General Question from new user

[Anonymous]

I have a bunch of plates.  The plates get welded to make a box and sent for stress-relieving. The box comes back and gets machined before it gets more parts added to make another assembly.

How is the best way to handle this in Inventor?

So far, I have created individual parts for each side of my box as each side is unique.  Then I have created an assembly bringing together each part (at this point I have not made any welding on my assembly).  Then I created another assembly to bring in my box to machine.  I have noticed that the feature "thread" to create a NPT hole is not available in assembly.

After the plates are assembled and welded to make a box, I would like to treat the box as a part no longer as an assembly.  Can it be done that way?

[yannick3]

Hi

1- your assembly is useless with no part

2- complet your assembly

3- create a new part and derive your assembly in the new part created (search derive in the help)

now you can add your NPT hole with the hole command

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
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How is the best way to handle this in Inventor?

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Generally, it is best to mimic the manufacturing process. Does each plate require a separate drawing? If not, then you could cheat a little and make the box one part from the beginning. In newer Inventor versions, a multi-body part might be the way to go.

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I have noticed that the feature "thread" to create a NPT hole is not available in assembly.

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Why not use the hole feature?

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After the plates are assembled and welded to make a box, I would like to treat the box as a part no longer as an assembly.  Can it be done that way?

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For BOM purposes, you could set the BOM stucture of the assy to Inseperable. Otherwise, you could derive the assy, which would make it easier to add complex machinining features.

[Anonymous]

I'm not using the hole feature for the NPT I need.  Although there are some pipe threads under the hole feature, I don't know why there wouldn't be the one I need which is only found under the thread feature.  Ex. I need 1/8"NPT which is drilled with a "R" bit and tapered 27 NPT.

Regarding the assembly, I do need separate drawings for each plate prior to assembling and welding, otherwise that would be a good idea to cheap, as you say.

I will try some of the options proposed and learn some more!

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

You don't have npt as a choice in  in your hole dialog?

[Anonymous]

I did say "taper" didn't I....eh, yes I do have that now that I actually look at the taper option.  I learned yet again!  Thanks!