Hello,
Has anyone had any luck creating assets from larger Inventor assembly models? The problems I am seeing are: it takes a very lengthy amount of time to create the asset, and it takes even longer to bring it into the layout (even if it is a blank layout). The other problem I see, which could be a whole other problem, is the asset fails to finalize; once I choose location and rotation, and Inventor stops thinking, there is nothing there. I can bring the same assembly into the layout with the place component tool with no trouble at all. A little background: The assembly I am working with consists of 10 sub-assemblies and 9 parts; the final assembly is 196 KB. The majority of the models were created in SolidWorks, and others were saved as Inventor parts from cloud assets. I am working off of a network, and I have my project location in a higher level folder within the network. I also verified that my assets are in fact in the correct folder within the network drive. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated as I am trying to push my employer to keep this software.
Thank you,
Adam
Thanks for the help Xuesong. I created a shrinkwrap of the assembly and it did seem to help. I think the biggest problem here is that I should be using Navisworks to do the layout that I am trying to create.
I had that problem with the assets not inserting. I figured out that some of the parts and/or assemblies in the Asset were trying to be referenced to the original model. I am not sure what causes this, but it has something to do when it is copied from your asset library to your project folder.
The Problem
If you open up the folder of the asset giving you trouble in windows explorer, you can see that each part and assembly has a random code at the end. It has the same code after each one. Open the main assembly in Inventor and you will get a popup for a reference that is outside of the project folder (the location of the original model). Inventor shows you the name of the file that it is searching for in that popup. Sometimes it will be "FileName_RandomCode" or "FileName". Selecting the correct file in Inventor will only be a temporary fix. They will come back the next time you open the asset.
The Fix
In order the fix this, you will have to modify the names of the files in the Asset folder. If Inventor is looking for "FileName", delete the code at the end of that file to match it. If Inventor is looking for "FileName_Code", add it the file in the asset folder to match it. In rare cases you might need a copy of each. This can will fix your asset and you can then insert it into you layout with any problems. But as you can see, this takes up a lot of time depending on the size of the model.
Work Arounds
Since you cannot modify your asset once it is created ( ex. suppress/hide parts) you might as well make it a part. Shrinkwraping, creating a derived part, and creating a simpified part are the best options. You can choose to shell the model with each method to cut down on size. before you create the asset, right click the file in the model tree and break the link to the original asm. this keep it independent and you will be left with only one part file instead of a folder with several. Hope this helps
Hello there,
I´d like to add up something...
You can change assets that´ve been created and you also can change assets that have already
been placed to a Factory layout.
In the first case all you need to do is to browse to your library and edit the *ipt. Simply right
click onto the asset in the asset library and choose "browse" from the menue. As long as you
don´t change the external references and leave the file name untampered you can alter the
model. Just the preview and the 2D information won´t be updated.
To edit an already placed asset you need to remove the write protection of the folder the as-
sets are stored in. You can now open the asset by right clicking and selecting "open", change
it and save the changes upon closing. I´d rather alter and replace the component completely,
but if you need to make some minor changes and need to override the current settings as well
as linitations you defined by iLogic for example, that´s just how you can manage.
Kind regards
Daniel
Several things going on here...
1) Asset placement performance -- I'd love to get copies of the models (representative samples) that you're working with. If there are performance issues here, we'd like to see what might be done to improve that.
2) I'm not sure what the story is with the not-found asset instances ("FileName_code"). There should not be any need to change file names, etc. during open. If this is happening, it sounds like maybe the incorrect Inventor project is active.
3) I would not recommend making changes directly to the assets -- which are marked read-only specifically to prevent this. Why do you feel the need to do this?
Jeff
I would not do that either, but technically you can.
Kind regards
Daniel