iCopy workflow - Need ideas or suggestions

[csmac2004]

I am working through learning the iCopy process, and so far it looks pretty powerful. We are a curtainwall manufacturer, so I am setting up a basic "frame" which contains horizontal and vertical members.

The first method I employed was to have a single skeleton sketch which controlled the sizes of all the members, both horizontally and vertically. I did not like this approach because if a vertical height was changed, but not a horizontal width, all the parts changed regardless (obviously, because the skeleton changed, therefore causing the parts to be different as well). This would mean that every frame would have 100% new parts (not including small parts at this time which copy fine).

The second method I tried was to create individual skeleton sketches that control either the width or height parameters (one vertical sketch, one horizontal sketch). I then made them adaptive to the iCopy layout skeleton to ensure the sizes updated properly. However, for controlling the part lengths, I only linked my vertical parts to the vertical skeleton, and my horizontal parts to my horizontal skeleton.

This seemed to work great until I realized things were updating properly with my size change testing. I then noticed iCopy was only recognizing the first part/assembly as changeable, and trying to re-use anything else in the list. In fact, in my case the 2nd item was an assembly and it won't list any of the parts within the assembly.

The funny thing is that if I re-order my parts/assemblies within the iCopy template assembly, iCopy will still only treat the first item properly (as changeable).

I hope this makes sense... 😞 Basically, I want to use iCopy, but I don't want 100% new parts for every frame I build. I searched the forums here and on AUGI, but didn't notice any complaining of this so maybe there's another workflow that I haven't considered here? Obviously, replacing components afterwards is most likely an option as well.

FYI: We're using Inventor 2011 Suite with Vault Pro 2011 on Windows 7 x64 bit systems

Thanks!

Scott

[csmac2004]

Ok, so it would seem with some more testing today that the issue isn't with my workflow as much as the multiple adaptive sketches (one for horizontal, one for vertical). I tried it again this morning with a single adaptive sketch throughout the entire model and still ended up with the same result.

So now I'm wondering if it's in the assembly structure that is causing me grief. I have created sub-assemblies of my vertical components and horizontal components together. I will try just parts (as I did on my initial iCopy testing) and see if that gets me somewhere. I hope this isn't the case, because we need to use these sub-assemblies. Unless I suppose I could demote parts after the fact if that works...

Scott

[csmac2004]

Ok, to continue along in the conversation I am having with myself... 😉

I have now tested my workflow a few different ways, and it would indeed appear that the subassemblies were the issue.

This work flow works well: iCopy Assembly > iCopy Layout Part > Adaptive Sketches > Individual Parts

This one did not: Copy Assembly > iCopy Layout Part > Adaptive Sketches > Sub-Assemblies > Individual Parts

Once the sub-assemblies were introduced, iCopy promptly became confused as to how it needed to handle them. I hope this does become workable in the future. For now, we will stick to parts only and then we will have to have someone go into each created frame and demote parts into sub-assemblies.

Scott

[guyh]

Hi Scott,

Nice conversation with yourself here but one I found very useful.  I also work for a window and curtain wall manufacturer in Europe.  I have been looking at some alternative workflows for our CAD guys and I think iCopy is a powerful tool which we can gain from.  I intend to do some personal testing but your comments here have already given me a head start.

Cheers,

Guy

[2grumpy]

not sure what you want to achieve but for different size and shapes of windows better would be iPart. iCopy will work perfect say for similar shape but different size frames 'in line' like tower horizontal platforms or bridge vertical frames.

[csmac2004]

Guy, just so you are aware, Autodesk is working on a service pack or hot fix right now to address the issue that I described here (from what I know, anyways), so this maybe isn't going to be an issue soon anyways. iCopy is a powerful tool, and I think it opens up some good possibilities of potential workflows.

iParts are powerful as well, I agree. We have found that both iCopy and iParts when through through the ringer to the extents that we do, they both fail as being useful in the end, unfortunately. iParts introduce a whole new set of issues we have to try and deal with as they pertain to Vault, folder structures, using part patterns in assemblies, iProperties, etc. We've hit too many large bumps in the road with iParts as well that we simply do not waste our efforts there anymore either.

Please don't get me wrong, I still see value in iParts, just not to the extent of what we need them.

[2grumpy]

good to hear that Autodesk is working on to fix bugs in INv2012 - there are plenty of it.

i do not use iCopy but do use iPart on individual parts and work OK for me. Have been trying to do tutorials on iCopy and have been following it to the book and still have some strange not expected outcome.