topic Re: Model states in assembly parts and subassembly parts in Inventor Forum

Model states in assembly parts and subassembly parts

r_rybinskiA9RRF — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 15:01:00 GMT

Hello,

I have a question about model states. I am using Autodesk Inventor 2022 and I am facing some issue (or maybe it is a feature I don't understand completely)

Lets assume that I have a master assembly Assembly2.iam and sub assembly Assembly1.iam. I have also 2 parts Part1 and Part 2. Each of them have 2 model states (A and B).

I save Part1 with model state A (Part1(A) ) and Part2 with model state B (Part2(B).)

Now when I open Assembly1 and insert Part1 and Part2 (they have correct model states).

Now I want to insert Assembly1 in Assembly2 (master). From now, when I edit Assembly1 and try to insert Part1 or Part2 it has default model state. What else - I cannot change model state of parts in sub assemblies (it is not accessible). I have to open Assembly1 in new window to edit model state of new part - which is a little bit frustrating.

Am I doing something wrong or it is a "feature" 😉 ?

Re: Model states in assembly parts and subassembly parts

Frederick_Law — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 15:11:10 GMT

Make assembly modelstate with different modelstate parts.

Re: Model states in assembly parts and subassembly parts

CCarreiras — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 15:40:17 GMT

Hi!

This is a normal behaviour, as other things, that belong to the sub-assembly, and you can only edit if you are in the sub-assembly environment. as an example: if you need to change/edit a constrain in the sub-assembly, you have to be editing the subassembly. I'm not saying that i agree, is just the way it works.

As a workaround, If you need to use that sub-assembly in several main assemblies, but with different configurations, you can do this:

Create model states in the sub assembly that will reflect in the sub assemblies' parts, example:

Re: Model states in assembly parts and subassembly parts

CCarreiras — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 15:46:37 GMT

You can even do that at the main assembly level:

In resume, you can use and change the model states across (Linking) all the levels to do it automatically, but, if you wanna do that manually, you have to open each sub-assembly in his own context, to change the model state.

Re: Model states in assembly parts and subassembly parts

kacper.suchomski — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 17:41:07 GMT

Additionally, if you name your component and assembly model states the same, you can use the model state linking tool to speed up variant creation.

https://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-D1CED5D8-F043-4555-BBA5-2C6029AF819F

Re: Model states in assembly parts and subassembly parts

r_rybinskiA9RRF — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 08:35:38 GMT

Thank you @CCarreiras for detailed explanation.

Betreff: Model states in assembly parts and subassembly parts

tableauzeichner1 — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 12:09:55 GMT

Hi, i have got the same problem. Have you found any solution other than the ones from the replies?

I am not happy with the solutions in the replies, because i have many parts in the subassembly that have many modelstates. That means i would have thousands of modelstates in the subassembly or the master assembly.

Also the subassembly should only change in the master assembly, because i want to use the subassembly in more than one master assemlby. So if i change the modelstates of the Parts with parameters for example, the subassembly will change not only in one master assembly, but in all master assemblies.

I hope there are more ideas about this subject.

Have a great day.

Nico 🙂

Betreff: Model states in assembly parts and subassembly parts

johnsonshiue — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 20:51:02 GMT

Hi! This is an internal limitation. The reason is that for a given component (part or assembly), the Model States cannot be edited in two different contexts. As a result, the target file has to be opened in its own window.

Please feel free to share the files here. We can take a closer look to verify the above statement.

Many thanks!

Re: Model states in assembly parts and subassembly parts

carles_colls — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 09:56:40 GMT

Well this topic partially answered my question. TY.

I find really weird and unpractical the model states implementation on 2022.

I have, for mechanical, construction, etc. reasons nested several assemblies, as most of us.

In order to have a change in the parent assembly regarding ONE COMPONENT nested 4 times, I have to create, for each assembly, a model state reflecting the change of the model state of a part. Right?

In the process / construction / real-world perspective its a mess. Since, I might have a final product (assembly) which can be modified after a normal construction and then add the subprocess to modify the part, but with this system I have to create a whole new sets of modifications in the model tree: some of which might be restricted or require approval to be edited.

Is this improved in later implementations of Inventor (form 2022)?

Is there a way to circumvent this limitation?

Re: Model states in assembly parts and subassembly parts

johnsonshiue — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 22:56:58 GMT

Hi! This Model States limitation still persists. At the moment, Model States table can only manage variations within its own document, not across the documents. As a result, any cross-component relationship (Adaptive, Derive, and specialized components workflows) cannot be configured using Model States.

When you need to drive cross-component relationship, I don't think Model States workflow is an ideal solution for that. Instead, you would want to look into iLogic Configuration workflow.

Many thanks!

Re: Model states in assembly parts and subassembly parts

carles_colls — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 10:25:33 GMT

Ty,

I'll take a look if iLogic Configuration can solve the issue, but AFAIK that is more oriented to create families of components than "variations" (adding operations afterwards) which I thought "model states" is meant for.

I'm still learning the very basics of Inventor so I'm sure I'm missing lots of points and workflows that might help.

In my ideal world "model states" would allow have variation of the same operation (f.e. select different faces in an extrusion or different paths in ), being me, responsible of part crashes generated by missing references of later operations. I think this is the reason, in the first place, why that is not allowed.

Re: Model states in assembly parts and subassembly parts

hollypapp65 — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 15:08:27 GMT

@carles_colls wrote:

I have, for mechanical, construction, etc. reasons nested several assemblies, as most of us.
In order to have a change in the parent assembly regarding ONE COMPONENT nested 4 times, I have to create, for each assembly, a model state reflecting the change of the model state of a part. Right?

Depends.

You can modify the lowest level part and all upper level will get the updated part. As long as that is what you need. It's like an revision update of the part.

If the part got "replaced" with another part then a new ModelState is required.

I'm building cabinets. ModelState works great because I can change a hole size and all different ModelState get the update. Of course it also means 1000 parts got a new rev and 1000 new drawings.

Still got a few years of drawings update to do.