Redefining the import location within a part file.

[Anonymous]

Good morning everyone.

Please refer to the attached part for an example of what I am trying to do.

I have recently joined a new company as the lead designer and have inherited a product line that I need to maintain and develop. It appears that a large number of the common parts through out the product line were imported from old Autocad files. The problem is, when they were brought in they were not located on the origin. Many of the part files are not only off the origin, but oriented in what would appear a totally random fashion.

My question is.... can I re-define these parts to locate them to the origin within the existing part files. I am concerned about loosing constraints on pre-existing assemblies if I create a new part file based upon the 'derive' procedure.

Thanks for your time.

[Anonymous]

Alot of that depends on the way the parts are constrained in the assemblies.
Are they simply inserted with flush constraints to the origin? In that case,
you should NOT re-define the parts and change the location. I have had
a few parts in the past that I redefined without too many issues (except for
some strange update problems that appeared from time to time (mainly in older
versions of Inventor), but those usually resolved with some "Rebuild all"
commands. In any case, I would save a backup before proceeding and run a
few trial parts first to make sure they update. And see if anyone else
with perhaps more experience doing these sort of updates has anything different
to say or not.

Bob S.

stevemckenna wrote:
> Good morning everyone. Please refer to the attached part for an example
> of what I am trying to do. I have recently joined a new company as the
> lead designer and have inherited a product line that I need to maintain
> and develop. It appears that a large number of the common parts through
> out the product line were imported from old Autocad files. The problem
> is, when they were brought in they were not located on the origin. Many
> of the part files are not only off the origin, but oriented in what
> would appear a totally random fashion. My question is.... can I
> re-define these parts to locate them to the origin within the existing
> part files. I am concerned about loosing constraints on pre-existing
> assemblies if I create a new part file based upon the 'derive'
> procedure. Thanks for your time.

[Anonymous]

It appears that by far and large that the parts have been located in assemblies with references to the part geometry, rather than the origin or planes. Its really driving me nuts, as I have always used the origin planes for things like orienting pipe or tubing angles at an offset angle. Grabbing part faces for this sort of thing is sometimes problematic.

I have taken a pretty good look at most of the use incidences of these parts and I should be okay with a replace, but I won't be doing anything drastic. As I 'correct' the parts I will be ensuring that they do not blow up any of my assemblies.

What I am really curious about, is there a method to move a 'base body' within a part file to get my imported base to center on the origin.

[Anonymous]

So these parts are all just base features from imported parts?
In that case, your main options are:

1. If you have 2010, it is supposed to have the ability to re-orient
these solid bodies (I wouldn't know if it actually works since my boss
cancelled our subscription ;-( )

2. Use the feature recognition addin to turn these into parametric
parts with sketches first, then you can re-define the sketches and
features based on the origin planes and point.

3. Create an assembly and position the part in the assembly where
you want it, then derive that assembly into a new part file, possibly
also translating in/out neutral to permanently break the link to the
original part assembly.

As you might guess, these appear to go from easiest to hardest, IMHO.

Bob

stevemckenna wrote:
> It appears that by far and large that the parts have been located in
> assemblies with references to the part geometry, rather than the origin
> or planes. Its really driving me nuts, as I have always used the origin
> planes for things like orienting pipe or tubing angles at an offset
> angle. Grabbing part faces for this sort of thing is sometimes
> problematic. I have taken a pretty good look at most of the use
> incidences of these parts and I should be okay with a replace, but I
> won't be doing anything drastic. As I 'correct' the parts I will be
> ensuring that they do not blow up any of my assemblies. What I am really
> curious about, is there a method to move a 'base body' within a part
> file to get my imported base to center on the origin.