Inventor IPN/Publisher Compared To Solid Works SW Composer...

[bibleje]

What is Autodesk's answer to Solid Works' Composer?  Anyone uses this and what are your thoughts on the program?

Thank you,

John E. Bible

Inventor 2018

kelly.young has edited your subject line for clarity: SW Composer...

[mdavis22569]

Based on this video:

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/technical-communication/solidworks-composer.htm

I would make an IPN, and make snapshots 


Save them out to DWG ...

[bibleje]

Okay, I see this as an alternative but wow!  This is a very work intensive solution.  I can certainly do this but would like to hear from others as well.  Thank you very much Michael.

John

[mdavis22569]

You can also do nice 3d PDF's out too ...

[mcgyvr]

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@bibleje wrote:

What is Autodesk's answer to Solid Works' Composer?  Anyone uses this and what are your thoughts on the program?

Thank you,

John E. Bible

Inventor 2018

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Sadly/currently the IPN workflow in Inventor is the "answer"...

The Solidworks offering though is far superior in many aspects..

Autodesk used to have "Inventor Publisher" which was dropped due to low usage and while they tried to sell the current IPN solution as the replacement for that it falls flat on its face in many aspects... 

[mdavis22569]

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@mcgyvr wrote:

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The Solidworks offering though is far superior in many aspects..

Autodesk used to have "Inventor Publisher" which was dropped due to low usage and while they tried to sell the current IPN solution as the replacement for that it falls flat on its face in many aspects... 

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I didn't want to say that ..... Head down .... about SW's

[mcgyvr]

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@mdavis22569 wrote:

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I didn't want to say that ..... Head down .... about SW's

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Sometimes the truth hurts.. But its still the truth.. 

[bibleje]

So in conclusion all, Inventor Publisher was the ticket but is no longer available correct?

John

[mcgyvr]

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@bibleje wrote:

So in conclusion all, Inventor Publisher was the ticket but is no longer available correct?

John

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Sort of..

Inventor publisher was Autodesk "SW Composer like" offering back in the day..

Its gone but some of that functionality is currently possible today in Inventors IPN environment as well as via 3d PDF functionality and IDW drawing creation using the IPN files as the dataset..

In conclusion.... you should take a look at the IPN environment/workflow and see if its current functionality meets your needs..

Right now your "true/complete" needs are a mystery (to us anyways) but if you need EVERYTHING that SW composer has then there is no 100% direct equivalent to all of its functionality..  You have a Ford car and a Chevy car right now.. Both are cars.. They don't work exactly the same.. Both will get you places you need to go.. But only you can answer if one has all the features you need..

[cmcconnell]

It had low usage because it was unable to handle a dataset of any size.

I pitched a client on it (some of that client's equipment was on the splash screen of the 2013 release), got them on board, and bought a license for testing. It would choke on some of the simplest assemblies we had. As a result, I never used it in production.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I am finding the IPN snapshot workflow very work intensive. I've posted about it here quite a few times and there's an Idea or two out there asking for the timeline/snapshot thing to be removed or hidden, and for the pre-2017 workflow to be re-instated.

I still struggle to believe that the majority of Inventor users want to animate their assembly instructions - surely most engineers prefer to create drawings?

I've never used the SW workflow for creating exploded views but I'm interested to know how it compares to the Inventor.

[mcgyvr]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I still struggle to believe that the majority of Inventor users want to animate their assembly instructions - surely most engineers prefer to create drawings?

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I'm doing everything I can to get away from 2d drawings across the board at my company as I absolutely HATE creating 2d drawings..

Its "old tech"and makes zero sense to me to need to do such work when I've already fully defined a part in 3d..

Its an absolute waste of time..

But "change" is VERY difficult to accept for most.. 

I'm been doing step by step screenshots of 3d models for years now as our sole assembly documentation and quality has really improved and the amount of "questions about the process" have dropped drastically.. I would love to have the ability to provide that data in a true 3d/animated representation to our assemblers but the tech just isn't there yet from what I've seen/tried...

