Creating simple series of large numbers of parts using excel spreadsheet and parameter list

[jtorborgJEYBR]

Hello and thanks in advance!

I am looking to replicate something I believe I have been able to do in Siemens NX, but in inventor instead. The basic idea is that I want to generate one screw in inventor, name some key parameters, then generate a list of screws (not bolts, no the bolt catalog won't help) with certain parameters in excel and then generate a series of parts to print off and do physical testing with. Say for example I wanted to do 10 tip angles and also 10 thread pitches - that's a lot of models to make one by one. It's still a lot of models to zip to the parameters menu, adjust one parameter and do a "save as" like 100 times. Plus, I'd like to be able to make edits to the models all at once later if possible too, although that's less necessary. I am fairly certain there has to be a way either using ilogic or the parameters menu directly, to link each parameter to an excel sheet, make the changes I want in excel en masse (either by using multiple columns, or even if I had to use multiple sheets it still seems easier) and then import those changes to generate for example 100 parts all at once, for some pretty simple models.

Is this even possible in inventor or is this a fundamental limitation? Will this rabbit hole I'm on lead to a dead end?

If I wanted to just change the part parameters for the active file I'm on and "save as" every time, I would just press F1 and use the parameters menu itself, per below, but it's tough to do that in an organized and efficient way every time I want to create a series of parts. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Any direction would be enormously helpful, thanks for your time!

[Frederick_Law]

A few ways to do that:

Content Center

Model State

iPart/iAssembly

iLogic

[CStilesCARE]

If you're sure that a custom Content Center library wouldn't work for you, then maybe you could do what you're looking for by creating an iPart?

I have very little experience with them, but they're essentially table-driven part files. You create a part model, then turn it into an iPart from the "Author" section of the "Manage" tab.

After that, you have to select what Parameters, iProperties, feature suppression, etc., will be driven by the table and what the values will be for each.

Every column in the table represents something about the part that can change or be set, and every row represents one unique configuration of these columns.

Once the table is created, I believe you can choose to edit it from Excel, which might make things easier.

One thing to note: Unless it's changed recently, I don't think Inventor supports changing expressions in iProperties for table-driven files (iParts, iAssemblies, Model States).

So, one row can't have a description of "=<Thickness> x <Width>" and another have "=<Thickness> x <Height>". It will make you change one so they're all the same.

Having an expression that EVALUATES to different results is fine though, as long as the "formula" doesn't change.

[jtorborgJEYBR]

Ah, perfect! iPart seems like exactly the solution I was looking for! I will check out the help section for that feature, this helps enormously! Now to figure out how to use it. Thanks a bunch! Also, thanks for the wicked fast response! I'll update this when it works, but I expect this to be a great solution.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Or, Model States in 2022 and later releases.

Many thanks!

[jtorborgJEYBR]

Update: iParts was exactly the functionality I was after and is a perfect solution. I'm now learning how to drive some of those parameters with ilogic, thank you all for the help! Hopefully this thread helps anyone else who was looking to do the type of thing I was, but doesn't know where to start.