drawing I may want to reference the item number that is used in an assembly's Bill of Material for that part.  I can't find where this may be stored for retrieval.  If I do this I would want it to be automated so that if the BoM were renumbered the part file and drawing would update to the new item number.

This may not be possible since any part may be used in any number of different assemblies with different locations in a Bill of Material.  Most of our assemblies use "one off" parts that are only used in that assembly so it may be possible in my particular situation to do this if there is a way to get at the BoM item number and connect it to the IPT file.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi SKinzel,

This would be the only method that comes to mind:

http://cadsetterout.com/inventor-tutorials/autodesk-inventor-creating-coordinated-bom-for-large-asse...

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

[#3]

I thought that a custom iProperty would be the way to do it.  The only thing is I'm not sure if the custom property will update if for some reason the item number changes for a part.  I'll play with it and see what kind of a mess I can make of things.

Thanks for the link.

[#4]

Hi SKinzel,

The item No.s from the BOM are only meant to be used in one drawing (or one set of drawings). If you want to track parts individually, I would recommend using the Part number - or a custom iProperty field.

Thanks very much to Curtis for posting a link to my blog. You can use the techniques shown in this post to call out another iProperty in your item number bubbles - other than the BOM item number.

Good luck!

[#5]

I made a new assembly and some generic IPT files to try out the iLogic rule for quantities.  On the Manage Tab I used the "Add Rule" and used the name "QTY".  I copied the code from the text file and pasted it into the rule.  When I hit "OK" the attached error message pops up and it takes me back into the rule for editing.  I had to hit "Cancel" to get out of the edit rule dialog box BUT the rule was there with the code in it.  After I saved the assembly and then reopened it the rule seems to run just fine.  When I paste the code into an existing assembly I get the error and nothing I do can get it to run.  I've added the rule to my assembly template and starting from scratch with that the rule seems to run okay.

It looks like this is going to do exactly what I was looking for.  Thank you.

I am attaching a screen cap of the code as it was pasted.  I am also attaching a ZIP of the assembly and 3 IPT files.  These are just generic files.