[Anonymous]

I'm really curious to know how other engineers or users of 3D CAD within an engineering organisation handle the provision of assembly data to manufacturing. I too think that creating 2D documentation from a more advanced 3D CAD model seems like a waste of time - some places I've liaised with actually take our 3D CAD model and turn it into various 2D orthographic views, then DWG it all. Implementing any change must take forever.

I've only worked for one organisation since leaving uni, so the way we do it is the only way I've ever experienced - which is to create an 'assembly manual' showing stage-by-stage assembly steps, using exploded views generated from the CAD via the IPN environment. We have up-to-date views that change when the model changes, and as it's a document we can add notes, part number leadouts, checklists, etc etc.

We've talked about using animations for months but the main tripping point for us is the loss of anywhere to put technical notes. When an assembly operator plays the animation, sure they can see how and where the components fit...but how do they know what the components are? Or what torque to set? Or which PCB pin to route the wire to? We'd need a separate document with those notes on, and then we're kind of missing the point of the animation. Also, animations can't be 'marked up' for proposed engineering change.

This is why I'm confused by the change to the IPN environment in 2017 - to my mind, animations just aren't the best way to convey assembly data because of the loss of other essential information, and either I'm missing something here and my company are just way behind the times, or the IPN changes were made without proper user input and are actually confounding some users. I don't really know.

I'm keen to improve things and always open to change, if it improves our yield and build consistency without increasing our design office workload (which is something the snapshot/timeline thing has done).

[dgorsman]

I don't view it as an either-or situation, both have their place.  Ever gone to a presentation where the speaker just repeats what's on screen?  Or one where the presenter shows a couple of graphics and talks... and talks... and talks...?  The best ones are in the middle: the screen gives an overview and show things that spoken words have difficulty with, while the speaker talks through the details provided in handouts (which are more than just what's on screen).

[mcgyvr]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm really curious to know how other engineers or users of 3D CAD within an engineering organisation handle the provision of assembly data to manufacturing.

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To expand on what I wrote a bit.. I'm still perfecting my system today and in the future will create something detailed for others to follow if needed.

I start by creating design view reps in Inventor of each main assembly step.. In each of those I assign "indicator colors" that I have created to the parts of interest.. (I on;t show parts that are there in real life and future added parts are not shown obviously).. 

After I get those design view reps all setup then I now have a sweet ilogic rule that loops through each design view rep and creates my images and dumps them into a folder..

Then..

Each assembler has a tablet to access out "intranet"

I use a content management system designed for blogs/articles,etc.. on the internet called Joomla to create what we call out "shop aid system".. Its running on our own internal server (intranet)

In it each "article" is an assembly step (single workstation process)..

I take screenshots from Inventor and using their WYSIWYG editor simply make a webpage basically composed of my 3d screenshots and text placed on that page which is how I indicate torque values and provide steps like 

'Insert standoff shown in blue"

"Torque screws shown in green to 7 in-lbs (4 places),etc..

Stuff like that..

Assemblers simply pull up the web page with the proper part number/revision/assembly step and follow along..

We have even gotten to the point now where the "pick list" is generated on the fly on that page as well as a table of required resources (tools needed)..

And are now finalizing labor recording on each page too.. 
All of that is tied directly to our ERP system..

Its really kind of hard to explain without seeing it but I don't have the time now to go into anymore detail but anyone we have shown it to has been amazed by the system.. Its slick as can be..

One day I'll put something up on the internet using some demo Inventor models to show people more detail in hopes they may adopt something similar..

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the detailed description, your system sounds quite impressive. I like the idea of setting colours for the fitted parts, and the idea that your operators can simply open up a webpage and head straight to their required instructions. Also the idea of using touchscreens sounds good - something I think we could move to in the future, to get away from using mouse and keyboard which clutter up workbenches. If you ever did decide to produce a demo or example of your system, I'd certainly read it!

Cheers

Jon