GD&T - attaching to dimensions

[ToddPig]

Is it still impossible to attach a GD&T feature control frame to a dimension?

In Solidworks, you can copy and paste a GD&T feature control frame, drop it on top of a dimension, and then it moves with the dimension.  Is this something that can be done in Inventor?

I always feel like I working with a CAD system from 10 years ago when I switch to Inventor.

[mcgyvr]

You attach it to the green dot that comes up when you hover over the text..

It is a bit "wonky" at times.. but works once you know how it works in Inventor..

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/community/screencast/98f1f4cc-d4e1-4520-ba70-7798bfb6dd78

Found this "deja vu" also 

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-forum/attaching-gd-amp-t-feature-control-frame/td-p/6056491

[ToddPig]

It is "wonky" more times than now. I can rarely get this to work, seems to be even harder in INV 2018. Creating drawings in Inventor is very time consuming.

[mcgyvr]

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@ToddPig wrote:
It is "wonky" more times than now. I can rarely get this to work, seems to be even harder in INV 2018. Creating drawings in Inventor is very time consuming.

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No problem here finding the green dots..

What do you have for tools..application options.. general tab......locate tolerance? I have 5 and don't have a problem finding the green dots..

Another member did post something about having more trouble in 2018 than before.. There may be something going on there..

Very few vendors that I've found even know how to interpret GD&T features,etc... so I don't even use them.. 

[ToddPig]

@mcgyvr would you mind posting a video of these elusive green dots?

I have posted one of me trying to attached a GD&T symbol to a dimension, but no luck.

Thanks,

Todd

[Curtis_Waguespack]

Hi ToddPig,

I might not have the best understanding of how this all works, but this is how I think it does...

The "green dots" don't always show during the placement (or at least not for me... or at least not reliably for me ) instead what you're looking for are the coincident constraint glyphs to display letting you know you've found the connection...point?...edge? ... not sure what we're actually connecting to... 

Anyway you get these glyphs  by first hovering over the annotation (dim or hole note) to set the "focus" to that item, then you hover over the location until you see the glyph. I think if you rub over the text, and then rub over it again it removes it from the "focus", and that's often why they seem so flakey... but that might not be true, I'd have to test that theory.

See this image, when you see this glyph that's when you click.

Here is a video showing the placement using the glyphs:

Here's a video of when the green dots show, and showing copying and pasting 

I hope this helps.
Best of luck to you in all of your Inventor pursuits,
Curtis
http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com

[Curtis_Waguespack]

And then note too that once placed the frame in a place not using a green dot,  you can slide them over. I don't think this can be done when using the green dot though. I might be wrong though.

[SBix26]

The easiest way for me to visualize this is to imagine a text box.  Hole notes and dimensions don't allow text boxes to be turned on as you can do with sketch text, but the attachment seems to work with the same concept.  As Curtis showed, you can place with a coincident constraint to any part of the text box border, and the green dots appear at the corners and midpoints.

Sam B

Inventor Professional 2018.1.2
Vault Workgroup 2018.0
Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit, SP1

[mcgyvr]

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@ToddPig wrote:

@mcgyvr would you mind posting a video of these elusive green dots?

I have posted one of me trying to attached a GD&T symbol to a dimension, but no luck.

Thanks,

Todd

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Looks like Curtis stayed later at work than I did..

Hopefully his videos show you what you needed to see.. 

[Anonymous]

I have run into the same problem. I did find a fix that made it a lot easier.

I do have the freedom to change the format of my drawings a bit though.

I changed the dimension style such that every dimension had a line underneath, that line made it very easy to attach GD&T boxes to the dimension. The "green dot" is at the center of the extension line under the dimension.

[ToddPig]

How are you doing this?

Is there a setting I have to turn on to be able to do this?

I'm starting to see why so many Inventor users don't use GD&T.  Inventor really makes it hard.

[genovaj]

Thank you for asking this question, as due to this post I have learned how to attach a feature control frame (FCF) to an Inventor hole note. I too am frustrated by Autodesk's implementation of attaching GDT feature control frame symbols. It is a PITA, and not an efficient workflow at all. The green dot sticky positioning only works reliably with FCF's that are built fresh for each hole note or dimension note. Copying and pasting FCF doesn't yield good results. The pasted frame is not repositionable without generating a leader.

My workflow is to start the FCF command and hover over the target hole or dimension and pick on the desired dot where you want to stick the FCF, but pick this dot only where you want to stick the symbol, but don't drag - even a tad bit- because you'll end up with a leader on your FCF. Then, right click and select continue. The FCF builder dialog comes up and you fill in the details then hit apply.

The hovering and waiting and picking just right is hugely time inefficient, not to mention having to build the stupid FCF for each feature instead of copying from other features where applicable. An improvement would be to have the option to right click on a FCF and through the right mouse menu, select a command to attach a FCF to a desired bit of dimension or hole note text.

This green dot stuff also works with sketch symbol placement to attach symbols to dimensions