Adaptivity Woes with bizzare solution...

[NathanGMartin]

Hi all,

I was posting this as a request for help when I figured it out.  Now I'm posting it to help others.

Here was my situation:

Assy

- part 0

 - subassy 1

   - subassy 2

      - subassy 3

         - subassy 4

           - subassy 5

               - part 2

I have part 2 open.  I start a sketch and try to project geometry from subassy 0 onto part 2.  I get the "can't project, part is adaptive in another assy" error. 

But part 1 is not adaptive: In Part 1, the adaptivity box under "Document Settings- > Modeling" is greyed out and empty.

- "Save Copy as" followed by a replace does not work. 

- "Save as" followed by a replace does not work. 

- "Save and Replace Component" does not work. 

- Copying the part in windows explorer followed by a replace and re-mate does not work.

- Redrawing the part from scratch DOES NOT WORK.

What do?

Verify & uncheck the adaptivity box for each and every parent subassy for part 2.  Ugh. Problem... solved, i guess.

Sometimes...

[pcrawley]

You are a dangerous place in Inventor... adaptive projected geometry - at least when it's used the way you suggest in this post.

The reason for my dislike of your proposed workflow is that the resulting geometry in Part 2 is "untraceable".  If you open Part2 some time next month, you'll have absolutely no idea where that projected geometry came from.  If it's adaptive (and I think it will be given the title of your post) then it's even worse because you have no idea what will break that geometry.

If your workflow requires some geometry that is common to both Part 0 (or Part 1 - you call it both names) and Part 2, then an alternative workflow would be to use derived geometry.  (Derive the sketch from Part 0 into Part 2.)  This way you get the adaptive-like behavior (change Part 1 and Part 2 updates) - but it is traceable.  If you open Part 2, you can see where the geometry came from.  It also makes for a more predictable/reliable workflow.

Adaptivity is an amazing tool and incredibly useful in some cases - but only if used very carefully (and preferably not for projected geometry!).  Projecting geometry adaptively from one part to another across 5 sub-assemblies looks like a recipe for disaster.

Peter

[blair]

Adaptivity is a great tool but must be used with care. I clear my adaptivity as soon as possible. Not only does it lock down the model from doing fully things, Adaptivity adds considerable overhead and your performance takes a hit.

[NathanGMartin]

I actually agree with both of you- I was frustrated because as of yet I know no other way to project geometry from one part to another without making it, at least briefly, adaptive.  I'm self-taught on Inventor; for nine months now I've been projecting geometry, then immediately 'breaking links' and clearing adaptivity every time just to get one sketch started with a reference point from another. 

In my situation above, I don't actually want my part to be adaptive in the way Inventor uses adaptivity—  I just want a shortcut to lining up the mating holes between two parts! 

Derived sketches, you say?  Investigating...

[pcrawley]

Excellent! A potential convert to skeletal modeling 🙂

If its just 2 parts that need to share geometry, open the first and make the 'important' sketch(s) visible. Create the second part, but instead of drawing a sketch, hit "Derive" on the 3d model tab and select the first part. In the derive part dialog, include the 'important' sketch(s). Now finish the second part. Job done!

You have shared a sketch between both parts that you can trace back - no adaptivity, no projected loops, no nasty performance hits...

There is so much more to this technique - so don't stop investigating. See if there is common geometry across the whole model that could be derived into more components - don't stop at sketches, try derive parameters, 3d geometry, work features etc. There is peculiar satisfaction in seeing a good assembly all updating from a few changes in the master skeleton model.

Have fun and good luck!

Peter

[NathanGMartin · Accepted solution]

So just to wrap this up if anyone reads through later:

I eventually found the options I was looking for (without knowing it) in 'Application Tools' -> 'Assembly', where I just blew through and unchecked the associative/adaptivity options.  Remember that I didn't want adaptivity, I just wanted cross-part projection.

If you like/use adaptivity in the way IV is intending for you to use it then obviously the below isn't for you:

At top:

- Uncheck 'Features are initially adaptive'.

Under 'In-place features' (another thing I occasionally use):

- Uncheck both options.

Under 'Cross part geometry projection:

- Uncheck both options.

I'm almost sure this is overkill (an expert can jump in here to let us all know what I am actually doing) but I have yet to see what I would call an undesired outcome from unchecking these features.