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LOD versus iAssemblies to manage assembly configurations

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Message 1 of 13
axa-61
761 Views, 12 Replies

LOD versus iAssemblies to manage assembly configurations

 

The LOD idea (Level Of Details) was originally introduced by AutoDesk to control visualization and system resources when deal with large assemblies. That happened probably for more than ten years ago. With modern PC technology you barely need to bother about system resources unless you really deal with SUPERLARGE assembly. In that case I would invest in super PC configuration and not use Inventor either. However for “normal” assemblies with let say 2-3 hundred parts system resources is not at least biggest issue.

Standard way in Inventor to deal with assembly configurations is  iAssemblies. I spend quite a time exercising on that future and even got some iParts/iAssemblies to work. But soon realized that for bigger assemblies/number of configurations it become far too complicated. Actually useless.

Idea to use LOD to manage assembly configuration was probably in the air from the day LOD was introduced. And became really attractive when iLogic came in play. Later AutoDesk occasionally introduced parts list  control by excluding suppressed components from the BOM.  After that LOD reappeared as a really nice and simple tool to manage assembly configuration. Straight forward and of course far less complicated then iAssemblies. And it really does the job! You even get right mass for assembly managed this way (excluding mass of suppressed parts)!

If AutoDesk could just fix “little” issue with LOD assembly drawings in a way that related dimensions and balloons sticks to LOD’s configuration it would be really nice and powerful tool.

 

Now the question is why AutoDesk keeps low profile on this issue reverting to Design View Representations, iAssemblies and other sophisticated workaround’s while straight forward, simple and efficient tool is just around the corner? 

Inventor 2013 SP2
Windows 7, 64 bits
RAM 18GB
Core TM2 Duo CPU 2,99 Gz
12 REPLIES 12
Message 2 of 13
mrattray
in reply to: axa-61

Don't foget the famous problem of not being able to even touch an assembly file and a drawing file at the same time if there's a partslist involved.

 

Edit: Oh, and don't foget to mention that SolidWorks has had their "Configurations" for at least several years now.

Mike (not Matt) Rattray

Message 3 of 13
swordmaster
in reply to: mrattray

Not being able to open the drawing and the assembly at the same time is a huge shortfall.

Pro/E has had that figured out for at least 10 years probably longer

Inventor 2010 Certified Professional
Message 4 of 13
axa-61
in reply to: axa-61

Agree. Having LOD driven 3D model and assy drawing opened same time nothing but hassle. The worst thing for me with this issue was that being fascinated with iLogic possibilities I spent weeks to build up parameter driven assembly. 3 different models were gathered in one iLogic govern product configurator (appreciate help from this forum)… So what? Just to realize it is really little use of it without being able to manage drawings/parts lists for our production facilities.   

And now you saying that two biggest Inventor competitors SW and Pro/E had this solution for quite a while…

???

Is any AutoDesk employees/gurus here to comment this issue?

Inventor 2013 SP2
Windows 7, 64 bits
RAM 18GB
Core TM2 Duo CPU 2,99 Gz
Message 5 of 13
swordmaster
in reply to: axa-61

Cannot, speak for solidworks.

Suppressing components and managing drawings,parts lists and BOM's has never been a issue with Pro/E

Inventor 2010 Certified Professional
Message 6 of 13
machiel.veldkamp
in reply to: axa-61


@axa-61 wrote:

 

The LOD idea (Level Of Details) was originally introduced by AutoDesk to control visualization and system resources when deal with large assemblies. That happened probably for more than ten years ago. With modern PC technology you barely need to bother about system resources unless you really deal with SUPERLARGE assembly. In that case I would invest in super PC configuration and not use Inventor either. However for “normal” assemblies with let say 2-3 hundred parts system resources is not at least biggest issue.

Standard way in Inventor to deal with assembly configurations is  iAssemblies. I spend quite a time exercising on that future and even got some iParts/iAssemblies to work. But soon realized that for bigger assemblies/number of configurations it become far too complicated. Actually useless.

Idea to use LOD to manage assembly configuration was probably in the air from the day LOD was introduced. And became really attractive when iLogic came in play. Later AutoDesk occasionally introduced parts list  control by excluding suppressed components from the BOM.  After that LOD reappeared as a really nice and simple tool to manage assembly configuration. Straight forward and of course far less complicated then iAssemblies. And it really does the job! You even get right mass for assembly managed this way (excluding mass of suppressed parts)!

