Add mass override to iParts

[matt_jlt]

Want to have the ability to add a mass override to each member in an iPart. There are lots of iParts that are just meant to be a representation but you still want the mass to be correct.

It would be nice if you could just assign a custom column to be the "Mass" the same way you can for filename / colour.

To achieve this now I have an addin that makes a new material for each member and adjusts the density based on the volume and selected mass.

[dan_szymanski]

Accepted idea [598]. Thanks!

[steve.west]

Yes. I sometimes use a transparent part as the basis to sketch a frame skeleton onto. Don't need the mass.

[jason.dupree]

If this was accepted was it even put into Inventor? I'm trying to find away to do this, but having no luck so far.

[jwynne]

Accepted, and forgotten.

[cbenner]

@dan_szymanski was anything ever done with this?  We have a thread going in the forums regarding the problem with modifying the density of Content Center parts that are in Vault (or even local), in order to affect the Mass without messing up COG.  Simply overriding Mass does not give an accurate COG.  We were hoping for some ability to include density in the family table so that each instance could be unique and the generated part would grab that and adjust mass accordingly to give an accurate COG.... am I saying this right?  Here is the thread, and I believe you and I talked about this in an email.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-general-discussion/override-density-for-cog-calc-old-post/m-p...

This is especially helpful for quickly modelled "dummy" versions of purchased components where we do not have all of the info to model them accurately.  We can get the envelope dimensions right, but the density and weight will be way off, affecting COG on assemblies using those parts.

[pierre.masson]

We'd need the ability to Override the Mass for iPart members

[Andrew2803]

Can't we apply a simple rule with iLogic keeping mass updated by activating a particular member?

[Andrew2803]

http://modthemachine.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/02/setting-the-weight-for-ipart-members.html

[gearhead4ever06]

This code works great when written in VBA. Have you tried writing this in an ilogic rule? I get an error when I try insert the code into the VBA option of iLogic.

[n.schotten]

I hear of workarounds all over the place. i tried some but they just don't seem to work.

Adding a custom field and add a column to the BOM just don't work for finding the total weight of an assembly.

I tried one of the ilogic rule methods (iprop.mass=custommass kind of rule) and that also failed.

We need the real mass/surface/volume iprop-physical fields in the table.

[n.schotten]

As for the code that Andras1111 links to. Basically useless as it only fills the custom iprop field, with calculated weight. And not with custom weights. And also, that manual-weight column is not transferred to the actual iprop.mass as the files are created. Leaving us with wrong mass/weight settings and therefor with wrong mass/weight calculations in assemblies.

[n.schotten]

We also need the mass setting for iassemblies.

[austin.marylee]

This would be huge for us in the Content Center. We have a lot of parts that roughly follow the actual part, including some parts with mixed materials. In the iParts we have gotten around this by writing a macro to write from a custom property to overwrite the mass value, but in Content Center parts, it is impossible to overwrite the weight in parts. I know I am resurrecting an old thread, but hopefully Autodesk will re-visit this issue!!!

[austin.marylee]

In our content Center, we would like the option of overriding the mass for any given Content Center part, or not overriding and allowing it to calculate. This helps for parts that may not follow density formulas like multiple material parts.

[jingyi.liu]

Hi Austin

Please refer to below idea, mass override for iPart has been acccepted, for CC should also been considered. If you have any comments, please follow that post.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/add-mass-override-to-iparts/idi-p/3810713

Regards，

Jingyi

[DRoam]

If you know what the mass of those components should be, you can edit the actual mass values in the CC Library after adding the components' Category (CC folder) to a custom CC library. Then, every time you place those, they'll be placed with the proper mass.

Or, if you really need manual control over the mass, you'll have to save it as a custom part rather than place it as a standard CC part. Standard CC parts cannot be modified in ANY way and this is by design (otherwise they're no longer standard).

[dan_szymanski]

We are refining procedures around idea status.  Changing this to Future Consideration.

[JBEDsol]

How would you edit the mass values in the cc Library if it's a family of parts?

[austin]

It's possible as of now to override part mass values on static parts (including those in content center), and in iParts. The problem is anytime you update the family and the changes are applied to the parts, it deletes that value. Effectively making it a waste of time in content center. Currently  a good solution for overriding the mass does not exist for content center so you have to model it as closely as possible and apply the correct density to the part. Unfortunately I no longer work with Inventor so this thread is going to be a hard one for me to follow anymore. 

[Maarten65]

I like to control the mass of the iPart members by a dedicated column in the iPart table. The value must overwrite the mass of the current member. (Material can be controlled by the table)

At this moment this can only be done with custom code. (iLogic or API) I don't like both options due to the fact the code must be available and checked for functional issues during software upgrades.