iAssembly Features Disappearing

[ad64]

In an iAssembly that I have constructed, I have a few Assembly level features (extruded cuts). If I change rows on the table (eg. from Row1 to Row2), these features disappear even if they are specifically set as "Include". If I go back to the first row (eg. Row1) the features are still missing but the sketches remain. There appears to be no way to get them back. Has anyone else experienced this?

Steve

Inventor 2014 SP2

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Are all the participants in the assembly feature of interest present on that row? Could you show me an example?

Thanks!

[ad64]

Unfortunately I am not able to post my assembly but I was able to work around this issue by adding a phantom part with no features (that was present in all iAssembly rows) as a participant in the Assembly level feature. That keeps the feature from disappearing.

Steve

[ad64]

While my solution did keep the features from disappearing, it ultimately wasn't a true solution because the components that are swapped out are no longer considered participants in the feature. Therefore, the feature only appears in the components that are in the active iAssembly row and not in any of the other iAssembly rows that are inactive but present on a drawing..

Steve

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I still would like to understand the issue better. What is the workaround you identified? Could you send me an example?

Many thanks!

[ad64]

I created iLogic code that would run each time the iAssembly row changed. When the iAssembly row changes, it does a Table replace on a few iParts. These 'new' iParts are not part of the feature. The iLogic code fixed this by looking for the new components and adding them as participants. So, whatever row is active, the model in its current state will show the assembly feature.

However, in the end, this doesn't fix my problem because I need to show the different iAssembly states on a drawing. Unfortunately the only iAssembly view that will have the assembly feature is the active row. All the other states on the drawing will lose the feature because they were removed as participants when they were no longer the active row. So, each time I change a row, all of my iAssembly views on the drawing lose their feature. Therefore they also lose their dimensions and annotations related to it, etc. It's a little frustrating.

Autodesk should fix this. Perhaps it's as simple as adding an option to "Always include all partcipants" in the feature.

I can't post a dataset but I may be able to email you it (Inventor 2014). Would that be helpful?

Steve

[edd_3]

I'm having a very similar issue.

I have a basic GRP Panel as an iAssembly with three heights and 3 different colour outer face options.

We make these in three different heights 3150, 2900, and 2450mm panels.

To cover our product range in the iAssembly above this I want to trim each panel in 5mm steps from 3150 to 2000mm.

Every time I change the colour or between the 3 panel heights (different .ipt) in the child iAssembly the previous is removed and the new coloured part is not a participant of the extrusion in the parent assembly.

[Edwin.Morris]

I'm currently having the same issues with Inventor pro 2019.

I have several parts in my iAssembly, I have created a revolve around some components which the number of parts in the assembly i'm trying to revolve are controlled by a component pattern. The revolve is used due to a procedure in manufacturing to reduce an assembly of parts do a given diameter. When setting the revolve to the assembly with the most parts in the pattern the assembly and revolve works fine. When an assembly is loaded with fewer parts in the pattern it still works fine, but as soon as you go back to the largest pattern assembly, some of the participants are missing. See image for example:

 

I'm using the table to control the revolve diameter and the rest is constrained to an axis and a work plane which the work plane is controlled by the number of parts in the component pattern. This works well and even after going back to the largest pattern with the error and looking at the revolve and the revolve sketch it shows it correctly but still does not cover the whole pattern.

Hope this helps to solve this issue.

Best Regards.

[alex.haerens]

Cuts in assembly are only present in the assembly. If this is still true in the latest IV versions then this will "help" to create problems. When a cut would drill down to the part itself then arrays of these parts would not be a problem : one changed = all changed.

[Edwin.Morris]

This is specifically an assembly machining operation and not an individual component or part machining operation.

The parts must be assembled before the machining operation can be done hence placing the revolve on the assembled parts.

A work around is to create a part for every assembly but this is not a true scenario of the manufacturing procedure. I believe that if a work around is done then mistakes could potentially be made later. 

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Edwin,

I think I know why it behaves this way. It is because of lack of participant control on iAssembly table. You cannot add or remove participants from the assembly feature within an iAssembly table. This is unfortunately a limitation.

The only workaround is to create an Extrusion cut for one member and then create another cut for another member. Suppress either cut in each member.

Many thanks!

[Edwin.Morris]

Hi Johnson,

Could this feature to add and remove participants be something I could ask as a future update to inventor.

I feel that the best way to manufacture components using 3D is to model the way you want to manufacture. Our design team works very closely with production and manufacturing we always consider design to manufacture. In our case we require to assemble components and then machine after assembly. Now these are standard assemblies, some of which are machined and some that are unmachined after assembly. For us the best way of keeping the assemblies in Inventor is to use iAssemblies. It makes things so much easier to swap in and out of other Inventor assemblies. We have a lot of component assemblies like this which we are moving to add to Inventor but having to have different components for the assembly is not the correct way of modelling in our eyes and in future could cause issues if other uses are not familiar with the work around.

Regards

Ed.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Edwin,

The request is perfectly legit. It is unfortunate that iAssembly does not support the workflow. We are working on a project called Alternative Representations allowing components to have multiple geometric state. I will work with the project team and see if this is something we will be supporting.

Many thanks!

[Edwin.Morris]

Thanks Johnson,

I still think this feature to be able to add and remove participants rather than multiple geometric states would be better.

To be able to make a cut and Inventor recognise when to add and remove participants should be programmed into Inventor iAssembly.

I've worked with other programs which can and have done this. We moved from Solidedge 5 years ago to Inventor and we had these parts set like this in Solidedge with no issues. I'm sure too that other programs like solid works does this and our sister company out in the states uses Creo which they confirm it does this with no issue.

Can it be requested that been able to add and remove participants into an iAssembly is possible rather than looking at other methods of doing it?

Regards

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Edwin,

Like I mentioned, your request is totally reasonable and I agree it should have been available in Inventor. But, unfortunately, it is not available at the moment out of box. I think by using iLogic rule, you might be able to control participants. But, it still does not work with iAssembly. I believe the ability to manage participants is indeed in scope for Alternative Representations project.

Many thanks!

[Edwin.Morris]

Not a problem

Thank you for your input

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Edwin,

If you have not signed up Inventor Beta, I encourage you to do so. You can try the latest internal build on a no-install browser-based environment and discuss in-development workflows with project team members and other Beta testers.

https://bit.ly/InventorBeta

Many thanks!