iAssembly parts lists best practices

[enfiel3d]

Greetings!

I started to explore iAssemblies and I have some questions regarding best practices, parts lists in particular.

Right now I am a little confused about the possible workflows, when iAssembly contains iParts. I have no questions with modeling, but drawings are more difficult.

I find strange that different members of the same iPart inserted into iAssembly have different item numbers. I don't understand how really to create assembly drawing given that feature.

If the item numbers would be the same for each member, I would simply create assembly drawing with balloons and the aggregate parts list - that would work because each iPart member wold have had the same balloon number.

But given that each iPart member has unique item number, the confusion arises. I can create separate assembly drawing with its own set of balloons and own separate parts lists - which is not the easiest or fastest workflow. I can also create aggregate parts list, which lists all iPart members, but I still need separate assembly drawings, again because of the unique item numbers for each member.

Am I missing something here? I repeat, I only started to explore iAssemblies. 

I am very interested in learning best practice from experienced users who employ iAssembly drawings and parts lists in their real workflows.

[mcgyvr]

No you are not missing anything.. Autodesk has half assed this functionality. I end up editing the bill of materials and making all the members have the same item number. Its annoying.  Here is a small example of how I think it should work too. (see attached)

This is a circuit board assembly with 2 iparts that change based on the iassy member. I would love it if the parts list looked like that.

[mcgyvr]

and here is what you can do if you edit the bill of materials and make the item numbers match for each ipart.

[mcgyvr]

This is how our parts list used to look in the autocad days.. I really like this too.

[enfiel3d]

Well, it looks like Autodesk. They are very good at releasing half-baked features... unfortunately.

Looks like we need to start a motion to lobby improvements in the iAssembly parts lists. Anybody fancy to join?