Finding bolted connections from model to the model tree

[Anonymous]

Is there an easy way to locate bolted connections in the browser workflow tree? Sometimes I need to find a bolted connection in an assembly, if I change my mode to select feature priority and click on the feature - then find in browser it does not work. I have resorted to opening every bolted connection and clicking on the mates within them to try and find the one I'm trying to delete. Am i missing something? 

[thomas.fitzgerald]

Bolted connections are an assembly of components.  If you want to find them easier from the graphics window, I would set my selection priority to Component Priority.  You might also have Pre-Highlight turned off, which would make things more challenging.  With Component Priority set, simply right click on the component in the graphics window and select "Find In Browser".

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Another workflow is to do search in the Browser. Click on the magnifier icon in the browser. Simply type the name. The browser nodes not fitting the name will be filtered out.

Many thanks!

[Anonymous]

So we do a-lot of steelwork manufacturing at my workplace ( I'm aware of Revit), often we have one component that has the bolt holes and use the bolted connection in the top level assembly down to the lower assembly parts. No bolts or any hardware are added to the model when making the bolted connection, it is just to get the hole into the parts to make drawings from. So when i click on a bolted connection in the browser tree nothing is highlighted because there is nothing in these bolted connection assemblies.

I want to be able to click the bolted connection in the browser tree and easily show in the model where that connection is. At the moment i have to expand the bolted connections and click on the mates that have been automatically generated within the bolted connection assemblies, some of my main assemblies have like 50 bolted connections so it can be annoying.

Also i want to be able to click on a hole made by a bolted connection in the model (by selecting feature priority) and have that bolted connection highlight itself in the browser tree which is does not because there is nothing in my bolted connections.

And lastly this is another issue with the bolted connection, we cannot just simply leave it as boltedconnection1.iam, we have to manually add on the assembly number boltedconnection1-A01402.iam before we can save to vault because we get clashes, is there a way similar to the frame generator automatic part number generator inbuilt into inventor  for bolted connections? at the moment i believe there is not.

If you could answer these questions and query's it would be greatly appreciated, thanks. 

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Marcus,

You are using a very interesting workflow. I have to admit it is the first time I see Bolted Conns created as such. I don't have good answers to your questions. The File Naming defaults for Frame Gen, Tube&Pipe, and Copy/Mirror can be set up on 2021. But, I am not aware of a way to do so for Bolted Conn components.

I did a quick search on Inventor App store. I am not sure if there is an app for you to solve your request. Below is the MightyBrowser app. Please take a look and see if it helps.

https://apps.autodesk.com/INVNTOR/en/Detail/Index?id=7057613891666330516&appLang=en&os=Win64

Many thanks!

[slack-marcus]

I'm basically self taught, so you have to get creative sometimes. Maybe I would be better adding the bolts and nuts into the assembly's. How would doing so impact an assembly's performance in terms of model speed? and it would be quite good to have an automatic bolted connection numbering system because it's really easy to forget to change the name then i have to delete it and re do it, it just needs to add the assembly filename to the end of each to keep them unique. Thanks again!

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I am not exactly sure the performance aspect of the workflow. Regardless of creating the empty Bolted Conn or selecting the the bolts, you have to select sooner or later. I don't think you can save time overall. It is more like a process preference for you. As long as it works, it should be fine.

Many thanks!

[lena.talkhina]

Hello @Anonymous  !

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