Sorry to take so long to get back to this, but grab a cup of coffee and
here we go.
A phantom assembly in Inventor is handled in the BOM structure (not to
be confused with a parts list on a drawing) of an assembly file. Go to
Help and search (tab) "phantom". Select "Learn about BOM structure"
from the list of titles and review the info on phantom. Basically this
structure will ignore an assembly so designated and pass the individual
parts into the BOM, be sure to leave those parts designated Normal.
When you create a parts list in an IDW of of the assembly that contains
this phantom assembly, the individual parts will be listed and the
quantities of like parts will roll up into a single line item on your
parts list.
In an IPN for an exploded view, you can grab this phantom assembly like
any other assembly and tweak it as a unit or you can tweak individual
parts within the assembly.
The how to do is rather simple, here is a method I use, but I am sure
there are many others also. Using screws and washers as an example, I
populate my assembly with a particular size and constrain the parts in
place. Then I select a grouping of hardware (the screw and washers that
hold a bracket for instance) and Demote that group into a sub-assembly,
RMB after selecting. I don't worry about naming, just something
functionally obvious. The constraints between the parts that are in the
new sub-assembly will be retained, however the constraints to the other
parts will be lost, however all the parts maintain their same relative
positions. Usually two constraints will reconstrain that new
sub-assembly in the main assembly.
In the browser select the BOOM icon from the Assembly Panel. Select the
sub-assembly in the BOOM and select phantom from the drop-down menu to
define the structure of that assembly.
Hope this helps. Post again if you need more explanation.
Smoky Forge wrote:
> Hello Hal - I am not sure what you mean by 'phantom assembly'. Or how to do such a thing. Please explain, as I am a new user on this Inventor, even tho I worked on AutoCAD for 15-20 years and on the board before that.
>
> Thanks, Smoky
--
Hal Gwin
Mechanical Designer
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