Inventor assemblies, groups, promoting/demoting etc...

[Anonymous]

Hi

We are using Invenetor 2011, and i need a bit of help with the above.

I have an assembly made up of say a dozen very similar "sub assemblies" that arent really sub assemblies (if that makes sense). These could be a sub assembly, but i don't want to add another level into the tree so i have all the parts in one assembly. But in reality there are a dozen similar groupings of parts. Some may even be identical, some may be the same with a part or two swapped out.

I've put these groupings into folders, which makes things easier when i'm working in the assembly (copying, patterning etc...)

Moving forwards, is there any way i can bring in a grouping of parts from vault/library when i start a new job? Or will i have to create a standard sub assembly, that i bring in and then immediately promote all the parts to remove this subassembly?

Apologies if i sound like a right numpty for wanting to do this!

Thanks in advance

[Anonymous]

for the parts list or BOM, open the sub assembly and go to tools, document settings, BOM and turn each of the sub assemblies into phantom asemblies.  This makes them see through in parent assembly

[mcgyvr]

phantom as said above or promote them into the assembly as you stated..

promote will be better assuming these parts will get constrained in all different combinations depending on the top level assembly. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the reply Stephen.

I really like this, i didn't know you could do this. But i don't think this would work for us i'm afraid. Really want to streamline things, so want to avoid creating new sub assemblies every time we change one component. We do a lot of bespoke stuff, so we our drawing system is clogged up with such things.

It looks like we would keep a standard in the vault, and bring it in to fill the new assembly up. Promote all the components to remove the standard sub assemblies completely, and save/replace component on the odd bit that needs replacing.

Unless there is a way to do a top assembly driven component replacement, within the standard assemblies? So the standard assembly is essentially unmodified, but the top level assembly shows a part is replaced? Or am i lving in fantasy land?

[Anonymous]

I dont currently use them but iasseblies might do what your after

[Mark.Lancaster]

Mattclarke

What you're describing almost sounds like where I buy something (let's say a desk) and in the box there's a package that is divided up into sections containing different pieces of hardware.   Although they are grouped together (like a sub-assembly) each piece of hardware is actually going to a separate spot on my desk.  Does that describe what you are trying to accomplish here?

[Anonymous]

Its hard to explain i guess. We make bespoke materials handling machinery, of varying lengths etc... The ends are the clever bit, and in between are a number of sections that carry the material from start to end. These sections are virtually identical, but some will be odd make up lengths, some may have an inlet, outlet, inspection point etc... on them. These sections are currently assemblies made up of panels, sections and fixings from our library. But we want to get away from creating a new assembly, with part number and drawing every time we do a section that has a minor change to it.

By creating a contract specific top level assembly, with a large BOM i can call out the odd bit that is different. However, having assembled sections does have the advantage that they are already constrained together and a machine can be built up quickly.

So we need to keep a standard section as a group/assembly, so it can be used as a building block. Also why i would like to drive and minorr changes to these standard sections, from the contract specific top level assembly if at all possible.

Hope this made sense!!