Why does Member and PartNumber exist in an iPart table?

[oransen]

There must be a good reason why both Member and PartNumber columns automatically exist in an iPart table, but what is it?

Wouldn't just PartNumber do?

[cbenner]

I'm sure this dates back to the first release of Inventor, and was probably set up so that you can have both a numerical part number AND a descritor to make it easier for users to select the correct member without having to memorize part numbers.  But that's just a guess.  I've never thought of it as a problem before.

[jletcher]

Actually it was put in I believe Inventor 9 or 10 I think the member name was put in for ilogic for web based part generator.

I have iparts back from the day one and they don't have member name.

[cbenner]

Thanks for the clarification James, I started with Inventor 10.  I was an Acad guy before that.

[oransen]

So the PartNumber can be regarded as the real index into the table, and the Member can be regarded as a short description?

I'll have to test which must be unique...maybe both must be unique to the row or just one...

[jletcher]

Member Name can be anything you want as long as there are not two the same in the ipart same as the part number.

The part number and Member name do not have to match...

If you have two the same errors will pop up..

And I use the part number or a key that can be anything, a size, Description, anything you want to use for the index.

[oransen]

It seems that Member is the key index (in db terms) of the table. I can have duplicate part numbers but not duplicate member names, as you pointed out.

But my experiments raised another question...

If I change the Member I get a "this will change the filename" error message. That I don't understand because surely an iPart has a single filename...? (even though it might have 20 rows...?)

[jtylerbc · Accepted solution]

The main file you are working in is the iPart Factory.  This file's name will not be changed by the modification of member names in the table.

The iPart also generates "children" files, which represent each of the members of your table.  These are files that you normally don't have to do much with, as they are controlled by the table in the Factory part.  The file names for these child parts are controlled by the member name from the table - hence, when you change the member names, their file names will change.  This (not the name of the factory part) is what the warning message was referring to.

[johnsonshiue · Accepted solution]

Hi! Prior to R11, Inventor iPart used Key columns to distinguish members. It worked well for most parts but it had its own limitation like long file names and difficulty of managing members efficiently. With iAssembly coming in R11, there is a need to have a dedicated column distinguishing members. One may say Part Number column can be used already. Why is a new column needed? It is because sometimes members can have the same Part Number. PN is just a user book-keeping attribute. We need a column with unique values.

In summary, the Member column has to be there. The cell values can be changed but they have to be unique. Please do not delete or relocate the column.

Thanks!

[cadcamm99]

Are you saying that I need to have both columns in the table?  If I remove the Part Number column, my members do not show up when I go to check in the factory.