If AutoDesk could just fix “little” issue with LOD assembly drawings in a way that related dimensions and balloons sticks to LOD’s configuration it would be really nice and powerful tool.

 

Now the question is why AutoDesk keeps low profile on this issue reverting to Design View Representations, iAssemblies and other sophisticated workaround’s while straight forward, simple and efficient tool is just around the corner? 




Yeah so, the company I work for designs very large factories. And we all have pretty decent PC's and still Inventor is buggy with quite small assy's.

I do agree with you on all parts but I must say that autodesk has to step up their game. 

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Message 7 of 13
axa-61
in reply to: swordmaster

Mike (not Matt) above confirms that SW sorted out this problem too Smiley Happy

Inventor 2013 SP2
Windows 7, 64 bits
RAM 18GB
Core TM2 Duo CPU 2,99 Gz
Message 8 of 13
axa-61
in reply to: machiel.veldkamp

To: machiel.veldkamp2

“Very Large Factories”... I guess you have a good reason not to use ArchiCAD for this purpose.Smiley Happy  As far as I can judge your PC should be good enough even for big stuff. Another thing is when challenging Inventor with huge assemblies you must consider substitutes technique for subassemblies and complex parts. Otherwise you end up with Blue Gene/Q system supercomputer...which would be still not good enough

 Smiley Surprised

 

Inventor 2013 SP2
Windows 7, 64 bits
RAM 18GB
Core TM2 Duo CPU 2,99 Gz
Message 9 of 13
machiel.veldkamp
in reply to: axa-61

We design factories. Not buildings. 

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Message 10 of 13

Large assemblies and LOD's mean long parts lists and Inventors BOM table fillter is awesome, and something that Swx and Creo cant match at the moment.

Message 11 of 13
JimSteinmeyer
in reply to: stevec781

Steve,

Could you please elaborate on this? What do the filters do and how are they used? Coming from both Pro-E and SW I have about pulled all my hair out struggling with LODs. I realize that they come at the issue from a different direction than I am used to thinking and I need to change, but it is tuff. If the LODs have an advantage I would like to learn about it so I can use it and make this journy worth it's while.

Jim

Inventor Premium 2013 SP1.1
Vault 2013- plain vanilla version
HP G71 notebook
celeron cpu w\ 4gb RAM and 64 bit system
Win 7 home premium

Ya, my boss has me running my personal machine at work.
Message 12 of 13
stevec781
in reply to: JimSteinmeyer

Jim,

I use BOM table filters to keep my parts lists in idw concise.  In Creo2.0 & Swx, if you place a parts list on a drawing it lists everything in the asm. Often I want to only balloon 5 objects, but the assem has say 50 parts.  So I use the ballooned items only filter.  With this the table only lists the parts that are ballooned.  So if I only balloon 5 parts, thats all the table shows regardless of how many objects are in the assem.  Swx and Creo require manual hiding to get same result.

 

For LOD I also came from Swx and took a while before the penny dropped.  Swx doesnt have an equivalent.  The equivalent to Swx configurations is iparts and iassemblies.  LOD is more for memory management.  I rarely use it.  I think of it like this.

View reps are just to hide objects but they stay in memory and stay in BOM and mass calcs.

LOD is the same except it releases memory and excludes the supressed object from mass calcs.  I use it for mass calcs.  eg If I want to know the weight of a boat without the engine I make an LOD with the engine suppressed so its weight is excluded from the calc.  If I want to hide the engine in a drawing view I just use a View rep.

 

I dont use it to try and create different configs, eg single engine and twin engine.  But this is the trap - you can.  You can put 3 engines into the assem and make an LOD for single and an LOD for twin.  But the master asm now has 3 engines and you can get into a mess.  Single and twin engine configs should be done with iassembly, not LOD.

 

LOD is also used to make lightweight substitutes, but that's not a configuration, its just a simplification for memory management.

 

This wiki page probably explains it better http://wikihelp.autodesk.com/Inventor/enu/2012/Help/0073-Autodesk73/0460-Assembli460/0536-Represen53...

 

Message 13 of 13
JimSteinmeyer
in reply to: stevec781

Thank you. That helps

Jim

Inventor Premium 2013 SP1.1
Vault 2013- plain vanilla version
HP G71 notebook
celeron cpu w\ 4gb RAM and 64 bit system
Win 7 home premium

Ya, my boss has me running my personal machine at work.

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