topic Re: inventor constraints in Inventor Forum

inventor constraints

guymlink — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 15:24:57 GMT

so I have always had 3 major problem's with this program. first is that the way orbit works is prehistoric, and I see way to many people trying to switch to a turn table style orbit like any normal program and they have vary little success. second is how useless the free move and rotate tools are, tho Im fairly sure that's user error. and third, witch is what I need to figure out. is how bloody useless the constraint tools are. they work just fine mating straight, perpendicular, and pivoting objects. but I cant for the life of me figure out how to attach 90% of things together. this current example of witch I have photos attached, is me basically trying to make a box corner. the issue is that none of the pieces are at 90 degree angles. the bottom piece has an obtuse angle that I basically need to make the edge of the left piece flush with. and then the right piece I need to make an edge flush to the face of the left piece after its placed. the 3 photos show the steps of witch I need to happen. but you cant select an edge in flush mode. no I cannot change the parts to make them true.

Re: inventor constraints

JDMather — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 15:32:14 GMT

@guymlink wrote:

1. ... switch to a turn table style orbit

2. second is how useless the free move and rotate tools are,

3. I cant for the life of me figure out how to attach 90% of things together.

1. Click and drag outside of the arc ball.

2. I seldom use Free Move/Rotate as I use assembly constraints and get predictable behavior. (I seldom use edges, preferring to use faces.)

3. See #2. Best to Attach an assembly here that you are having trouble constraining.

Re: inventor constraints

guymlink — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 15:42:47 GMT

admittedly the first 2 points were more of general complaints. I already kind of fixed the first problem after about 3 months of trying to search through forums. you have to switch a setting to constrained orbit and its still the worst out of any program I have used, but thanks. and I guess to sum up my question rather than posting the file(witch usually confuses things) is how do I constrain an edge to be flush with a face. I cant just make the faces flush due to them being at different angles. just trying to achieve a butt joint as shown in the photos. all post the file but it should not be nearly that complicated. lol

Re: inventor constraints

blandb — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 15:42:47 GMT

As @JDMather had mentioned, posting your files along with behavior description will assist in trying to solve your problem. The issue sounds fairly straight forward. Free Rotate will twist your part around for orientation purposes prior to applying constraints. That is if you didn't use the rotate X, Y, Z when placing the component. This way you don't have to twist your entire model around to select faces you need to constrain. Free move will basically just move your components on screen if they are not constrained. If you do either of these commands when a component is already constrained, they will move/rotate, but will show a rubber-band type action with constrain glyph. This shows the user what was used in the constraint. Once you select update, the components will snap back to their constrained positions.

Have you had any formal training?

Re: inventor constraints

guymlink — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 15:48:37 GMT

didn't know you could set a rotation when you insert the object. thanks! and also thought the free transition tools removed the constraints. seams way less useless now. and no on the training. been just googling questions as they come up.

Re: inventor constraints

JDMather — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 16:02:48 GMT

@guymlink wrote:

... you have to switch a setting to constrained orbit

Not necessary. An assembly file is only a set of instructions of how to put the parts together - you must Attach the *.ipt files here for the *.iam to be of any use.

Re: inventor constraints

guymlink — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 16:20:49 GMT

how do I attach more than 3 files then?

Re: inventor constraints

mcgyvr — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 16:26:32 GMT

@guymlink wrote:

how do I attach more than 3 files then?

Zip them up

Re: inventor constraints

guymlink — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 16:31:36 GMT

never done this. I think its right.

Re: inventor constraints

JDMather — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 16:53:12 GMT

Your sketches are all unconstrained rubbish?

What is the source of your sketches?

Re: inventor constraints

guymlink — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 16:53:20 GMT

these files are terrible indeed. trying to do a quick and dirty job. these are physical parts that were scanned in on a printer, traced in inkscape, then dxf exported into autocad, converted into a dwg, then scaled and rotated, before copy pasting into a sketch. not using this for anything more than getting iso metric drawings fast and without much thought. you should see the full file. its a mess. all free placed. its great!...…..

Re: inventor constraints

guymlink — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 16:55:04 GMT

constraining them and making them correct and true would actually mess it up due to them being exactly what the physical parts are.

Re: inventor constraints

JDMather — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 17:02:28 GMT

@guymlink wrote:

….trying to do a quick and dirty job.

...scanned …. traced in inkscape, then dxf exported into autocad, converted into a dwg, then scaled and rotated, before copy pasting into a sketch.

Doesn't sound like a path to success to me.

GIGO principle applies here.

"...still the worst out of any program I have used..."

This isn't Paint.

Re: inventor constraints

guymlink — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 17:22:21 GMT

once again the question is as simple of how do you make an edge flush with a face, or is there another way to achieve the same goal. if you have the 60+ hours to measure and draft over 100 physical pieces with compound curves, and inconsistency's due to a product designed and being hand drafted from over 40 years ago. then lets talk. until then if you don't have an answer, don't know the scope of work and want to spend your time being insulting, demeaning, and not informative, then spend your time on another form. did not ask if this was a path to success of witch this has been working perfectly well for my use case.

Re: inventor constraints

mcgyvr — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 18:28:03 GMT

Your edge cannot be flush with the face as your edge is not running parallel to that face.. So you need to do a constraint using vertex (one point along that edge) and the face

~~(I had an image to attach but they aren't working for me right now)~~ I'll just attach it instead of inline

Re: inventor constraints

guymlink — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 18:31:23 GMT

how do I select a vertex with the constraint tool? seams like that's exactly what I was looking for.

Re: inventor constraints

guymlink — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 18:39:10 GMT

nvm you have to place a point on the vertex. you have no idea how many headaches you have fixed. thankyou!!

Re: inventor constraints

swalton — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 19:02:08 GMT

If you don't have time to model the parts from scratch (or adjust the imported geometry to match what the original design engineer/drafter did) then you might try using the part origin geometry or vertexes and edges to build your constraint scheme. Hover your mouse near a vertex and use the Select Other dropdown to grab that vertex while creating constraints.

Why not tie the imported sketch to the part origin? That way you have some known offsets to the part origin that you can use when constraining parts to each other by the origin planes.

Re: inventor constraints

mcgyvr — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 19:51:43 GMT

@guymlink wrote:

nvm you have to place a point on the vertex. you have no idea how many headaches you have fixed. thankyou!!

@guymlink No you don't have to place a point on the vertex..

You simply use the "select other" function.. By default its going to select edges or faces or whatever.. But by waiting a fixed time (its adjustable see later) a dialog box will come up allowing you to select other features.. like other faces/edges and other vertexes,etc.. You can also just hover over it and right mouse click and pick select other to force that dialog box to come up before the wait..

Select other delay is set in tools..application options..general tab.. look in the lower right in the selection section for select other delay.. Thats the hover delay time until the dialog box comes up on its own..

And here is a video talking about it..

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor-products/getting-started/caas/screencast/Main/Details/361bf2d3-0771-4bff-8c3f-3da7a9bc1dae.html

(maybe you can get something useful out of JD after all )

Re: inventor constraints

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 01:54:10 GMT

In regards to the orbit controls, please see screencast below...