Community
Inventor Forum
Welcome to Autodesk’s Inventor Forums. Share your knowledge, ask questions, and explore popular Inventor topics.
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Nesting Parts Using IV

16 REPLIES 16
Reply
Message 1 of 17
CDM369
548 Views, 16 Replies

Nesting Parts Using IV

I've been using IV for a few years, but it was in an R&D environment. I am now creating production drawings and need to order steel for my project. In the past (way back in my Cadkey days) I simply layed out my 6'x10' plate in 2D and nested all my parts accordingly. What's the best way to do that in Inventor? I don't think laying out 3D parts is the way to go about it. In Cadkey the geometry was already drawn I just simply had to copy and arrange. Without starting a new sketch and redrawing my basic shapes, is there anyway to gather, utilize, and arrange my current 2D geometry from the parts I need to nest?

I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thank you,
Craig
16 REPLIES 16
Message 2 of 17
StuartMoore
in reply to: CDM369

You can model your 6x10 plate and make a drawing base view of it, then make base views of your parts on top of it. You don't have precise control of the position of the pats with respect to the plate but it may be good enough. You can also rotate parts by angle to fit available spaces.
Message 3 of 17
CDM369
in reply to: CDM369

Yeah, that's the most efficient way I can think of doing it. However, it's that inability to have precise control that makes it lame. I have a bunch of angled pieces that I need to layout 1/8" from each other - with the least wasted space possible. If only Inventor had a "parts layout" mode offered in the idw. that would enable you to orientate parts by dimensioning them from each other or a way turning 2D sketches into a block for part layout purposes.

ATTN: Autodesk: throw that into the Release 12 mix :O)
Message 4 of 17
bill.costello
in reply to: CDM369

Craig

why not just take the data to AutoCAD and do exactly as you did in Cadkey.

Bill
Message 5 of 17
Anonymous
in reply to: CDM369

Where is all your 2D geometry now?

wrote in message news:5082692@discussion.autodesk.com...
I've been using IV for a few years, but it was in an R&D environment. I am
now creating production drawings and need to order steel for my project. In
the past (way back in my Cadkey days) I simply layed out my 6'x10' plate in
2D and nested all my parts accordingly. What's the best way to do that in
Inventor? I don't think laying out 3D parts is the way to go about it. In
Cadkey the geometry was already drawn I just simply had to copy and arrange.
Without starting a new sketch and redrawing my basic shapes, is there anyway
to gather, utilize, and arrange my current 2D geometry from the parts I need
to nest?

I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thank you,
Craig
Message 6 of 17
Anonymous
in reply to: CDM369

Why not use AutoCAD for this stuff.......

wrote in message news:5082841@discussion.autodesk.com...
Yeah, that's the most efficient way I can think of doing it. However, it's
that inability to have precise control that makes it lame. I have a bunch
of angled pieces that I need to layout 1/8" from each other - with the least
wasted space possible. If only Inventor had a "parts layout" mode offered
in the idw. that would enable you to orientate parts by dimensioning them
from each other or a way turning 2D sketches into a block for part layout
purposes.

ATTN: Autodesk: throw that into the Release 12 mix :O)
Message 7 of 17
CDM369
in reply to: CDM369

My 2D geometry is in the sketch mode of every part that I need to nest. Unless, I am missing something I cannot nest those sketches can I? I am currently trying to do what the 1st poster suggested. It works, but as mentioned, there is not enough control in that method and in order to duplicate parts you have to separately insert them as base views (no copy/paste allowed). And in this case it means going into the special "change view orientation" icon everytime because the flat view of the plate is not in line with its origin (because it was made via loft command).

I can lay it out in Autocad, however, that is going to envolve redrawing the parts, which will be rather time consuming - seeing I will need to go into every Inventor part a get the dimensions and then redraw them in Autocad. I would like to utilize the geometry I've already created, rather than re-inventing the wheel whenever I need to nest my parts.
Message 8 of 17
Josh_Petitt
in reply to: CDM369

>However, it's that inability to have precise control that makes it lame.

