Why is iCopy so confusing!?!?

[jboothcadtech]

Hello all. I've been scouring the forums, youtube, books, ect...trying to find out what I'm doing wrong. I'm begging for help now.

I'm using Inventor 2012 and I am working with mult-body parts that would work great with the frame generator IF the frame generator worked with multi-bodies. I have several shapes in the same assembly and need the BOM to show all parts. So I moved on to iCopy.

Lets say I have two squares. A 2x2 and a 1x1 inside the 2x2. They both need to be extruded the same distance. My squares will never change their 1x1 and 2x2 shape. I only need to change their extrusion length. My goal is to make frames of different sizes out of these extruded squares. Follow me so far?

Here's my flawed workflow to create an iCopy assembly.

1.)  New .ipt with a start and end xz workplane offset controlled by a parameter. Save as Skeleton.ipt.

2.)   New .ipt with Skeleton.ipt derived and 2x2 and 1x1 square sketch on xz 'start' workplane. Extrude multi-bodies using 'to' and selecting 'end' workplane. Save as squares.ipt.

3.)  New .iam with Squares.ipt placed. Set Squares as adaptive. Author iCopy choose start plane and endplane. Save as Definition.iam.

4.)  New .ipt with new sketch of frame layout on xy plane. add workplanes to all 4 sides of frame. Save as layout.ipt.

5.)  New .iam saved as Target.iam. Place layout.ipt. Click iCopy. Select Definition.iam. Select start plane, select end plane...error...

Component could not be positinoed/constrained using the selected geometry.

I'm sure it's something simple that I've overlooked, but I can't find it. Can someone help?

Please don't say that putting a square inside another square is stupid and you don't know what purpose that would serve and I shouldn't be doing that. It's not about the squares it's about the process. And please don't tell me that something that simple should be done in AutoCAD, or I should just hand draw the squares and frames on a piece of scratch paper. Again, I'm wanting to understand the icopy process. And I'm sure that there's probably a way to accomplish my goal in 3ds Max. Maybe I could use GIMP and have squares all over the place, but I'm using Inventor so I don't really need to know how good other software is. So if you have any suggestions on how to help, using Inventor, to understand the iCopy process....that'd be great.

Thank you in advance for any help you can offer.

[jboothcadtech]

Nobody?

I must've been a little too cynical. Surely there's an Inventor master out there that has something to offer on the subject. I would've posted the files but I didn't want my tainted mess to get in the way of your success.

I am now on my knees, well not right now but after I get done typing this I'll get on my knees, and beg. Please oh please help me figure out iCopy.

[JDMather]

I've read this several times and still don't have a clear picture of what you are trying to do.

My first thought - add the custom profile to the Frame Generator.

Second thought - iParts

Third fhought - iLogic

but without a sample dataset.....

[jboothcadtech]

Hi JD. Thank you for your time. 

I went ahead and attached the files that were created with the steps in my original post. I'm not sure if it will clear anything up for you though. I was trying to keep it generic by using the squares intead of muddying the waters with my talk of curtain wall mullions and pressure plates and covers and isolators and gaskets. All these parts are the same length and snaped/fit/fastened together within an assembly. 

I can't really use the frame generator because it is a single part. I need the BOM to show all the parts. (mullion,cover,pp, ect) They all have a different part numbers and they are different materials. I'm sure there's a more efficient way than running frame generator for mullion, running again for pressure plate, running again for cover, running....you get the picture.

Short and sweet...I'd like to sketch a grid of lines and use icopy to insert one of these assemblies on each line of the grid. Very similar to the frame generator, but hopefully you understand why I can't use the frame generator. I can author the icopy assembly (obviously it's not correct) but I cannot make it 'stretch' to fit my pick points when I try to use the icopy definition.

So, any ideas on how to use iCopy in this situation?

[PaulMunford]

Did you see this article?http://www.augi.com/library/an-icopy-how-to

Hears a few points that tripped me up...

Is the Master sketch unconstrained?
Is the Master Sketch adaptive?
Is the Master Part adaptive?
Is the Master part grounded AND fully constrained within the iCopy Template Assembly?
Does your skeleton model work in the context of the iCopy Template Assembly?
Are the constraints on any non-skeletal (i.e., constrained) parts fouling the works?
Have you applied the control points in the same order as they were set with the iCopy Author tool?

[jboothcadtech]

Hi Paul, Thank you for replying. I have read that article. The guy who wrote that seems to know his stuff.

I think part of my confusion is that most iCopy tutorials expect the shape of the 'sketch' to change. My shapes will never change. I only need the 'Extrusion Feature' to change/adapt. I think, in my quest to keep it simple, I've over complicated it.

Imagine 3 lines of different lengths in a sketch. I'd love to be able to place an assembly made up of 8 different parts that, when viewed in the BOM, shows 8 different part numbers for that assembly. I'd also love to have the length of that assembly be controled by the length of line 1. I would then like to place another copy of the same assembly made up of the same 8 different parts but this time I'd like the extrusion length to be controlled by line 2 of the sketch. I would then do the same for line three. The end result is 3 assemblies of 3 different lengths controlled by 3 different lines with the BOM showing the individual parts of the assemblies.

So far the route to this point as been similar to the following.

Step 1. Create countless combinations of sketches, parts, work features, and assemblies with different combinations of adaptivity, derive, ect...

Step 2. Read the articles from JD and Paul for the 34th time to try and figure out what your missing.

Step 3. Watch Rob Cohees youtube videos on iCopy again.

Step 4. Lose almost all hope of figuring it out and post a desperate message, in your frustrated state, to beg for help in the forums.

Step 6. Hope that some good samaritan will reply back with something similar too:

Okay. The first thing you're going to want to do is create a sketch with 3 lines in it. This sketch will need to be adaptive. Then save that .ipt file as skeleton.ipt. We'll get back to that sketch in a minute. Next, let's create a second part called layout.ipt. In this part we're going to derive the skeleton.ipt that we created earlier. Now in this part we'll need a new sketch that....

I've just passed step 5 and I'm on step 6.

What's a more ephatic word than beg? Implore? I respectfully implore you for help.

-j