iMates names

[TNTall]

I am trying to use iMates names to place a hydraulic adapter into an assembly. The adapter has two male ends - one end with an insert iMate matching a cylinder iMate and one end with an insert iMate matching the hose fitting. When placing the adapter, the iMate names are ignored and it is mated backwards using inferred iMates. Also, I get an error because it wants to mate new instances of the part to the unconsumed iMate of the part that was just placed (which I guess would place parts into infinity). I have changed around the iMate names and matching names every way I can think of, but the names still are ignored, and it uses other deferred iMates.

Please help.

Thanks,

Greg

[jtylerbc]

Are the inferred iMates something you actually need, or can you get rid of them?  Seems like it might be simpler if they were gone.

While placing using iMates, you can right click and the menu will have options such as Next/Previous Assembly iMate and Next/Previous Component iMate.  You can use these to cycle through possible matches.  However, I do a lot of hydraulic assembly work as well, and find that in a large one with many fittings, cycling through them all is quite cumbersome in a large assembly.

Instead, I typically drop the components in without using iMates, then use the Alt + Drag method to manually activate the iMates that I actually want.  It's not as fast as the automatic method when it picks the right thing, but it's faster than when the automatic method guesses wrong.

As far as the names, my understanding is that the name is what Inventor will try to match FIRST, but not the only thing it will try to match.  If it can't find a match by name, it will then go to the same type of iMate, regardless of the name.  This is one reason why you'll get matches that don't seem to make sense.

[TNTall]

Thanks for the response. Maybe that is what I will have to do if I cannot get the names to work, but it would be much easier if I could automatically mate parts because I do designs that are somewhat repetitious. The iMate name matching feature in the program seems to be exactly what I need. I just don't know why I cannot get it to work as described in the user guide. Any other suggestions?

Thanks,

Greg

[jtylerbc]

Hopefully someone else will come along with a better answer, because that was the way I worked around the problem.  I'd love it if there was a way to lock it where the names MUST match, but if it exists I haven't found it.  This often causes odd connections (male fittings trying to connect to each other, female fittings trying to connect to each other, SAE ORB fittings trying to connect to NPT, etc), even though my naming scheme for the iMates should theoretically prevent most of it.

Manually connecting the iMates is the best workaround I found.  Sadly, the larger an assembly becomes, the more useful the auto-matching would be if it worked the way we want, but the more trouble it causes the way it REALLY works.

[cadtekk]

I use Inventor 2012 SP1, WinXP64, i7, 24 Gigs, certified graphics, etc., etc. I began using inventor consistently since Inventor 5 was released.
iMates grab whatever is a matching constraint configuration. It does not matter what name the iMate is given and/or what name(s) are in the match list. I have tried all manner of naming conventions, numbers, ASCII, text, etc. to no avail. The iMate feature is deeply flawed and remains so. This nonsense has been going on since they were first introduced and continues even today with AIP2012.
 I just stay away from them thar iMates all together because this issue remains unaddressed. For some real fun, try the option for "place component at all matching iMates" and you'll have a weed field of unwanted placements at every single similar constraint type, parts will even double, triple, quadruple, ad infinitum on top of already 'spent' iMates. Fun to watch though...

[TNTall]

Thanks. That's nice to know. I won't waste any more time on it.