Inventor 2014 - Sheet Metal units problem

[Nelson_C]

Since upgrading to 2014 from 2012, we've had a quirky problem pop up. New sheet metal parts are having incorrect units showing in the Parts lists. Our BOMs have always used cm, but since the upgrade and creating new sheet metal parts, the parts lists have the width and length properties divided by 10 (as in it thinks the parts are in mm and divides by 10 to convert to cm). The parts list doesn't change if I change the part units from mm to cm or vice versa, the only fix is changing the BOM column properties from custom to default. The problem with this is if there are any old parts in the assembly, the bom for those old parts shows with 4 decimal places and as a unit string. Any help?

[innovatenate]

Hi!

I'm not sure I understand the whole work flow and issue. Could you elaborate a little further?

It sounds like you are trying to override the formatting of a column in a drawing's parts list, but there is an issue with units. 

Is the issue that some parts were accidentally created with the wrong unit selected in the documents settings? When upgrading to 2014, did you migrate your sheet metal templates? Perhaps there was an issue migrating a template..

In the parts list are you displaying a custom parameter for the sheet metal parts? Are the parameters exported and formatted from the part?

Thanks,

[Nelson_C]

We are using custom properties for length and width, as well as a iLogic module. Seems like no matter what I do, I can't make the content center part document properties to stay as "cm". If I change the properties manually the parts list shows the right values, but every time I add a new part it defaults back to millimeters for the new parts, even after replacing the template in the content center editor.

[Nelson_C]

Here's a sample of what I mean

[innovatenate]

I didn't see an attachment to that last post. Were you going to upload a file? Let me know if there's a problem and I can arrange for another method to transfer the data.

Thanks,

[Nelson_C]

When I attach the file it doesn't seem to upload. Does this work? http://a360.co/MmOWKr

[innovatenate]

I think I understand this issue better. Let me run this description by you.  

You have a custom content center library that contains a part template that should be in centimeter units. For the sake of this issue, let's say that the custom content parts are plates. These plates should each have a Length and Width parameter. 

Whenever you place these custom content center plates into an active assembly, the part's document settings automatically revert to mm. 

I noticed in the assembly file that the parts appear not only to have unit of measurement set to millimeter, but have been converted to sheet metal parts. Are you publishing the with a sheet metal part to the custom content center library? Does this issue occur if the template is a Standard Part Template and not a Sheet Metal Part?

Thanks,

[Nelson_C]

I haven't had this issue on any of our other custom content center parts, but sheet metal is our only content center part I re-made since upgrading to 2014. If I go into the sheet metal part and change the part units to CM, the BOMs update correctly. Would there be a way to add ilogic to set the document units to cm?

[innovatenate]

Definately! 

I would add the ilogic code to an assembly and then have the code recursively iterate through all the reference part documents to check that cm is set as the unit of measure. I think the below post has a bit of a head start on this conversation. 

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Inventor-General/ILogic-rule-to-change-all-units/td-p/3710860

Check it out and let me know if I should look at anything else. 

Thanks @Curtis_Waguespack!

Cheers,

[greg.creamore]

Hello,

We are seeing a similar problem with the display of Sheet metal extents in the parts list.  It is showing correctly in the Text box but when used in the parts list and directly in the iProperty window the values appear in 'cm' not 'mm'.

We are on 2016 SP1.  I confirmed the units are correct in each part and drawing.

Anyone found a fix?

Thanks in advance.