CREATING CONFIGURATIONS

[Anonymous]

I am trying to make the transition from Solidworks to Inventor.  I'm finding it very difficult to create assemblies using various configurations of parts.

I am doing an assembly for  a wire shelf in the formed and flat view.  I gave up on creating a formed and unformed configuration of the wire so I created two separate parts.  In the assembly I have both parts inserted and mated.  I find I can't suppress parts in one configuration of the assembly without them suppressing in every configuration.  What am I missing?  I've been doing this for 25 years.  I just need to get a handle on this software.

[ampster40]

If you haven't discovered this yet, I believe "iParts" and possibly "iAssemblies" are what you might be interested in. Curious though, even with SolidWorks, an assembly file all by itself is useless, correct?

[mdavis22569]

You only attached the assembly, still need the ipt's

[ampster40]

I'm one version behind the most recent version, but I still gambled and downloaded your files and was able to open them in 2015 at least. However, when trying to open your assembly file, it's complaining about not finding specific-named files, ie, by chance, did you rename any of these files outside of Inventor like thru Windows Explorer? This thread has the potential of going the 20 questions route before you'll find an answer. Look into iParts and possibly some instructor led training.

[salariua · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the forum.

Your need to change to Edit Member Scope to make changes in the current configuration only. 

http://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2015/ENU/?guid=GUID-49F6AD2D-294E-4957-8A20-9A76E2737E78

[salariua · Accepted solution]

Can you uploat a copy of Vertical Wire.ipt to show you how to do flat patern configuration?

You need to add an unfold/refold operation and use that in the ipart table.

check my part attached (2015)

[Anonymous]

Salaria,  You are the master!  Thank you!  This is how you build a wire shelf that unfolds and maintains the wire spacing.  I've only been using Inventor for a couple of weeks. 

[salariua]

Congrats... that looks really nice.

Vertical Wire 2 / Cut 1 / Sketch5 needs an equal constraint for one of the circle cuts. It's floating now free to drag

Just to get you up to speed I have attached 3 more ways you could have done the Vertical Wire 2 ..... very similar but I haven't constrained the original sketch and I think maybe the round cuts need to be done in flatten mode like I did but that's for you to decide.

I hope we gave you a good start on Inventor and a positive feeling about the forum here.

[DRoam]

I'm trying to get the word out about a particular IdeaStation feature request regarding iParts, so I'm scouring the forums for threads like this one which touch on the weaknesses of iParts.

Part configurations are a common and important element in professional 3D drafting, used to communicate different geometry configurations and machinging stages of a part. They should be very simple to work with, but Inventor has several critical weaknessess which make working with part configurations very cumbersome. The following IdeaStation Feature Request suggests four enhancements to help iParts reach their full potential.

Below is a reproduction of the IdeaStation post. If you think these suggestions would be effective enhancements, please click the link below and cast a Kudo. The more votes it receives, the more priority Autodesk will likely give to makeing these game-changing improvements. Thank you!

Reproduction of IdeaStation post:

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Suggested improvements:

1. For iParts, store the iPart and its members in a single file.

…rather than a separate file for each member.

2. Keep the Material and iProperties in sync.

For iParts, keep the Material and iProperties in sync between all iPart members unless the properties are specifically added to the iPart table. For Derived Parts, optionally derive the material from the Master [source] file (this also necessitates being able to assign a material to each body in a multi-body part)

3. Include Work Features for use at Assembly level.

In iParts, include Work Features in all members unless the features are specifically added to the iPart table. In Derived Parts, include Work Features in the part itself, not within the Base feature where they are only accessible when the Assembly Browser is in Modeling View.

4. Make Feature Patterns in iParts and Derived Parts accessible to Assemblies.

This way Feature Patterns in iParts and Derived Parts can be used to drive associative Component Patterns in Assemblies.

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Click here to view the IdeaStation thread and cast a Kudo!