Can I Automatically Suppress a Part in Every Other Configuration?

[Anonymous]

I am planning on adding multiple configurations to my assembly,and I was wondering if there were any way to place a component only in the configuration I am working in.  I know the master will show all configurations, but I am meaning is there a way to make the part I placed in "Level of Detail: C" be automatically suppressed in "Level of Detail: A and B"? Maybe with some iLogic rule or some setting?

[ToddHarris7556]

There are a few approaches to this, that I can think of: 

1) LOD's

While you certainly could create individual LOD's and suppress individual parts, it gets out of control pretty quickly as the number of configurations and/or parts increase. LOD's were originally designed as a memory management feature. You can use them for configurations, but they're not great.

2) iAssembly

In my mind, this sounds like it has iAssembly written all over it. iAssembly is a table-based configuration workflow, much like iParts. New configurations involve adding another row to the table, and selecting part status. It's not the Holy Grail - it can still turn into a big table - but in my experience these are easier to manage that LOD's. It's quite easy with LOD's to inadvertently edit a configuration. iAssembly is more robust, IMO.

3) iLogic

In much the same way that LOD's were designed for another purpose, iLogic offers 'rules-based design' functionality. iLogic is powerful and can be made to do a lot, but maybe configurations are only 'rules-based' in a very broad sense. i.e. 'if configNo = xxx, then suppress these things'. Every time you add new configurations, you'd end up editing code. 

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Like Todd mentioned here, there are some Configuration workflows in Inventor. But, depends on what you want to do, there is a better workflow among those. LOD is a memory management tool, not a Configuration tool.

Could you elaborate what exactly you want to do? Forum experts can help suggest a good workflow.

Many thanks!