parts list filter for view reps - quantities & custom parts?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

We have a complex assembly which has a number of slight variations to its
construction, so naturally thought view/position-reps would be an ideal way
to model all the possibly permutations.

Works fine and am able to get the parts list to reflect each permutation's
parts by the filter - but how do I fix the correct quantity in the parts
list?

At the moment the quantity only shows the total used in the entire assy, not
just that specific representation - e.g. in view1 I have 4 bolts and view2
6 - the qty shows 6 on both parts lists (and if I override it to a static
value of 4 on view1's parts list it becomes a static 4 on view2's too). I
know there is a warning/note about this when using the filter, but how do
people get around this? What can you suggest?

Also, while talking about view-rep parts lists - is there any way to have
custom parts on a filtered parts list? (somehow flag the custom part that
it should be present in a view-rep) e.g. glue/grease, add it as a custom
part on that view's part's list and it disappears - even add a custom
balloon pointing to the custom part on that view and it still won't appear
on the parts list.

btw - on Iv2009 in case it makes a difference (is 2010 any better due to
hopefully upgrading soon?).

cheers for any help, Sam

[johnsonshiue]

If I were you, I think building iAssembly would be better suited for your workflow. Each variation would be a member in the iAssembly factory.

Thanks!

johnson.shiue@autodesk.com

[jweiss1313]

Why would you provide a filter by design rep if you don't adjust the component quantities to reflect what is visible in the vew rep.  Creating an iAssembly is not the answer.  We have one complete assembly of a product.  We are trying to use design reps to create assembly drawings at various states of assembly.  I want to be able to put a parts list on my drawing that correlate the visible parts in a particular design rep.  The filter is an excellent idea but falls short of expectations because it doesn't affect quantities.  I feel this is a big disconnect between end user expectations and programmer adding valuable features.  Why does the filter have enough smarts to remove invisible components who's quantitiy end up as zero, but it can't update quantities based on what is visible in a design rep?

I'd like to ping the discussion group to see if anyone knows how to get the quantities in a part list (filltered for design rep)  to reflect what is shown in a drawing view created by association to a design rep.

Any help would be appreciated.

John Weiss

CAD Administrator

Follett Corp

Inventor Professional 2010 (SP3)

[karthur1]

We have had several instances where the filter would have been a great tool.  We already had view reps showing exactly what we wanted.  The way that we got around it was to manually edit the bom.  I know this suks, but that was the quickest way to get there.

No suggestions about how to get around this but, I too would like to have the ability to do what you are asking.

[jweiss1313]

I agree 100%.  If Autodesk is listening, please add the capability of the design rep parts list filter to adjust quantities.  Without this capability, this feature is worthless!

[mcgyvr]

I also agree that the view reps parts list filter should only show the quantity of parts in that view rep and not the total number of parts. It can't be more than 1 extra line of coding. I use this functionality all the time and have to include a note that the "quantity shown in the parts list includes the total number of parts in the whole assembly".. Before I put that note I was getting questioned by assembly people all day long about that.

I really "like" the parts list filter as it is.. but would "LOVE it if it filtered out the invisible/suppressed parts.

[eucci]

It is absurd that you can't expect a reliable BOM from a drawing view rep.  Manually overriding the view rep misses the point entirely.  the whole point is to eliminate human error.  If I have to sit and manually count hundreds of parts I might as well get out the pencil and paper and spend COUNTLESS HOURS WASTING TIME BACK CHECKING WHAT SHOULD BE A RELIABLE FEATURE.  It's times like this that I seriously consider scrapping Inventor for a a more reliable platform with more responsive support.  THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIXED A LONG TIME AGO.  WAKE UP AUTODESK!!!!!!!  AT 5G PER SEAT I EXPECT MORE!

[scottmoyse]

I stumbled across this behavior the other day. I naturally assumed that suppressing a part in an assembly would result in the BOM being modified and therefore the parts list. But neither of those things happened. Really odd, especially considering LOD's are meant to reduce the memory footprint, but then referencing them all from the BOM and parts list surely requires Inventor to then access those parts and increase the memory footprint again???

correct me if I'm wrong, since i haven' throughly tested this yet, since it was a problem i came across while working with a colleague the other day

[miechh]

I was affraid that I was the only one with the question mentioned in this topic. We also use view-reps to represent the different stages of assembling our product. The problem we had in our production facility was that our production personnel viewed the drawing of one sub assembly, noted the amount of Hex bolts stated in the partslist, went to the stock and returned to the workfloor. Used up the needed amount of hexbolts (4 for this subassembly!) but came to the office with the question why there were 96 hex bolts too many. Our task then was to explain that it was the total amount of bolts in the entire assembly and it was impossible to come up with the correct amount for the sub-assembly without manually correcting the amount. You should have seen the eyes of our workfloor colleague!  This is a great missing in a 3D design program like Inventor. Please, Autodesk, you would do us an enormous favour implementing this wish.

