Inventor Assembly - Saving dependents

[Anonymous]

When saving an assembly and the dependents need to be saved, Inventor issues a Save dialog (Do you want to save changes to "[                   ].iam" and its dependents}.   There is a keystroke (or workflow) that you can use to bring up a another dialog to inquiry additional information about why Inventor is asking to save these dependents.   I have used this in the past but I cannot remember how I did it.    Any ideas?

Regards

[4donwan4]

The only area to what I would think controls this would be within the Application Options "Prompts" area. There is nothing in there that I would see to control this.

Regards,

Don

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Yes, there is an internal command, which has been exposed externally already. Before you click Save, simply go to Inventor Help -> About -> hit Ctrl+d. You will see the dialog showing flags associated with the Save operation.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

A big thanks...   I couldn't remember the workflow...

[serzan.oenen]

Hi @johnsonshiue,

I am experiencing the same issue with saving dependents. My company uses Inventor 2019 and I cant seem to find the Inventor Help Tab that you refer to in your prior message. So I cant follow the procedure Inventor Help -> About -> hit Ctrl+d. Has it moved to another location in newer versions of inventor?

Thnx. in advance for your response. 

Best Regards

Mechanical Engineer

Serzan Önen

[-niels-]

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Serzan,

The tool is still there. When you have a file opened, click on Help -> About (as indicated by Niels). Then press Ctrl + d. You will see a dialog showing the file status.

The thing is that the status is for internal purpose. It may not make sense to users. We need to find out whether or not a given file is indeed changed and the flag truly represents the status.

Many thanks!

[serzan.oenen]

Hi @johnsonshiue and @-niels- 

Thank you for your responses and here are my findings:

When I just open the Factory assembly file and follow the procedure I get the att. scr. shot "Factory assembly.jpg".

If I double click and choose one Variant and follow the procedure I get the other att. scr. shot "Choosing a variant.jpg". At both choices the pop up window is "blanked" meaning there is no way of altering anything.

PS. The list is a bit longer than the attached shows - there are no further markings the list other than the shown.

I hope that you guys can help me. I am working with quite a lot iAssembly with 30+ variants in each.

Thnx. in advance for yout help.

Best Regards

Mechanical Engineer

Serzan Önen

[-niels-]

---

@serzan.oenen wrote:

 At both choices the pop up window is "blanked" meaning there is no way of altering anything.

---

The "CTRL-D" popup window is informational only, it doesn't control anything but only shows you the cause of the "dirty" flag.

As for working with iAssemblies... i'm not that experienced, but i know that activating an instance counts as an "edit" as shown by the popup and requires a save.

When i have to update one of the few iassemblies we have, i usually update the main instance, then check the variants, go back to the main and save.

Now... i'm a little in doubt as to when i generate the members... i might actually do that before the final save, depending on if generating them dirties the factory again...

I do know it can be a pain to get them updated properly without being "dirty" so i can check it into Vault.

But, once you save you don't switch members.

Not a great answer, but hope it helps.

[swalton]

Are you using Vault to manage your files?

If so, that adds some complexity to iComponent workflows.

If at all possible, build and troubleshoot all the different variations of the iComponents before checking into Vault.  Editing an iComponent factory after it has been checked into Vault requires some additional steps to make sure Vault and Inventor agree.

I have found it useful to create an "update" assembly when working with Vaulted iComponents.  I place a single instance of every member of the iComponent into the update assembly.  When I need to make changes to the factory file, or any members, I:

1. Open the update assembly, and check out every member. 
2. Make the changes to the iComponent table.
3. Save.
4. Go back to the update assembly and run the Rebuild All command. 
5. Save and check-in the update assembly

These steps force Inventor and Vault to agree that each member shows the changes caused by editing the factory file.