Drawing wires / File size

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am a design engineer and am involved in designing high spec packaging machines. The file size of a standard machine is approx 10-12Mb. The model does not include any nuts/bolts etc, nor does it include any wiring, due to the potential size of the file.

However, recently I have been asked to start including wires on the model. I am using Inventor Product design suite 2015, so i do not have any access to the wiring tool that other versions have. Due to this issue, I have been drawing the wires on the machine via the 3D sketch command and then using the sweep tool. It works great....but each wire file is in excess of over 2Mb, which i assume is down to the complexity of the sweep. There are 30 motor cables alone, so each model will now consist of an extra 60Mb, which my computer cannot handle. Is there a way round this problem?

How would the file size compare if i did have the wiring tool?

I have attached a few jpgs to help explain my problem.

Hope i made it clear,

Thanks,

Paul

[Cadmanto]

Paul,

As another suggestion, look into tube and pipe to create the wires.  You can create your own hose types and have them look like wires.

If this solved your issue please mark this posting "Accept as Solution".

Or if you like something that was said and it was helpful, Kudos are appreciated. Thanks!!!! 

     

[mcgyvr]

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@Cadmanto wrote:

Paul,

As another suggestion, look into tube and pipe to create the wires.  You can create your own hose types and have them look like wires.

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Huh? Why?

If he gets "professional" then he gets both tube/pipe and cable/harness modules.. So why use T&P when you have the ability to do cable/harnesses in the same package.

My suggestion (and the only real solution IMO) is to upgrade to Inventor professional and use the built in cable/harness functionality. The time saved due to the added functionality is EASILY worth the cost to upgrade. 

Requesting a demo would let you evaluate if it will work or not before you pony up the cash.. 

[SBix26]

Can you post a sample of a wire file?  2 MB seems really large, even for a complicated path.

Sam B

Inventor Professional 2015 SP1 Update 2
Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit, SP1
HP EliteBook 8770w; 8 GB RAM; Core™ i7-3720QM 2.60 GHz; Quadro K4000M

[Cadmanto]

If he is able to upgrade then I agree with you whole hardedly.

But, if he is not, I am just offering a possible work around with what he has got.

If this solved your issue please mark this posting "Accept as Solution".

Or if you like something that was said and it was helpful, Kudos are appreciated. Thanks!!!! 

     

[mcgyvr]

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@Cadmanto wrote:

If he is able to upgrade then I agree with you whole hardedly.

But, if he is not, I am just offering a possible work around with what he has got.

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T&P and C&H come in the same package.. AFAIK.

You can't get one without getting the other. 

He just has standard Inventor.. He needs to upgrade to professional and he gets both.

[Anonymous]

Here is an example of one of the wires. In an ideal world where money was no issue, we would have upgraded to pro a long time ago.

Thanks for your input guys

[JDMather · Accepted solution]

Your profile is not perpendicular to the path.

Therefore your wire is not round - it is elliptical shape along the entire path.

Examine the attached revision.

My file size with round wire is a little smaller than yours.

(in the attached - I turned off Adaptivity of the workplane - but that does not make a difference either way)

[Anonymous]

That's great, I would have NEVER have guessed that by not drawing my profile perpendicular to the path would have such an impact!

[mcgyvr]

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@Anonymous wrote:

In an ideal world where money was no issue, we would have upgraded to pro a long time ago.

Thanks for your input guys

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In this world "Time is Money"...

Even though you seem to have found a solution I would still suggest getting a demo and seeing how much time it "could" save you.

Like I said I would think it would pay for itself in under 1 year..(depending on how many wires you do and with a machine like that I'd suspect its quite a few)

[Anonymous]

I am completely aware of how beneficial the pro version would be. Unfortunately, my boss isn't... ££££££