Punch Insertion Error

[Vincent.Usherb]

Hi,

I'm currently modelling all of our sheet metal punch tool by making ifeature of them, with Inventor 2011. While I try to insert them on sheet metal, I've been receiving the error message: The file has 0 volume changin features. To be valid punch tool, the .ide file mus contain at least 1 sketch-based feature.

The error message doesn't mean anything since my punch has 3 sketch-based feature, 2 using the sketch using the placement geometry so I guess it's just the default error message about every iFeature insertion problem.

I've read few similar posts about the same message error and none of the proposed solutions fits: When I extract my iFeature from the .ipt model, there is only 1 Position geometry (the sketch plane), every sketches selected are consumed by a feature and do not refer to the part geometry, I made sure every features are selected and so on...

I've been getting this same message for many punches by now. Usualy I work around it by simply modeling the same shape with different features. But this time, it won't work. Also, I want to know if there is better practice I could use and implement for our future needs for Tooling modeling.

I've joined the problematic the .ipt file used to extract the iFeature.

Thank you for your help,

Vincent Beauregard

Lincora Group

Montreal, Canada

[CadUser46]

Vincent.

I have ran into the same problem and as far as i know it cant be fixed.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Inventor/iFeature-Table-driven-problems/m-p/1232612/highlight...

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Inventor/iFeature-Author-Table-Error/m-p/1136314/highlight/tr...

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Inventor/problem-using-punch-tool-INV-2009/m-p/2406737/highli...

I ended up authoring the ifeatures then using the 'Edit Ifeature' button and adding to lists the values i wanted to be in there.  Its not a slick as the iFeature Author Table as it doesnt relate any of the lists together but it will enable your ifeature to behave like a punch.

[Vincent.Usherb]

Thank you for your reply,

As I understand it, these topics seem to address situations where table driven iFeature are used which is not my case as I my emboss only needs to be parameter driven. One of the proposed solutions where I should simply insert the punch geometry by the 'Insert iFeature' command works without any problem to insert the geometry.

However, by using this method, the flat pattern only shows the final shape of the emboss punch which is unsusable for programming our punching sequence. To program our g-code from the drawing of the part, we need to change the flat pattern representation of the punch so it either shows only a representation sketch of the shape that should be punched or its center mark as it is allowed by the punch tool. Of course I could use another workaround by copying the placement sketch to the flat pattern and then 'get the model sketch' of the flat pattern in its drawing view. While this might work, it makes the punch drawing overcrowded with lines and it makes the tasks counterproductive for our designers as one part might contain a considerable amount of punch hits.

Thus, I would really appreciate to find a solution allowing me to use the 'punch tool' command.