Ballooning by assembly level

[graemev]

When ballooning an assembly drawing having a structured/all levels BoM, the balloons default to the part level of the BoM hierarchy.  Is there a way to have the balloons reference the part's subassembly (direct parent) without having to override the value of each balloon manually?

[cwhetten]

This may or may not work for you, but collapsing the parts list to show only the subassemblies (children would be hidden) will get your balloons to behave the way you describe:

Cameron Whetten
Inventor 2014

Please click "Accept as Solution" if this response answers your question.

[graemev]

Yes, but I want to show the children in the BoM.

[cwhetten]

I'm not sure if there is an easy way to do that.  The balloons get their information from the parts list, and they get their item numbers from the lowest expanded level.

We don't usually have a problem with this, as we try to have only one assembly per drawing.  So, in the case of your group of models, we would have one drawing for each of the 4 subassemblies, and these drawings would call out the children.  Then we might have a drawing of a higher-level assembly that calls out these subassemblies, but doesn't show the children.

Cameron Whetten
Inventor 2014

[graemev]

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@cwhetten wrote:

I'm not sure if there is an easy way to do that. 

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Sure there is!  Manual override!  Easy.  Not lacking in tedium, however. 

[Cadmanto]

Depends on your definition of easy!!    Yeah, you can manually over write all of them, but you lose your parametric functionality.

I don't know of an easy way either.  My only other suggestion would be to create an iLogic routine that might do what you are looking to do.

If this solved your issue please mark this posting "Accept as Solution".

Or if you like something that was said and it was helpful, Kudos are appreciated. Thanks!!!! 

     

[-niels- · Accepted solution]

If i need to balloon an assembly with subs i usually just balloon a part (giving me a balloon with 1.1 for instance) and then right-click that balloon, select "choose balloon from list", pick the assembly (item 1), place that together with the 1.1 and then right-click on the 1.1 again to select "remove balloon".
That way it'll stay "parametric".
It's still a manual process, but it does allow reasonable control over what gets shown.

[graemev]

Thanks -niels-!  That's more useful than overriding the value.

[suomenvaimennin]

Apparently they also destroyed this in the 2022 "update". This work around no longer works, although a work around should not be needed at all.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Steve,

I am sorry I am missing something here. Do you mind sharing a thread talking about 2022 model state breaking this particular workflow? Or, please share an example that exhibits the behavior.

Many thanks!

[suomenvaimennin]

I'm trying to get a balloon for the sub-assembly, not every individual part. There doesn't seem to be a way to do that and the work around mentioned here does not appear to work anymore in 2022. Minor compared to the other problems with 2022.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Steve,

As always, I could be wrong. But, I just try the exact same workflow shown by Niels on Inventor 2022.2 update. It seems to work. Could you share an example that does not work?

Many thanks!

[suomenvaimennin]

Yes, now it works. I've noticed that some functions just don't work and you have to just close everything and start over.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Steve,

I guess you are talking about Edit-In-Place (editing a component within an assembly). A component with non-Master Model States should be self-contained (defined by the table), more like iPart/iAssembly. As a result, Edit-In-Place isn't applicable here because it can lead to cross-level association which cannot be captured on the table.

Many thanks!

[AIR_123]

Thanks! But...

why so complicated? You have to be able to define annotation level on the fly, without all this extra moves with add/delete balloons...