Reorder Work Features and Component Patterns in Assembly browser

[jhunt107]

I can not drag/reorder Work Features and Component Patterns in the assembly browser. I see no reason why this is not possible. Please fix this, thank you.

[jhunt107]

Also, Bolted Connections can't be reordered. WHY, WHY, WHY??? I presume other types of design accelerators have the same issue.

[dan_szymanski]

Accepted ideas [17810]. Thanks!

[DRoam]

Patterns also cannot be promoted/demoted to existing assemblies, and similarly for Tube & Pipe components. There's no reason why this shouldn't be possible, either, and it's a crucial feature in my opinion. Might we see this added any time soon?

[ak_staib]

Please fix. We have the same Problem here.

Thanks

[nick.spiers]

I'm trying to put a component pattern in a folder in the browser but unless the folder is at the bottom this can't be done. We have multiple folders in our base asemblies so we can copy design the base to a project and remove components specific to the project by removing appropriate folders. To make our lives easier we have the folders at the top of the browser but if component patterns are involved this doesn't work. Seems like a simple enough request. Would love to see some action on this.

[DRoam]

I would love to see this added. @dan_szymanski, would it be possible to have this functionality added soon, as it's been in the "Accepted" status for over 2 years?

[dan_szymanski]

Hi DRoam,

Unfortunately I am unable to comment on future plans.  When an Idea is marked as "Accepted" it means it is in our product backlog, as outlined within the IdeaStation definition:  Accepted: The idea has been added to the products feature requests.  One factor many IdeaStation community members overlook is that when some Ideas were authored (like this one) there were only some 300-500 Ideas posted in Total.  The Inventor IdeaStation was rolled out in Nov of 2012.  This request has not been removed from our product backlog nor forgotten.  However today there are over 2,700 new Ideas posted here, some with very high kudo counts.  All this to say, the Inventor Engineering team pays close attention to the requests (Ideas) posted here as well as the comments made, however we can only deliver so much in a given release.  I assure you we are doing all we can to make Inventor a professional grade design tool.  Thank you for your continued passion to improve Inventor.  Regards -Dan

[DRoam]

Dan - that makes sense, thanks for the explanation. Part of the reason I asked about this idea specifically is that it seems so simple to implement. It doesn't get much more basic than re-ordering items in the Assembly browser tree. As far as I understand, in contrast to the Part browser order, the Assembly browser order has no effect on the model itself at all. It's a visual thing more than anything else, used mostly for organizing components in an order that makes sense--which is why it would be so nice to be able to re-order items freely.

But I understand and appreciate the desire to make the most-requested functionality top priority. I definitely don't want that to change. But it would be nice for basic and (at least seemingly) simple features like this one to be thrown in near the top, as they can hopefully be implemented relatively easily without delaying the more major requests. That goes for all of the more rudimentary IdeaStation requests, not just this one. Thanks again for the reply and to the Engineering team for all their efforts.

[SteveMDennis]

DRoam, I know it seems simple but it really isn't that simple unfortunately. This one specifically is always high on my radar because I am the original author of the Assembly browser. You are correct that there are not the parametric limitations that the part browser has but there are some compute semantics behind browser order in the assembly as well as some browser architectural reasons we haven't done this. When you start to factor in folders and the add ins like tube and pipe (which does use order for somethings) it gets complicated quickly. Another defect I have in my queue is related to dragging/reordering of virtual components. That one is easier and I hope to address that one this year. Work Features and patterns are a bit more complicated and I hope we can get it scheduled sometime soon. Just want to add some developer flavor to this thread (Dan asked me to!)

[DRoam]

Hi Steven, thanks very much for that info! I almost said that for all I know, this functionality which seems simple to me may be a lot more complicated under the hood. I had hoped it wasn't, but it definitely sounds like it is. I appreciate that some thought has been put into it and it might be looked at more intently down the road. Thanks for taking the time to explain the situation!

Oh, and this is something I just realized--to me, "Accepted" sounds a little inaccurate for this situation. "Future Consideration" or "Under Review" would be more accurate in my opinion, even based on the definitions of those terms in the Guidelines. I realize there are probably specific criteria that qualify this idea as "Accepted"... but I would guess that when the Inventor community sees "Accepted", the general perception is that the idea is actively being worked on for the next release of Inventor. If that's not the case for an idea, but it is being considered, then perhaps a status of "Under Review" or "Future Consideration" with an explanation, like what you just provided, would be more accurate and would go a long way. Just some thoughts. Thanks again for the information!

[mcgyvr]

Don't forget Cable/Harness nodes too.. They still cannot be reordered freely.. 

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-forum/a-short-letter-from-a-component-pattern/td-p/2821634

[DRoam]

@mcgyvr, your touching letter made me cry... Don't do that to me.

[mcgyvr]

@DRoam 

And sadly here we are 7 years still without a home..

That poor little component pattern has track marks all over its arms now and has resorted to prostitution and cooking meth just to stay alive..

Poor little guy..  

[alexmende]

Patterns cannot be moved in the Model Tree. This means that you can't order your model tree.

Please make patterns movable in the Model Tree. See the screencast. Thanks.

[Andrew2803]

Hi @alexmende;

I have noticed that in the past, when creating a folder directly below a pattern,

and then try to drag and pull the pattern above the folder with some waiting,

the pattern will move into the folder. The thing is, this method appears to be not always working 🙂

Just a hint though...

[philthalmann]

Yes I agree with both of you. Patterns and folders need to be able to move in the browser.

[iUser]

Yes, I completely support this idea!!!!

[nico]

Ellowah

Being able to drag a patterned component in the browser would be handy to keep things clean in folders.

This is becomming more and more important since I work a lot with custom configurators to quikcly generate larger setups.

I've seen this suggested a few times with promises of being implemented later down the line but so far it still hasn't made it so hence this post.+

I would think this should be relativly easy to do?

Kind Regards,

Van Donick Nico

[dan_szymanski]

We are refining procedures around idea status.  Changing this to Future Consideration.

[sergio.missori]

In Inventor 2016 work features in assemblies cannot be reordered and you can't move parts above a plane when it is the last item.

But if I insert a new part it is at the end and then I can drag anything above that part and the plane becomes the first.

That seems much more a bug than a software limitation