Constrain a Part to a point

[Anonymous]

OK, it's Monday morning, have yet to have my coffee and I've got all of 2 hrs sleep after driving to the client's after being home to honor my mom on her day...but I digress.

Before my a$$ hits the chair I get hit up by a user asking why Inventor can't insert a part into an assembly and constrain it to a point (not the centerpoint mind you, but a point in space or who knows where). All I know is he says "Solidworks can do it..."

Personally I don't see a need for such, why not simply constrain it to a known point, like the origin point, etc?

So anyways, is there a way to perform this task in Inventor? I did a very quick search and found nothing.

Now for my first sip of caffine....

[mrattray]

Are you telling me he expects Inventor to magically know where in space he wants this part to drop in at and magically constrain it in place? I ran SolidWorks for several years and although that was a few years ago now, I don't remember it being that smart either.

Tell him to man up and use the origin!

[mcgyvr]

Inventor can constrain to any work point using mate constraints.

You can also go to that parts iprops (occurrence tab) and edit its X,Y,Z offset from parent origin then ground it.

But like you I fail to see a reason for this wacky functionality. 🙂

[Anonymous]

But come on.....SW is suppose to butter our toast in the morning too.

As it's been explained to me, this point is in a 3D sketch within a part he is inserting into the assembly.

The user then wants to constrain the parts he's inserting to these points within that 3d sketch.

From what I can get is this is more like a layout of points and he just wants to insert the parts, then constrain them accordingly.

We've tried to constrain the part's center point to the 3d point with no luck, the point isn't selectable.

If this can be done, what are we missing?

[mrattray · Accepted solution]

Have you tried putting a work point on the sketch point inside of the part and then constraining to the work point?

[Anonymous]

That'll do it.

I can't believe I spaced so much on that.

It's just not something I'd typically have to do I guess.....use it or lose it.

That's a fix he can live with.

It also doesn't help that for whatever reason Inventor is acting really flakey here this morning.

If I constrain a part in an assembly, I don't get the preview or the snap to that location nor the "boink", until I end the command and select another command.

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Hi CelticDesignServices,

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CelticDesignServices wrote:   If I constrain a part in an assembly, I don't get the preview or the snap to that location nor the "boink", until I end the command and select another command.

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If the part is adaptive (in the current assembly or some other assembly) you'll get that behavior.

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[Anonymous]

Hi Curtis,

I can understand that but that's not the case here.

BTW - Enjoying your Mastering Inv 2012 book. Hoping I can use it for the much needed lessons here.

[JDMather]

Sounds to me like these users developed a lot of unconventional techniques in SWx and now they want to move these bad practices to Inventor.  I like to show people who keep saying, "but SWx will do..." that they don't really know how to use that program either.  Ill have them show me some of their SWx native files and them rip 'em to shreads.  Not that there is anything wrong with one program or the other - just that 90% of all users (of any program) that I come across don't really understand professional techniques.

[Anonymous]

JD, you are so correct.

I've mentioned it here before and I'm embarrassed to admit such, but I feel I need to.

But I was told a while back (warned actually) that I needed to "dumb-down" my techniques because fellow users couldn't modify my files due to them not knowing the more advanced processes. Problem is, I had to do such and stay in that mode until they advanced what little bit they could/would. Now I'm playing "catch-up".

It amazes me that I can and have offered advanced training classes to bring people up to speed as much as possible and yet, very few will show up and of those, I'm lucky if I can get 10% of them to make an effort to try any of these techniques outside of class.

But this daily battle of "SWx can do this..." or "SWx does it like this..." and I have to not only figure out what they are attempting to do, but then show them how to do it in Inventor. Even then, I'll get those who'll complain about how to do it in Inventor, etc. I've stated it before, if you are offered a job at a place that uses a CAD program you don't know or don't like, either don't take the offer or if you do, embrace the software they use and learn how to use it to the best of your ability.

Maybe I should look around for a SWx job and sit there all day and bash it and whine that "Inventor does it like...."

[mrattray]

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@Anonymous wrote:

But I was told a while back (warned actually) that I needed to "dumb-down" my techniques because fellow users couldn't modify my files due to them not knowing the more advanced processes.

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This would have had me immediately updating my resume. I don't know how you can handle people that ignorant and maintain sanity, I know I couldn't.

[ebowman8BK8J]

I know this is an old post, but it still comes up in google searches. 

I find being able to constrain a point to a point supremely useful in top-down skeleton-based workflows that include standard parts. I'm working that type of design now and I sorely miss the ability to simply constrain a point to a point. 

I can do this type of assembly constraint in SoldWorks, NX, CATIA V5, and PTC Creo. This is a feature that should be included in Inventor. 

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Did you try creating a workpoint on a 3D Sketch point or a UCS?  Does it not work?

Many thanks!

[ebowman8BK8J]

I didn't try that, but I have been working on my design in context skillset and I'm learning some interesting ways to do things. I'm working with fusion 360 now, but I wanted to reply to this and just say that things might not be as doom and gloom as I thought before. 

[JDMather]

@ebowman8BK8J 

Joints did not exist in Inventor 10 years ago.

When you have trouble with an Assembly - you should Attach it here.

[IgorMir]

And your comment, Jeffery, is as current today as it was ten years ago.

Cheers,

Igor.

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@JDMather wrote:

Sounds to me like these users developed a lot of unconventional techniques in SWx and now they want to move these bad practices to Inventor.  I like to show people who keep saying, "but SWx will do..." that they don't really know how to use that program either.  Ill have them show me some of their SWx native files and them rip 'em to shreads.  Not that there is anything wrong with one program or the other - just that 90% of all users (of any program) that I come across don't really understand professional techniques.

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[JDMather]

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@IgorMir wrote:

And your comment, Jeffery, is as current today as it was ten years ago.

Cheers,

Igor.

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@JDMather wrote:

Not that there is anything wrong with one program or the other - just that 90% of all users (of any program) that I come across don't really understand professional techniques.

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Now that I have retired - I can straight out state what I was implying in that statement.  That 90% figure even includes those users that I trained.  Across multiple CAD softwares over a period of 30 years of observation I have determined that only about 10% are users that I would hire.