Creating iparts from Content Center

[Cadmanto]

I created a new part doing a save as from a content center flange.  I then created iparts in the saved part file.

My question is when I place this part into a new assembly it is not allowing me to change from one ipart to another in the part table within the assembly.

Why?  What am I missing and is there a way to get this to work short of recreating from scratch?

[Lance127]

Could you post the part here?

[Cadmanto]

Lance,

Here is the file.  Let me know if you have any luck.

[Lance127]

I took a look. Evidently fitting just don't figure out they aren't a content center part. Looks like you're best best would be to just recreate it from scratch.

[Cadmanto]

That is what we ended up doing for the sake of time.

I would just like to know why this can't be done.  It would be so nice to be able to save CC parts and alter them in this fashion with out these hickups.

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Hi Cadmanto, 

If I understand correctly, I think you'd need to publish your iPart back to a read/write CC library.

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

[Lance127]

Yeah, if you publish it back to the CC it'll work.

[Cadmanto]

Hi Curtis,

We ended up recreating them and publishing the recreated ones into the CC under our own sub folder.

My question now is are you absolutely 100% sure that if I was to publish the copy save as version from CC

that after I created the iparts and generated them if I was to publish them back into the CC that it would work

as I described in the initial posting?  I ask because I was told it is not an easy task to remove things from CC.

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Hi Cadmanto,

I got a bit lost trying to follow your last question, but here is what I think you're trying to do.

• Get a part from CC. (let's call it CC_Part.ipt)
• Save that part your own part and then make changes. (let's call it My_Part.ipt)
• Add an iPart table to My_Part.ipt, making it an iPart factory.
• Add rows for all of the members needed for the this family of parts.
• (there is no need to generate files from the iPart factory at this point)

Now you should be able to publish the ipart factory My_Part.ipt to a read/write CC library.

Once that is done you can place members using the Place From Content Center button.

And you can then use the Change Size or Replace from Content Center options to change it out.

But hang on a second, let's back up.

In re-reading your original post, it seems that what you were asking was why you couldn't right-click on an iPart member that was placed in the assembly and choose Change Component as shown here:

Was that the original question?

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

[Lance127]

The easiest way to answer that is for you to give it a try.

[Cadmanto]

Curtis,

Your first series of bullet points is what I will try believing what you are saying that if I was to republish the iparts (originally copied from CC) back into CC would allow me to switch iparts from the factory within the assembly it is inserted into.

Your second point is correct.  That is my opriginal question.

You can create a part from scratch.  Create iparts from the factory.  Then insert that into an assembly and change it like you showed in your image.  But when you do a save as copy of a CC part and do the same process, it doesn't work.  Why?

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Hi Cadmanto,

Re: the original question

Opening a part from CC, saving a copy of it, and then making that file an iPart factory, should allow you to use Change Component just like any other iPart. In fact the screen shot I showed was from an iPart that I created following just those steps.

Re: publishing to CC

---

Your first series of bullet points is what I will try believing what you are saying that if I was to republish the iparts (originally copied from CC) back into CC would allow me to switch iparts from the factory within the assembly it is inserted into.

---

As for this workflow, I get a little confused when you say:

"allow me to switch iparts from the factory within the assembly it is inserted into."

If you've published an iPart factory to CC, then you would use the CC tools to work with that family of parts in an assembly. You would sort of forget about the iPart factory after that. You're really only creating (and keeping it around afterwards) as a template to use for publishing. Once you've published the iPart to CC, there is not a connection between the iPart factory file and the CC files. You could actually delete the iPart factory if you wanted. But it's probably wise to keep it around in case you ever need to republish, etc.

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

[Lance127]

Curtis,

 It doesn't work that way for pipe fittings, for some reason. It does work for everything else I tried.

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Hi white127,

Ahh, you're quite right. As soon as I read fitting just now, it occurred that I remember skimming across something about fittings earlier in this thread. And now I see that you pointed this out right from the start.

Soooo, it does work as I described for CC parts other than fittings and < insert other oddball CC parts that I'm not aware of  here >.

Sorry for the confusion.

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

[Cadmanto]

Well, that explains why I couldn't get it to work.

So that changes my question slightly.  Why don't fittings work this way like the other CC parts?

[Lance127]

Aliens?

[JimSteinmeyer]

The SW staff is sabatoging it. 

[cwhetten]

I found this comment in another thread that may shed some light on why the pipe content behaves differently than other CC parts:

---

@dave.anderson wrote:

Tube and Pipe content will behave differently that other placed components. Even ones that you insert using Place from Content Center will show in the browser with a Pipe Icon and not a Part one.

This is due to the Tube and Pipe add-in. What you can do is disable the Add-in prior to inserting any T&P parts. This forces them to behave as "normal" parts and they can be restructured. I would not suggest this if they are part of a Pipe run, but for simply placed content it's fine.

Dave Anderson
MFG Support - Inventor
Autodesk, Inc.

---

The original thread is here:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Inventor/Demoting-moving-patterns-into-a-subassembly/m-p/3490...

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Hi everyone,

It turns out that it is the Tube and Pipe Addin that makes the fittings behave differently. If you have Inventor Professional but don't use the TP tools, or if you use it sometimes, but not others, then it might be worth unloading the TP addin. It's not recommended to do this when working with assemblies that use routes created with the TP tools of course, because you'll likely break some of the TP magic that resides with in them.

To unload the add in, go to the Tools tab  and click the Add-ins button. In the Add-In Manager dialog box, locate the Routed Systems: Tube and Pipe addin and select it. Uncheck the Loaded/Unloaded checkbox to unload it. Note that if it's greyed out Inventor is using it (possibly just Content Center having the TP libraries loaded), and you might need to uncheck the Load on Startup checkbox and then restart Inventor.

So once I unloaded the TP addin, the fitting iPart that was always behaving as a fitting, now behaved like a regular iPart factory.

Give it a try and let me know if you don't see the same result, and I'll have another look.

p.s. Thanks to Dave Anderson of AD for the suggestion.

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

Edit: I was too slow  cwhetten beat me to it! 

[Cadmanto]

From Desault Systems????

Did I really just say that?  Oh my gosh am I converting?????