Automating assembly creation

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

Apologies if something like this has been posted already but i have looked and cant find things that help so far.

what I'm trying to do is automate (or easily create) assemblies in inventor. im not sure whether iAssemblies are the best way forward or whether a template file would be best.

preferably i want to be able to open the assembly template file, fill in a form and press save and have inventor create the parts, insert them into the assembly and save parts and assembly wherever i save the assembly.

i currently do this with part files and then place these part files into an assembly but i feel like im missing something simple to do it with an assembly template. i fiddled with iLogic to get the parts to save when the assembly would be saved but they ended up going to the templates folder. i also couldnt get the forms to show up from the part files when opening the assembly and when trying to make a new form in the assembly it wouldnt let me target the part file parameters.

if its something too complex to do or not possible thats fine it would just take out a couple of steps in my workflow

[SharkDesign · Accepted solution]

This is possible with iLogic but pretty difficult to set up properly. 

You can also do it with copy design in Vault.

This is a fairly good method though which involves minimal ilogic knowledge (copy and paste)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qu7jwK9M6k

[A.Acheson]

Can you please give more examples of your industry product type and workflow? Have you predefined all your parts in advance of making your assembly? Are you producing drawings based on the assembly and or parts?.

Ilogic would be your best approach if you want to place parts from a list in an excel sheet into an assembly, assemble as needed and semi produce a drawing by placing scaled views. You just have to do the work up front. Great if your parts are standardized and not all custom. iAssemblies are predefined assemblies and all the parts are stored in a library file, use iParts and you cannot use custom iParts and isn’t as flexible as ilogic. 

If you want to post a sample of an assembly you want to automate place parts and assembly in a zip folder and attach. You can have this post moved over to the ilogic forum. 

[Anonymous]

Hi Thanks for the reply, the previous answer really helped with the youtube video linked. but to answer your questions:

Can you please give more examples of your industry product type and workflow? i have a template part currently that is mostly predefined but has a form to finalise certain things such as the number of holes in the part or the size of those holes. unfortunately for each assembly these can be different but most of the other parameters remain the same or are defined from the form

 Have you predefined all your parts in advance of making your assembly? not exactly. as stated above the parts are standard parts but can vary for example with the number or sizes of holes in them. i am defining the final sizes in the assembly now.

Are you producing drawings based on the assembly and or parts? 

yes, the assemblies will be used in a drawing, the parts may be used but not often in a drawing.

thankfully i have managed to find a working solution and i am putting the finishing touches on it now but it seems to be working as i had hoped.

[A.Acheson]

I am glad you are on the right track. The assembly style and control of the parts have many different approaches and can sometimes go into a mind melt as to where to control what. You could do all the hole placement in the top assembly or in the parts etc. I would try and mimic the actually assembly procedure as much as possible this way the containers are set up in the right workflow, drawings etc 

Regarding controlling forms in parts you can either left click edit the part and access the form there or create an external rule to allow you to click on a part then run a rule in the part to open the part form (I have this set up for a master sketch) Or just drive the form parameters from the top assembly just like in @SharkDesign video. 

[SBix26]

I would strongly urge you to take this to the Inventor iLogic, API & VBA Forum.  I have heard of and seen Inventor add-ins which do exactly what you're asking, and much more.  Imagine a wizard that takes the user through all possible product options and then creates the models, assemblies, drawings and parts lists pretty much to the customer's order.

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Sam B
Inventor Pro 2022.1 | Windows 10 Home 20H2
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