Furniture Design Best Practices

[JakeY237U]

Hi, I have been using Inventor for a while now to model furniture for our business and was hoping to get some tips on best practices.

I am wondering if maybe there is a better solution that I am missing.

We are a totally custom shop, but typically for a project we have a design that comes in multiple sizes.

Everything in the model can be derived from 1 to 2 parameters for the variation. (Width / Depth)

Current Practice

I build out a part file with multiple solids. I use the Make Components tool to create an assembly from the solids.

In the assembly I add the materials and create Representations that our necessary for the drawing views.

(Suppressing Certain Components to either get "Sub-Assemblies" or individual parts)

For the next size I save a copy of the base component. Change the size. Then make another assembly and repeat all the other steps.

This is time consuming and typically causes issues on the drawings when I "Replace Component" with the new one.

Also a pain to have to add common components to the assembly and re-constrain them each time.

I have tried in the past using iParts and iAssemblies, but its difficult to design each component separately and there are usually a lot of changes over the process

I could create the whole piece of furniture as an iPart. But then I can't hide certain components easily in level of details.

Any ideas? This may just not be something that inventor is great for. 

Unfortunately almost every project is unique and there are very few shared components.

I am self taught and may just be missing something

[swalton · Accepted solution]

If you don't use Vault for file management, you might try the separate program Design Assistant.

The interface is old, but you should be able to select an upper-level assembly and copy all the underlying parts, sub-assemblies, drawings, etc and keep the file resolutions, assembly constraints, drawing views, etc.   Careful attention to what you plan to modify vs what you need to keep the same is important.

If you are using Vault, use the Copy-Design command to grab all the related files at once.

[pcrawley]

Vault's "Copy Design" tool would be the easiest solution.

"Copy Design" on the first assembly - copying it to a new folder (reusing and standard/common parts if you want to).  The copy is now an independent copy of the original.  Change the dimensions of the base part, and the new assembly - and associated drawings - all update.

Repeat for each size.  (I do this for some of the products we make - there's a basic theme varied by size.  Creating a new assembly of about 200 parts and associated drawings using Vault takes about 2 minutes - followed by 10 minutes of tidying up the drawing views.)

[JakeY237U]

Thank you for the reply! I have used Design Assistant before but I never thought about it for this use for whatever reason. I've been meaning to try out vault as well which sounds like it would be the best going forward.

I want to get other people here using inventor and having the server would be ideal

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Or, iLogic Design Copy (with no files loaded, go to Tools).

Many thanks!

[ouafaehawaii]

Design in furniture is the hardest part. I'm learning it now, and so far I'm having a hard time finding decent ideas. But I was once lucky enough to find Unbeatable furniture deals and see so many different designs that it inspired me to create my own too. Actually combining good design with quality was even more difficult, but I am still learning now and hope that someday I will be able to create my own designs.