iCopy for curtainwalls

[Mark.Valenti]

Posted before but posting again. Is there a recent tutorial on this? I have had no luck finding anything useful. All my attempts with creating a curtain wall with iCopy and a frame generated assy (pattern) have not worked.

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Mark.Valenti

As far as I know there hasn't been a tutorial updates on iCopy function within in Inventor.  Its not used a lot and nothing has really changed since it was implemented as an add-on for Inventor 2010.   In addition I don't think a lot of end users use it.. 

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Mark,

I recalled I looked at a case you sent me but it was not about iCopy + Frame Gen. iCopy is using adaptive sketch driven by workpoints in another part. Frame Gen member is based on a 2D or 3D sketch in a skeletal part. I could be wrong but I personally do not believe iCopy would work well with Frame Gen. Frame Gen member would be driven by skeletal part and also by adaptive sketch (driven by workpoints). The two competing forces would not work well unfortunately.

Many thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hi Mark,

I am working exactly the same thing as you! Using Frame Gen + iCopy. My purpose is using inventor to create shop drawing and fabrication drawing.

But there are many difficulties, the hardest part is the size of my panels do not well match with skeleton structure.

Maybe we can keep in touch and have discussion on it.

Dickson

PS: I think this link can help you a lot: https://www.augi.com/articles/detail/an-icopy-how-to

[Mark.Valenti]

Dickson, absolutely!  I have published screen casts of my failures. I can look for the links if your interested. I will not supply the popcorn...  Good Luck

[Mark.Valenti]

Johnson,

Yes, and thank you I am coming to the conclusion that iCopy pattern will not work with a frame generated assy in a curtainwall scenario.  I have found a frame generated assy will work with a single iCopy  instance, and works along a path as shown in other tutorials. 

I guess I am stuck with array...

[Mark.Valenti]

Thank you Mark,

It looked so promising from the Rob Kohee video https://youtu.be/M4qgZPv0O_Y. 

And this one... 

https://youtu.be/LxapJbk7aT0

[Mark.Valenti]

I contacted the originator of this video https://youtu.be/LxapJbk7aT0 and he sent me his files. he seems to have it working although I can not replicate it even with his files and trying to follow the video. 

[Mark.Valenti]

<iframe width="640" height="680" src="https://screencast.autodesk.com/Embed/Timeline/b218bdba-f779-4fa3-ae55-8a2626e2fe8a" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen></iframe>

A quick and dirty iCopy pattern not working either. This was done with an adaptive part brought into an assy to icopy author. A grid.ipt consisting of a simple array of work points. Frame generator not used.

[Anonymous]

Mark,

I repeated your failure yesterday, it seems that due to the setting of your reference points of panel. Initially, I set 3 corners as reference and then use iCopy array, it will repeat exactly the same as your result - nothing show on screen.

And then I try to increase number of reference point to 4 corners, panels are fit to the grid but something interesting happened. There are lots of irregular shape join any 4 points on grid appeared on the skeleton structure (I forgot to capture the picture, post it later).

So an idea come out my mind, do our constraint of iCopy too loose that the inventor has too much "degree of freedom" to copy our panel? But I have no conclusion about this. I will keep trying, hopefully I can find a method to tackle it.

Dickson

[Anonymous]

06-21-2017 06:27 AM in reply to: Mark.Valenti

I contacted the originator of this video https://youtu.be/LxapJbk7aT0 and he sent me his files. he seems to have it working although I can not replicate it even with his files and trying to follow the video. 

Mark,

Could you share the file to me too? Thank you!

Dickson

[Anonymous]

I contacted the originator of this video https://youtu.be/LxapJbk7aT0 and he sent me his files. he seems to have it working although I can not replicate it even with his files and trying to follow the video. 

[Mark.Valenti]

Dickson,

Looks like you contacted Giancarlo.  Best to get the files from him as I may have changed them. Let me know how you make out. 

-Mark

[Anonymous]

Mark,

Thank you! Please send the file to me.

Here is a good news that I found the way to use iCopy. As I mention yesterday, the reference points will join randomly during creation. Therefore, I tried 2 different method to avoid it, 1.) set dimension constraint on the panels and define the reference points at the center, 2.) define the reference points at each corners and set different pattern for each reference points.

Both ways work well! And the second method is parametric that once you adjust the pattern, the iCopy panel will follow.

Now I am considering that, can iCopy recognize "irregular pattern"?

Also, there is another trouble that the computational load seem quite large... but anyway, it is a good start.

Dickson