How Top Down is Your Top Down Design?

[MegaJerk]

Because I’ve only worked with Inventor for the past 9 months, I am curious to know how others are working with it. Does anyone here place all the parameters to drive the parts in an assembly in the assembly file itself, or do you find it sexier to make a ‘control part’ that contains all of the parameters for the rest of the assembly? 

I'm just trying to get an idea if there are any pitfalls or traps that I should be aware of. I can't see a reason to not throw all of the parameters for an assembly, in the assembly, but the more I hear from others, the more information I get to use! 

Thanks!  

[blair]

We deal with primarly commercial trailer & transport equipment. A simple control sketch which governs my wheel-base and front and rear projections/over-hangs is all that is really required in our case. If we are using a "corporate" suspension, we are even further restricted.

[ampster401]

what works for me is to dress up the parameters in a cute 2 piece outfit and take em out to eat - how's that for sexy?

In reality, I go the 2nd option you stated, put all the parameters into a part file, and derive that into where ever needed.

[MegaJerk]

 Yeah. Currently we're using the second method, but as I have been looking deeper into Inventor 2012 and ilogic Forms, I started to find that certain parameters still could not be shared (linked) into other parts (such as Multivalue lists, Text, etc.). This would mean that if I wanted a form to pop up when the assembly was opened I would either have to go through and link new parameters to the existing ones on the control part (using ilogic), or simply redo our templates with all of the driving parameters already stored in the main assembly. 

Thank you to those that have already replied and I hope to keep hearing info from more people out there!