Inventor 2022 Tube and Pipe: Straight Routes failing.

[A.Acheson]

Could anyone shed some light on this. I use the coincident constrained a lot and this one is failing to work. There looks to no misaligning of the nodes apart from along the x axis. Inventor 2022.3.2

This doesn't seem to be functioning right. I have seen this many times before but it would be 1 in 50 routes not 2 from 2. Would someone be able to look at the files?

A different method on the same route results in weird error message, minimum segment is 0.001mm so no issue here, so seems to be a random error message. 

And another one that is failing to put in a straight route. 

As a workaround I have switched on the  line in 3d Sketch by the ilogic command which is normally turned off. When a 3d line is place between the two nodes this allows them to be come merged and deleted to form a direct connection between the two fittings. 

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Alan,

The only explanation I can think of is that either the particular 3D line segment is either corrupted or there is another line on top of this one. If possible, please share the files here.

Many thanks!

[A.Acheson]

Hi @johnsonshiue 

Thanks for the response. I have sent a zip folder of the assembly to your email.

Errors I see are the following.

• Autoroute fails to complete a straight route between flanges. Simply delete the route and create a new one and see the result.
• Coincident constraint fails to join the routed and merge the node and allow a single route to be formed.
• Copied Run becomes grounded after initial insert constraint, Once the constraint is deleted the assembly cannot be moved.

[CGBenner]

@A.Acheson 

Hi Alan,

I'm looking at your files right now, and my first piece of advice while using T&P would be to try to avoid the use of patterns for placing any kind of components.  It's not technically wrong, but I think it opens the door to a lot of potential issues.  We can't always expect T&P to behave like ordinary Inventor.

Questions: 

The grooved stub ends, are they intentionally a separate fitting?  Is this for BOM purposes?  I'm just curious why they are not a part of the pipe itself.  If it is intentional, I get it... I did the same thing with Sanitary pipe stub ends.  So, I'm just trying to understand the design intent better.

In the screen shot below, can you sketch in and repost where you're having trouble with the route not lining up, so I can try to reproduce it?

Thanks Alan!

[A.Acheson]

Hi Chris, thanks for looking at the files.

Issues areas are the straight routes.

1. Between flanges BFV to CV

2. Between grooved joint and tee on Mainline. 

How to reproduce just delete the routes and try to recreate. The auto route thinks there misaligned and fails to create anything. 

Grooved fitting is intentually different because it isn't exclusively grooved ends everywhere but where ever needed. 

[CGBenner]

@A.Acheson 

Ok, I've been playing with this a little bit more, and I suspect that the issue is probably somewhere in your skeleton.  I've never worked with skeletal T&P design, simply because it didn't fit our manufacturing process, but there seem to be angle errors in there someplace that might be throwing things off.  To test this, I deleted everything back to a starting point, and without using the skeleton, I was able to rebuild a mockup of the entire thing using only one single pipe run and two routes.  Now... I was making a lot of assumptions because I don't know your BOM structure, but it led me to the belief that the issue is in the skeleton.  I would suggest rolling up your EOP to the skeleton and doing some troubleshooting there. 

[A.Acheson]

Hi @CGBenner 

It seems the error is in the manually constrained BFV. The origins are off by an incredibly small amount. It is a step file import where the origins when modelled were offset. I manually Moved the geometry using direct edit to be at the origin of the file but obviously didn't get it right.  Therefore the authoring axis and origin axis were offset. 

I have just one other issue. 

• Copied Run becomes grounded after initial insert constraint, Once the constraint is deleted the assembly cannot be moved.

This is actually happening with any assembly brought into the top level T&P Module. It makes for a  very rigid assembly procedure. 

[CGBenner]

@A.Acheson 

"

I have just one other issue. 

• Copied Run becomes grounded after initial insert constraint, Once the constraint is deleted the assembly cannot be moved."

Once you have deleted the constraint try looking at the iProperties for the run, Occurrence tab, and see if it is grounded there.  You may be able to free it by unchecking there.  Then, you should be able to use piping connections to attach it where it needs to go and set the orientation.

I'm glad you found where the origins were off... I could have looked for days and never thought of that.  🤔

[A.Acheson]

Hi Chris,

See attached. The un-adaptive assembly has no constraints. T&P seems to be locking it in place. The occurrence parts in the assembly are grounded and greyed out. Is this a by design behavior? And regarding using the authoring to attach it unfortunately that workflow doesn't exist (Wishlist item)as it is only available for adaptive runs.