You do have precise control, just use constraints 😉

We have CNC programs for every design we produce. After the design is finalized and is in production, I make layouts and nest all the required parts into a set of assemblies. The material bound is shown by a sketch in the assembly (see pic)

All parts are fully contrained which is very useful becuase when a design does change, the nested assemblies automatically update the part geometry and shift the components. This means I usually can do the nesting once for a design even though the design may go through many revisions after its initial release.

Nesting your parts in an assembly also means that you have the ballooning capabilities in the drawing so you can easily document what parts belong to a specific program.

For doing the actual programming we use MasterCAM which brings in the 3D lines and surfaces (and does a fine job of it too). However this is only feed-forward, so if the geometry in the design changes, I have to re-import the data into MasterCAM and re-assign operations. (BTW - does anyone know of any software that has full associativity with Inventor?)

Search this NG and you will find some other posts with links to nesting modules for Inventor, but these are too expensive for us and manual nesting is quick and almost optimal.
Message 9 of 17
Josh_Petitt
in reply to: CDM369

...the drawing pic
Message 10 of 17
Anonymous
in reply to: CDM369

How about creating your 6x10 plate as a very thin sheet, then assembling all
the parts on top of it, using assembly constraints to keep them in the
appropriate relationships to each other? You can easily make a drawing of
this to check and document your layout.
--
Sam
Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis

wrote in message news:5082692@discussion.autodesk.com...
I've been using IV for a few years, but it was in an R&D environment. I am
now creating production drawings and need to order steel for my project. In
the past (way back in my Cadkey days) I simply layed out my 6'x10' plate in
2D and nested all my parts accordingly. What's the best way to do that in
Inventor? I don't think laying out 3D parts is the way to go about it. In
Cadkey the geometry was already drawn I just simply had to copy and arrange.
Without starting a new sketch and redrawing my basic shapes, is there anyway
to gather, utilize, and arrange my current 2D geometry from the parts I need
to nest?

I would appreciate any suggestions.

Thank you,
Craig
Message 11 of 17
R.Corriveau
in reply to: CDM369

Could you post a screen shot sample of what you are trying to accomplish because my dull brain can't get a handle on it.

They way I read it is you are trying to do all 2D in a 3D/2D package. Message was edited by: Rick Corriveau
Message 12 of 17
CDM369
in reply to: CDM369

That was my first thought, but I did not think that was the best way. Perhaps it is after all.
Message 13 of 17
CDM369
in reply to: CDM369

So are you constraining all the 3D parts and just bringing it into a .idw?
Message 14 of 17
Anonymous
in reply to: CDM369

Yes,
Josh is making an assembly of all of the parts and then creating a drawing
of the assembly.

--
Cheers,

Rob Singlehurst

Quadro4 750XGL 81.64
Athlon XP 2600+
1G RAM
W2K SP4
IV10 SP3a

wrote in message news:5082977@discussion.autodesk.com...
So are you constraining all the 3D parts and just bringing it into a .idw?
Message 15 of 17
Josh_Petitt
in reply to: CDM369

yes, but I would recommend using a sketch in the assembly to show material bound rather than inserting a rectangular part. The solid geometry of the rectangular part will be imported into your CNC software, which for us is a pain and we don't want it. Also, when you do this, the hidden line calculation for the drawings sometimes looks funny (i.e. you can't see the part edges clearly).
Message 16 of 17
CDM369
in reply to: CDM369

I think I understand what you are saying. Since we do not have a CNC plasma cutter I guess the 3D aspect is not a problem for me, but I will probably seek you out in the future if we end up purchasing one.

thanks
Message 17 of 17
mcgyvr
in reply to: CDM369

you do know that the have nesting programs for your CNC equipment that does this automatically and far more efficiently than you can do by hand placing/guessing??

Of the 50 or so sheetmetal vendors we have used I couldnt imagine someone actually hand nesting the parts..
Nesting programs are cheap compared to the time you spend doing it manually.

Something like this http://www.striker-systems.com/
works with inventor


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inventor 2023 - Dell Precision 5570

Did you find this reply helpful ? If so please use the Accept Solution button below.
Maybe buy me a beer through Venmo @mcgyvr1269

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.

Post to forums  

Autodesk Design & Make Report