CUSTOM TITLE BLOCK -QUANTITY

[Davarn-Tool&Die]

Here is what seems like a simple question.

I have a cutom title block that automaticly places material, status, stock number etc. of the component in the drawing sheet, but I am stumped as to placing the quantity automatically. I have defaulted to using a prompted entry, but that is prone to errors.

I searched the forum for any answers, but found none.  Any suggestions? Am I missing the obvious?

Thanks

David Arnold

Designer-New Dies

Motor City Stamping Inc.

www.MCStamp.com

[SBix26]

Do some searching in this forum-- this has been discussed fairly recently.  It gets complicated because a part model can be used in any number of different assemblies with different quantities in each.  The title block would have to know which assembly it's getting that information from.

Then there's the more philosophical angle (which you can ignore): should you put the quantity of a component on its definition drawing?  My answer is a resounding 'NO!!': the drawing is a design and/or fabrication document, not a purchasing document.  Quantity information on a detail drawing is just an invitation to assumptions and misunderstandings.  So the drawing says how many are used in the whole assembly; does it also say how many spares should be ordered?  What if you're building two of the main assemblies?  What if you're ordering a few more to have in stock?  When you request fabrication from your shop or an outside vendor, you send them the drawing and you send them billing, shipping, timing and quantity information separate from the drawing.

For what it's worth, I lost this argument where I work; we have a prompted entry in our title block.  We fairly frequently have mistakes because the title block wasn't updated or we actually wanted a different quantity than needed for one assembly.

Sam B
Inventor 2012 Certified Professional

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

sbixler has a good point. If I place a part on the drawing, the quantity is always 1, never 2 or more. If I place an assembly the quantity is always 1, never more. You may have 1500 to make, but as far as inventor is concerned, one part is one part, not 1500. If I place an assembly then you have the problem of telling inventor which part out of potentially hundreds you want the quantity for. That's what parts lists are for. Even if you place the qty automatically it would always be 1 for a single part placed on the drawing. That being said, you could link a parameter to a spreadsheet with the qty in it so the drawing updated everytime the spreadsheet was updated or like you are doing prompted entry, either way something must be done manually if you want more than one part made.

I fail to see how inventor is supposed to know how many components you want if you place a single component on the sheet, besides 1?

I am sure someone could write code to get the qty from an assembly for that part, but what if I then need 5 assemblies made ? Am afraid this has no ready made answer.

[GSE_Dan_A]

sbixler is right on the money.  We used to always put the quantity of a part to be fabricated on the detail drawing but have come to realize it is redundant and more work.  Especially if the design changes, now the BOM must update AND all the detail drawings.  This could get messy and errors are far more likely.  Now we just put a general description (size and material).  The fabricator should get a copy of the BOM which tells them exactly how many of each part to make. 

[Martin_Goodland · Accepted solution]

Everything I make is bespoke to a project so I show the quantity required for the project on the fabrication drawings. I have a 'TOTAL QUANTITY' custom property in my parts and assemblies. I create an assembly that contains the correct number of instances of the required assembly and copy the values shown in the BOM QTY column into my custom property. I expect this could be automated but I am used to doing this manually. This also allows me to review the two columns if changes are made so I can see where parts have been added or removed.

Nested sub assemblies are harder to count but don't cause that much of a problem.

Regards

Martin

Edit : spellchecked

[Davarn-Tool&Die]

Thanks to all of you for your help.  It seems the 'obvious' part that I was missing is becoming clearer.

First of all, Sam, I did a search and found little. Can you remember any keywords that could help me find that recent post?

Secondly, every part that I am detailing is unique to the project or assembly that I am working on, so no spares necessary.  The chances of an error due to automatically putting the quantity on the print  are dwarfed by a manual mistake.

The parts are all built in-house and if the quantity isn't on the detail print it means they have to ask the designer.

My ignorance became clear when swhite said, "I fail to see how inventor is supposed to know how many components you want if you place a single component on the sheet, besides 1?"

I see that it is a much more complex problem then I realized.

Martin mentions a solution which I am going to try.  Thanks Martin. I'll mark it solved when I get it to work!

[Ray_Feiler]

The work around is to place the assembly off the sheet in the detail, select the assembly for the BOM and then turn off the visibility for all parts except the one being detailed. Not a good solution for large assemblies though. Keep in mind because it is off the sheet you scale it way down or use a LOD that will suppress all parts but the one being detailed.

[Davarn-Tool&Die]

Ray,

That's an interesting approach as well. I can see how that can help me in other areas as well.

Thanks

David Arnold

Designer-New Dies

Motor City Stamping Inc.

[mrattray]

I agree with the other comments, however, sometimes you have to pick your battles...  so, I understand why you just have to grin and bear, and do what your boss tells you to.

Anyways, I use iLogic to push out quantities to all of my details. Works great for me.

[Davarn-Tool&Die]

Would you care to share your Ilogic code?

[mrattray]

What I use is rather sophisticated and specialized for my company. I suspect it wouldn't do you much good. If I get some time later this afternoon I'll try to whip something up for you.

[Martin_Goodland]

I did this for a while but it was a real pain. If anything was added to an assembly after the drawings were done I suddenly had a lot of drawings with the additional bits taged onto the end of the part list that needed to be turned off.

I did not place the assembly though I just used the browse option when placing a part list. Using the assembly off page caused other problems as the drawing number is taken from the assembly / part custom iproperty but the drawing will use the information from the 'first view' placed, in some cases when revising / copying the drawing the assembly off the page would become the 'first view' so the property information would be wrong.

Regards

Martin

[Ray_Feiler]

Yep

[jletcher · Accepted solution]

I have code for this if anyone wants it let me know...

 But there will be a small cost not money but kudos hehe...

[Davarn-Tool&Die]

Please post. Kudos exchange rate is exceptional right now.

[pdol]

Hi I would like to get a copy of the code please.. 

[tjvz85]

Hi James, Is it possible for you to share the code please? Regards Theo van Zyl Inventor 2015