Turn off active factory member option when placing a drawing view?

[Anonymous]

Hi All

There will probably be a yes/no response to this, and that is fine. Let me paint a picture......

I create a drawing of an iPart, while doing so I have the iPart model open in the background. When placing a view on the drawing the active factory member is the default option, I have a bad memory so forget to tell Inventor that actually I would like to use a specific iPart member in this particular drawing view. I then spend a long time laying out and dimensioning the drawing. When complete, I create a second sheet and copy all information from sheet 1 onto sheet 2. I then double click on the main drawing view and change the model state to an alternative factory member. At this point I realise that the drawing on sheet one is based on the active factory member and start swearing.

The result of changing to a different member when the existing drawing is based on the active member is that ALL DIMENSIONS DISSAPEAR FROM THE DRAWING AND HAVE TO BE PAINSTAKINGLY REPLACED. At this point I will usually REDRAW SHEET 1 so that further sheets can be created quickly in the future by selecting an alternative factory member.

This lead me to the question in the subject line.....can I change the software defaults somewhere in the setup to prevent the 'active factory member' being displayed as an option in the first place? I have looked but was unable to find a way of doing this.

Andrew

[IgorMir]

Hi Andrew,

I don't quite follow why you have to copy everything from one sheet to another. After you finished the first drawing - save it as another file. Open a newly created file and in View Edit DB select the member you want to show. It doesn't matter if active member or not was originally dimensioned. Depending on the way the child part is created - some cosmetic cleaning up will be required, of course. But nothing on the level you have described.

Best Regards,

Igor.

[Anonymous]

Hi Igor

I am copying from one sheet to another because I have many variants of a part
that need to be controlled on the same drawing. For example, the same part may
have different degrees of plating thickness, each sheet will illustrate the
required dimensions for each plating thickness. If done properly, this means
there is very little work to do when a new plating finish is added on the next
sheet.

I find that I have the same issue even if I save the drawing as another file,
as long as the original drawing was based on the active iPart member when it was created.

Sorry, I have to disagree with you on this one, have you tried this yourself? I will try and upload a video of the events later today if I can find a way of doing this.

Andrew

[Anonymous]

Further to the above, please refer to the attached video for clarity.

It seems that during drawing view placement the active factory member may or may not be the default selection, I have been unable to determine a series of events that cause the active member to be the default option.

Andrew

[IgorMir]

OK, I have run a quick test and that's what I have found:

1. Upon creating a drawing view on my machine ( IV 2010) the current member (call it active if you wish) gets placed in the drawing. But when I look into Edit View-->Model State - it actually shows the corresponding number of that member. IOW - the "Active Factory Member" heading is not highlighted but the number of active member is.  Under such condition selecting different members doesn't create any problem with dimensions. Only cosmetic ones.

2. If upon creating a drawing view I select "Active Factory Member" and then later on change the view to any other child - the dimensions get disassociated from all views.

You have said that on your machine  "Active Factory Member" is a default setting for view creation. I don't know how did it get there but it sure thing a reason for some troubles. I did look into styles and all that but could not find any solution yet.

Sorry for not being able to help.

Best Regards,

Igor.

[Anonymous]

I agree with both of your points. My functionality is the same (IV2012).

"Active factory member" is sometimes the default setting during view creation, sometimes not. I have been unable to determine what causes it to be default.

Either way, it would be nice to have the option to remove the "active factory member" option from the view creation dialogue to force the user to select a specific member file. This issue would then go away.

Thanks for your interest.

Andrew

[IgorMir]

Hi Andrew,

In such a case it is fare to say - it is an omission on Autodesk site. But then we are defenetly out of luck here!

Best Regards,

Igor.