Inventor 2022: Alignment of Parts in Assembly

[Farzad_K]

Hello folks.

I am in need of guidance.

I have been building a bracket that incorporates M5-0.8 socket head bolt for the clamp part of the build, and to arrive at the right hole sizes so that the head will be immersed inside the hole and one side of the clamp allows for free insertion of the bolt and the final side on the other end is narrow enough to be tapped. I have made good learning progress by measuring the bolt and specifying a little larger space for it to fit in except for the hole to be tapped which is a little smaller than the bit size the manufacturer specifies.

I am considering integrating a real nut on the other end since it looks like the threading can fail if the bolt get a little too tightly placed. So, I am building a test block with the right size holes in it, including a hole that I believe the hex nut will fit inside. I was playing with the Assembly features of Inventor, brought in my Nut part to include in it and to see if it fits in the hole as I planned. I will bring in a real bolt when I can find one on line or design a part for it myself.

The big question is about aligning the nut with the hole. I have tried Grip Snap position command and am able to bring the bolt into position, but it doesn't stay. I feel like there is a "save" feature somewhere that I can use but I don't see any such feature. When the part is freely moved, it stays in moved position.

I am attaching the models and the assembly to this post for your use and I appreciate your pointing me to a learning source on alignment of Parts in an Assembly.

Thanks a lot.

Farzad

[swalton · Accepted solution]

Are you using the Constraint or Joint command?

See https://help.autodesk.com/view/INVNTOR/2023/ENU/?guid=GUID-2DFEAF48-DCBF-4781-9AC7-76D91DC2D896

[Farzad_K]

I wasn't using either; thanks for pointing out the "relationship" tab and its features.

Is there a use for the Snap Grip in the Position tab?

Thanks

[swalton]

I've never bothered with grip snap.  I use the constraint command 95% or more of my assembly components.  I'll also use the Ground setting on at least one component in every assembly.  Don't forget to use the origin workfeatures in your modeling and constraints.  

I may use Joints if I plan to simulate real-world rigid body motion in the Dynamic Simulation module.  

[jtylerbc · Accepted solution]

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@Farzad_K wrote:

I wasn't using either; thanks for pointing out the "relationship" tab and its features.

Is there a use for the Snap Grip in the Position tab?

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A few cases where it can be useful (I'm sure there are more):

• Some people will use it to roughly position the part before adding the constraints or joints.  This is probably never actually necessary, but some people find it less confusing to do it this way.
• It can also be useful for moving parts around in assemblies imported from another CAD system.  Often these are representing purchased items you're not going to make yourself, so you don't want to take the time to fully constrain them, but need to correct the position of a part that came in incorrectly.  
• Moving or rotating a part temporarily to check clearances with other parts, but with more accuracy and control than free dragging would allow.  

In what may me a somewhat unusual application - my company has a method it developed for modeling hydraulics, long before we had access to Inventor's Tube & Pipe add-in.  We're still using the method now, as we've not yet bothered to implement Tube & Pipe properly.  Our home-brew method relies heavily on Grip Snap (especially its rotation function) for adjusting the orientations of fittings.