How to make ipt from stp visible in iam?

[lesmfunk]

How do I make my ipt visible in an assembly? It was created from a beautiful step file provided by our vendor. You would think that since it is visible in the part environment, it would also be visible in the assembly environment.

[CCarreiras · Accepted solution]

Hi!

your ipt it's just a bunch of surfaces, not a solid. Use "stich" tool and select all the surfaces and it will became a solid, and therefore, visible in iam.

[JDMather · Accepted solution]

If you do not want to convert the surfaces to solids - go to Model View in assembly and turn on Visibility of Surfaces.

pg 30

[lesmfunk]

Thanks guys for the ideas, I got it to work.

A few tries at stitching within the ipt didn't work out. It could be that the visibility of some work features (including Construction Surfaces) were turned off. I don't remember turning them on or off.

What I did was re-import the stp with the attached settings and it worked. I don't know a whole lot about surfaces...yet.

Edit: And I do plan to go through the whole pdf document when I have a chance. Thank-you Dr. Mather.

[JDMather]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Edit: And I do plan to go through the whole pdf document when I have a chance. 

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As you go through the document - keep in mind that it is very old - a lot has changed.

For one thing, Autodesk has made the Repair Environment the default, yet I keep finding myself having to return to the Construction Environment.  You now have to make it active by going into Tools>Application Options (I think Part tab, but I don't have Inventor open to check).

[k.anderson328]

Hi I have had the same issue with .STEP files from vendors. Below is what I've discovered after some hours, Hope this saves someone some time.

#1 If the .step file is just being used for visual representation then you can change the surfaces to the materials desired. The fastest way is to open up the 'Repair Bodies' tab when you right click the file name in the browser tree. Then use the drag box to highlight groups of surfaces instead of painfully selecting them one at a time.

#2 If the .step surface file is not showing up in the assembly file Click on the View tab and click on object visibility to ensure you have ' Construction Surfaces ' checked or you will not see the .STEP on your assembly. Although if  ' Construction Surfaces ' are unchecked and You attempt to place the .STEP file in the assembly you will see it for a sec until you click to place it then will immediately disappear, however, you will see it in the browser tree totally enabled which makes for a confusing situation.

(I'm using Inventor 2014 sp2)
#3 Under Tools>Application Options>Assembly tab at the bottom is a setting for Express Mode. You can set this to automatically enable when you open assembly files that have more than the set number of open documents in session. With that said if Express mode is enabled Visibility of these .STEP Surface files is defaulted to on and actually will show up in the tree as a normal IPT solid part file icon. this works fine unless express mode is disabled either manually or by deletion of components. Then the .STEP vendor files will go back being invisible unless the the visibility is turned back on.