[Anonymous]

another vote, to have this funtionality added, actually make that another 10 votes from me!

[wseaston]

Hi Guys,

I have tried addressing this issue of various configurations of an assembly. I started by using view reps and as discussed above there are many shortfalls with view reps. Personally I now stay away from view reps. As suggested by the guys from Autodesk, I have started using iAssemblies. iAssemblies has proven to be the best option for this type of situation. It was and still is frustrating using them as there are some aspects which don't work nicely but it works the best out of the choices available. It addresses the issue of BOM quantities based on iAssembly (view rep equivalent) configurations in the drawing BOM. It also handles assembly configurations better. You will notice view view reps that only the part is suppressed and not the associated mates,whereas in iAssemblies the mates are also suppressed.

eg. You have three parts mated to each other in an assembly (Base part, middle part, end part.)

One configuration has a long middle part. For the second configuration you want to replace only the middle part with a shorter version. If you use view reps, the end part position is still controlled by the mates to the longer middle part and you will probably get constraint error messages with your different view reps. This problem is addressed by using iAssemblies. (Hope this explanation makes sense.)

Has anyone here tried using iAssemblies? If not, why not? What do you like or hate about them? Hopefully Autodesk is watching this and may make use of this info for improvements...

Cheers

[karthur1]

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....Has anyone here tried using iAssemblies? If not, why not? What do you like or hate about them? Hopefully Autodesk is watching this and may make use of this info for improvements...

Cheers

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I have tried them on several occasions.  Using iAssemblies are much like iParts on steroids.  It is more complicated to use iAssemblies than iparts or creating View reps just because it is another step in the process.  I think the thing about view reps is you can just turn off the visibility of what you dont want shown.  I know that in iAssemblies you just "exclude" parts that you dont want shown, but it is just easier to create a new view rep, then turn off what you dont want.

I would not say that I hate using iAssemblies, they do have their place.

[miechh]

Never tried iAssemblies, but reading this I think it won't be a solution for the kind of work I do. The products we make are all prototypes. Not one product is the same as before, so there's not one assembly that can have several different configurations. When it's ready, the next product will be designed. Reading the stuff about iAssemblies makes me think it's just extra work. I think the use of View Reps is better and faster for our purposes, now we'll wait for Autodesk to come up with a parts list filter for this.

[RANDYWINDERS]

I seem to have pretty good luck getting the parts list to get the correct qty by using a combination of view reps and LOD when placing a view on a drawing and generating parts list based on a structured BOM. However, what I would like to to is be able to add custom parts to the filtered BOM. I use them to add blank space between assemblies to make it easier to read, and to be able to make up for the shortcoming of Inventor to require shop personell to multiply. If I use two identical subassemblies in a top assembly, and am making a structured bill of materials without fasteners, I create a cupstom part and copy the info from the parent to the custom part, turn off visibility, and the parts list multiplies and displays the parts correctly, However, when I need to do this while using View rep filtering all my custom parts disappear.

[karthur1]

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@RANDYWINDERS wrote:

....and to be able to make up for the shortcoming of Inventor to require shop personell to multiply....

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I thought we were the only ones with this problem....

[jyager]

It's kind of insane that this hasn't been addressed. Why on earth would the parts list eliminate parts that aren't in the view at all if it's going to list the total assy quantities...

[tlondry]

Just ran into this same problem and wanted to add to the thread in the hopes Autodesk is listening.  Why this is still not resolved is baffling.  I tried using iAssemblies to get an accurate BOM for my view rep but there seems to be a 256 column limit to the iAssembly table which makes it useless for large assemblies.  My only option seems to break my assembly down into sub-assemblies for the sole purpose of generating BOM's and not for any design requirement.  Again, baffling.

[STRIKER-360]

Hi all,

Just adding myself and my team to this thread as it is a big issue, and getting this functionality will increase productivity significantly!.

Hope if we make enough noise about this Autodesk will listen?????

Cheers

[mcgyvr]

You should show your support here..

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideastation/allow-parts-list-to-show-correct-quantities-based...

[LukeDavenport]

Happy days, looks like this has been accepted for implementation by Autodesk. It may be in Inventor 2017 (don't think it's in 2016).

For filtering partslists, you might want to look at this app on the exchange store. It creates automatic filters for parts lists (and drawing views) by iProperties (custom and standard), that update automatically without the usual view rep maintenance.

https://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/INVNTOR/en/Detail/Index?id=appstore.exchange.autodesk.com%3aviewr...

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qem8o-R2mqQ

Luke