topic Re: Can's use model states and iAssembly/iParts together? in Inventor Forum

Can's use model states and iAssembly/iParts together?

chad.schmidt — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 15:53:35 GMT

Not sure why iAssembly/iParts functionality is grayed out using Inventor 2022. I know Autodesk wants to throw away iAssembly/iParts but lets not do this until model states are 100% working like iAssembly/iParts. I currently use both LOD's and iAssembly/iParts. I'm having problems with model states not showing all configurations in a tabulated drawing. This functionally works with iAssembly/iParts but not model states.

Re: Can's use model states and iAssembly/iParts together?

mcgyvr — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 17:38:36 GMT

Can you share more detail/information and model files to attempt to address the problems you are currently having with model states?

Re: Can's use model states and iAssembly/iParts together?

chad.schmidt — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 17:48:19 GMT

For the most part I need to be able to generate a tabulated BOM in the drawing. This feature exists for iAssemblies but doesn't appear as an option for model states.

Re: Can's use model states and iAssembly/iParts together?

mcgyvr — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 19:50:17 GMT

Sorry.. I did not catch on to you stating iassy/iparts was "grayed out" in 2022..

It works just fine for me.. (see image below in 2022)

And yes unfortunately model states do not have tabulated parts list functions..

Re: Can's use model states and iAssembly/iParts together?

chad.schmidt — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 19:56:15 GMT

Start a part and put a couple of model states in it then see if you can create a ipart. I really think model states are half baked.

Re: Can's use model states and iAssembly/iParts together?

mcgyvr — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 20:34:15 GMT

@chad.schmidt wrote:

Start a part and put a couple of model states in it then see if you can create a ipart. I really think model states are half baked.

Yes it seems that once you use model states you can't also use iassy/iparts..

What specifically are you trying to use LOD's for that you can't do in iassemblies? LOD was really legacy functionality solely due to memory limitations when Windows only supported 3Gb of RAM that just allowed you to unload stuff from memory.. Some seemed to use it as workarounds for other functionality Inventor didn't really support well with iassy..

Seems like you may be in the likely small minority who tried to use both LOD and iparts..

and yes I'm still a little surprised model states don't support tabulated parts list..

While I'm running 2022 I haven't explored them yet.. We do use iparts/iassemblies but don't do tabulated parts lists anymore.. Heck we don't do any parts lists anymore in Inventor... We don't do any drawings for internal assemblies.. Just outside purchased parts

Re: Can's use model states and iAssembly/iParts together?

johnsonshiue — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 21:54:56 GMT

Hi! Model States and iPart/iAssembly factory are mutually exclusive. An iPart/iAssembly factory file only has Master Model State. No additional Model State can be created. A part or an assembly with a non-Master Model State cannot be converted to iPart/iAssembly.

Many thanks!

Re: Can's use model states and iAssembly/iParts together?

chad.schmidt — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 14:28:04 GMT

LOD and iassembly could exist simultaneously. Now that model states has taken over this is no longer possible.

Re: Can's use model states and iAssembly/iParts together?

johnsonshiue — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 19:05:58 GMT

Hi Chad,

Yes, it is true LOD and iAssembly did coexist. However, LOD is a memory management tool. It should not be relevant to iAssembly, since it does not alter the design. It simply unloads files to consume less memory.

Model States is different. It does alter the design. Each Model State has its own BOM and properties. Suppressing a component means deduction from BOM table.

Many thanks!

Re: Can's use model states and iAssembly/iParts together?

vandoren.david — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 14:34:59 GMT

If this is the case, do we no longer have a memory management tool for iassemblies? We create very large iassemblies and would like to easily toggle to a light weight version as next higher level could have many of these larger iassembly children (no I dont want to replace it with a simplified part model).

In our workflow, iAssy's are variants of an assembly. Sometimes we want to design with lighter versions within the next higher level. I feel this if a lost feature if no longer possible. Any suggestions to update our workflow?

Re: Can's use model states and iAssembly/iParts together?

johnsonshiue — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 02:46:27 GMT

Hi David,

You may use Design View to help hide components similar to LOD suppress. It is 100% equivalent. The invisible components are not fully loaded on open, which reduces the memory footprint.

Many thanks!