Frame Generator issues: material selections

[Anonymous]

I am trying to learn the Frame Generator.  Really cool, but the material selection is amazingly useless.  Not everyone creates industrial-grade tables and fork-lift racks.  Some of us are modelmakers.  I, in my current project, want to use a material such as https://www.eplastics.com/ACRLBAR-750X-750, or https://www.onlinemetals.com/en/buy/brass/0-25-x-0-25-x-0-0625-brass-angle-385/pid/23372, neither of which appear in the list of materials.  I actually have about six materials under consideration.  I need to be able to add these easily; I have, for some of the materials I have considered, CAD drawings from the vendors.   The specifications should be local to my project, and should not involve any changes to a library.

I am including some sample parts and assemblies with this.  The "framed cube.iam" file (based on "basic cube.ipt") shows the basic idea, using some horrifically inappropriate materials but they were fine for practice.  "edges.ipt" shows something closer to what I want.  Note that I have shown the pieces of plastic (blue and yellow) machined so they it within the L-bracket (in green).  The dimensions will be approximately 12" on a side.  I would like to use the "notch" feature so the edges are properly machined to fit as shown.  (A laser cutter and a CNC router figure prominently in the manufacture of the final construct).  All parts will actually be clear acrylic; colors are for illustrative purposes only.  All dimensions come from the Make Your Approximations Seem Sensible methodology*, and again are for illustrative purposes only.

So how do I add real materials to the Frame Generator?

[SBix26]

Sorry, but you have to create your own custom library of structural sections.  If there are shapes that fit your needs and the only thing missing is material selection and sizes, simply copy the desired Family to your custom library, then modify the Family Table as needed.

It's also possible to create your own sections, but there is a significant learning curve.  If you have quite a few to do, it will be worth the effort.  I've created dozens of new structural shapes over the last fifteen years, perhaps I can help a bit.

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Sam B
Inventor Pro 2021.1.1 | Windows 10 Home 2004
LinkedIn

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! The process of adding new material styles is not that straight forward. The first thing you need is to create such material styles in your active Material Library/Appearance Library (Inventor Material Library or a custom library). Then the material will show up at the dropdown list in the Insert Frame Member dialog.

For existing structure shapes, adding material styles can be laborious. You will need to create a custom CC library. Next, make a copy of the existing family and turn it into a custom CC family. Then change the assigned material styles.

Many thanks!