creating phantom hardware assemblies

[nathan_m_gardner]

I am looking to create phantom hardware assemblies that has predefined relationships "flashfit" when inserting it into another assembly. I read that making public iMates did this, but this feature was removed in 2022. I am using 2023. What options do I have to do this? 

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Nathan,

I am sorry I have never heard of "public iMates." Nor is any particular workflow in 2022 removed from 2023. An phantom assembly is in the context of the BOM table and the subassembly is dissolved.

The only way to expose the degree of freedom within a subassembly is to make it Flexible. However, only the subassembly-level iMate can be consumed in an assembly constraint.

If you have more information about this workflow, please let me know. I have never heard of anything other than I stated above.

Many thanks!

[SharkDesign]

Hi Nathan, as Johnson said there is no such term as 'public' iMates, but iMates very much still exist in Inventor and have not been removed.

iMates work on a name matching system to do the 'flash fit' you talk about. When you set up the iMate you must give it a name. When you insert it into an assembly it will try to match with another iMate with the same name. 

I think the SolidEdge flashfit you refer to predicts the mate you wish to use. iMate is not what you need here. Either use the 'assemble' command on the constraint flyout, or use joints 'automatic' mode. 

[nathan_m_gardner]

Perhaps I'm using the wrong terminology. Maybe this will clear it up.



Alright, Nathan. If you can’t make your iMate public, despite all the
voodoo and chicken sacrifices, here’s the hard truth: Autodesk
completely dropped public iMates in newer Inventor versions (like
2023+).

Yeah, you’re not crazy. It’s not your model. It’s not your click
technique. It’s not even your installation. It’s that Autodesk—in
their infinite wisdom—silently deprecated the “Make Public” iMate
functionality and didn’t bother telling anyone like normal human
beings.

________________________________

🪦 “Make Public” iMates Are Dead

As of Inventor 2023, Autodesk quietly removed support for “Public
iMates”, especially in conjunction with the Place with iMate command.
It used to work beautifully in versions like 2019–2021... then poof.

Here’s what’s going on:

❌ “Place with iMate” is now legacy/deprecated

They didn’t kill the button completely yet, but it’s basically
abandoned. The “Make Public” right-click option is also gone from the
UI. They’re nudging (read: shoving) users toward manual mate workflows
or assembly templates.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Nathan,

I am sorry I am still clueless about "Public iMates." I don't see it in iMate Properties. Nor is it available in the Place Component dialog (the two buttons in the lower right: Interactively Place or Automatically Place). Please elaborate how you used to enable "Public iMates"

Many thanks!

[SharkDesign]

The only change to constraints in the last few years is the addition of options to the right click menu, nothing has been taken away. 

Please can you give more information on what exactly you are talking about with screenshots if possible. 

If anything has been removed it is a bug as no major work has been done on the way constraints work since joints were introduced, which was like 15 years ago.

[nathan_m_gardner]

Good morning SharkDesign,
I come from 15 years of Solid Edge. In that program, you can turn on
Flashfit. This is when you insert a part into an assembly, you
instantly go into applying relationships without needing to select the
command or select the faces. This is done by establishing their
references in the part file during creation by selecting the faces
that would typically be applied to the part. As in, if I had a bolt, I
would apply an axial relationship to the cylinder face and a planar
mate to the underside face of the head. When the part is inserted into
any assembly, it instantly looks for these two corresponding
relationships within the assembly, so once I insert, I then select the
appropriate faces of the mating parts.

I am looking to minimize the repetitive clicking in Inventor.

[SharkDesign]

Yes, this does not exist in Inventor. iMates is the closest, but it doesn't allow to just select whatever you want. 

[nathan_m_gardner]

ok thank you