I am designing a component whose internal mechanism is housed in a plastic shell. I want to use the boss feature in the shell so I can hold together the components internally, but the boss feature is only available in the part workspace, but in order for me to know where the internal components are so I can design my shell accurately, I have to be in the assembly workspace.
Now, if I opened the shell as a part alone, and imported (through the Derive command) the parts that need to be fit into the shell, they will appear at random positions, and because you cannot create constraints in the Part Workspace, I have no effective way of holding them where they should go.
How can I resolve this situation?
How about making the internal components into a subassembly, properly constrained to one another, then derive that subassembly into your shell part?
There are several ways to do this.
I would suggest that you use multi-body solids techniques and THEN push out your individual Parts and Assembly
or
if you model in position locations when you derive - you don't need constraints to position
or
edit the part in the context of the assembly and Project Geometry the location from one part to the part where you are adding the bosses.
Technique 1 is probably the best, easiest and most robust (particularly for a beginner).
Attach your files here if you can't figure it out.
You might want to go through this tutorial http://home.pct.edu/~jmather/content/DSG322/Inventor%20Tutorials/Inventor%202011%20Tutorial%2014.pdf
The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel