Frame Generator Question

[rms390]

I have a frame made.  Some of the members have plates welded to the ends of the frame pieces for bolting the structure together.  When I detail it the frame I want to be able to show each frame piece with the corresponding plates bolted to it.  

I know that I can use view representations to achieve this (but that just sucks).  I can also try demoting frame pieces and moving the plates over to the created sub assembly. (again that sucks too)

Is there an easy way to do what I am trying to do?  I'm thinking something that I can take pieces of an assembly, select the parts I want, and put them in a sub assembly.  

[Cadmanto]

I am not quite sure what you mean by view representations, but the only ways that come to my mind are LOD's, changing the visibility of the components in the individual views or creating an iassembly factory that suppress

these components then associate these iassemblies in these views in your drawing.

[rms390]

I am sorry, I meant Levels of Detail.  I've never done iAssemblies, every time I tried Vault gave me issues.

[Cadmanto]

No problem.  I am not a big LOD fan either.

As far as the iassemblies you have to generate them each tim you make a change to the factory.

That might be your problem there.

But with that said I would look into changing the visibility of these components in the said drawing views

before I tried going down the iassembly path.

[cbenner]

I have a very similar situation here.  We build our frames with bolted in cross members for pipe supports.  I used to do these in Frame henerator, and would always have problems getting the welders to be able to see which one went where on the frame.

This may not work for your situation, but I've started designing the cross pieces (with FG) outside of the main assembly and then pulling them in using standad assembly constraints.  That way I can detail each cross piece as a separate sub-assembly, and then balloon them in the main assembly... HOPEFULLY ending the confusion in the welding shop for good.

[rms390]

I think that they should just make a command that pulls parts from an assembly and makes a sub-assembly.

[cbenner]

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Inventor-IdeaStation/idb-p/v1232

Post your ideas here.  Also check out the AUGI Wish Lists here:

http://www.augi.com/wishlist

[PaulMunford]

'I think that they should just make a command that pulls parts from an assembly and makes a sub-assembly'

Isn't that what promote and demote do? I know that frame generator complains but it works. The only problem comes if you want to replace a component completely...

[RobJV]

I am not sure why you are dismissing view reps and promoting LOD's???  LODs are definitely not for this application where View Representations are.  I understand that the op said they suck (possibly does not want to create them for each plate and member - I can understand OR does not like how you have to constantly adjust them as you are creating assemblies if they are not locked - also understand)

If you are finished your frame and it does not have many plates, why not just create a view rep for each plate and member and then detail it on drawing?   Am I missing something?

Rob

[BLHDrafting]

I feel demoting the FG member and the corresponding plates to a sub-assy would be the best fit. Not painful or slow/difficult. Just remember to only demote once as a second demote will break the FG member link to the Frame assy. test to see what I mean.

[PaulMunford]

'Just remember to only demote once as a second demote will break the FG member link to the Frame assy'

Good tip Brendan 🙂

One other point to remember - don't supress the frame generators sletal model. This can make it go screwy. Instead, just  use views to make it invisible.

Paul

[jeanchile]

And remember that Inventor is not a steel detailing program if that's what you are trying to achieve (even though we use it like one here from time to time). I second the promote/demote workflow but it has a major con... If you need to change what is in each sub-assembly (mistakes, design changes, whatever) you end up breaking constraints and have to fix them.

View reps work okay if you get the handle on locking/unlocking as you go, but in our testing there was no way to get the Parts Lists AISC/NISD compliant. Plus if your frame is a large one it becomes very cumbersome to keep all the view reps straight (IMHO).

[rms390]

You can't demote the base plates, you have to click and drag the pieces on the browser (annoying).  You can't click and drag patterns into the sub assembly, you have to delete the pattern, move the individual piece into the subassembly, and then re-pattern it.  

It makes me feel incredibly stupid to have to go through this process when I literally have the frame done but I can't do anything with it for detailing. 

[jeanchile]

LIke I mentioned earlier, if someone told you that this was a structural steel detailing program (like my reseller told me in the beginning), they didn't know what they were talking about. That being said, we demote any of our appurtenances (base plates, whatever) all the time. Perhaps there is a grounding issue or something that has changed since our version.

[rms390]

I said it incorrectly, I should have said that I have to demote FG parts and non-FG parts separately.  That is annoying because it makes you type in the file name for the sub-assembly in order to get the piece in there.  Clicking and dragging is only slightly less annoying.