Component demote error

[stinkfinger1112]

Hello everyone!

When I try to demote parts into a Sub Assembly I get an error "HINT ref is NULL" Has anyone seen this? Is there a fix or solution. I attached a picture. Please see attached.

Thanks,

Nick

[Mark.Lancaster]

@stinkfinger1112

Welcome to the Autodesk User's Community..

Not 100% sure but usually that means there's so form of corruption in your model.

[stinkfinger1112]

Can you Demote component patters that were patterned? my co-worker think this might be the issue. when I leave out the hardware and patterns it works?

Thanks,

Nick

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Demoting nested component pattern is not an issue. It should work. Like Mark said, this one looks more like a corruption. Something is wrong here. You could try is to edit the component pattern. Make sure the selected direction is still sensible after demote. Another place to check is the assembly constraints. Maybe some of the constraints have trouble being demoted (change reference). You could suppress or delete the constraints associated with the pattern components and see if the error goes away on demote.

If you can share the files, we can help take a look and see where the exact problem is

Many thanks!

[DRoam]

Resurrecting an old thread, but my issue is very similar.

I tried to demote some components in my assembly (using "tab") and got a 'HINT ref is NULL" error. In my case, the culprit turned out to be a Sketch-driven pattern. When I deleted the sketch-driven component pattern (but kept the source part), I was able to demote my components. There were some rectangular component patterns in my selection, but they demoted just fine.

Upon restarting Inventor, I tried the exact same demote operation, and rather than a "HINT ref is NULL" error, I got a much friendlier (but equally unwelcome) "Assembly structure failure" error. I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to demote these components together.

I've attached a small sample dataset that should demonstrate the issue. It's an assembly with nothing but a source part with a sketch-driven feature pattern, and a second part that's component-patterned associative to the feature pattern. I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to demote these together. But if I select both of them and hit Tab to demote, then follow the dialogs, I eventually get the "Assembly structure failure" error.

This is using Inventor 2017.4.7.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Derek,

This is an excellent catch! It is a bug. I am able to reproduce it. It should work. I will work with the project team and see what we can do.

Many thanks!

[mmcalavetta84]

I'm not sure if this was figured out but I just ran into this issue promoting parts from one .iam to another. I found out that my pattern had elements that were Independent. Once I turned the Independent off I was able to promote all my pieces including the patterns.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Likely there are constraints between some component occurrences and other components leading to the failure. Please share an example that exhibits the behavior.

Many thanks!