Inventor McMaster Carr Connection?

[Anonymous]

Good Morning all,

Just curious; I was messing around with Fusion 360 this weekend and have to wonder, is there any way we can make Inventor connect directly to sites like McMaster-Carr and 80-20 as well?

If Fusion 360 is $300 a year, compared to Inventors thousands, shouldn't Inventor have everything and more?

Just figured I would check and make sure it isn't already available in 2018 and I'm not overlooking it.

thanks!

[stephenrottloff7259]

From what I can tell, there is no connection between Mcmaster and Inventor nor do they allow any type of direct connection.  There is no way Mcmaster would be able to know how each company that uses their hardware would want the hardware's descriptions listed on a drawing.  Mcmaster is a great site for hardware and hardware CAD models, although some of the fasteners have too much detail in my opinion.

Stephen R.

[mdavis22569]

Autodesk / Inventor  and other products have parts available. 

However for the 10's of thousands of parts I think it would be hard to link with McMaster. They outsource some of their products as well from other suppliers. So you have a bushings that could be changing all time, or clamping devices.

Autodesk couldn't nor wouldn't be able to keep up with the changes. 

The Inventor Content Center has ton's of parts ...

I have 80-20 single items in my library.

I also have almost everything from Cbliss in my library. 

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Anonymous

I'm adding to this posting..

Don't take the 300 dollar price tag of Fusion 360 and compare it to the price of Inventor.  Inventor has been around for many years while Fusion is very new in development.  The price tag for Fusion in my opinion is to persuade individuals to use that product.  Is it better than Inventor?  Yes and no.  It has its pros and cons and having a link to McMaster Carr is really not a selling point for me personally.  For me I would rather see a content center library over just a link to McMaster Carr.  Yes I know hardware is hardware... 

[DeerSpotter]

I think everyone is getting angry for no reason.

Fusion already has this feature....  please kindly explain why is it not already in Inventor and stop giving me reasons why this doesn't make sense (it is already in fusion and done) 

[Mark.Lancaster]

@DeerSpotter

Who's getting angry?  I see individuals simply stating their opinions just like you..   It sounds like you would like to have that interface in Inventor..  For me...  No I wouldn't want to see it..  Again 2 sides of the argument

In addition its not simple as just adding it..  There are functions in Inventor (that Fusion 360 doesn't have) that requires the content center interface, meaning a link to McMaster Carr is not going to work for these functions.

If you want that interface in Inventor use the Inventor Idea station  https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/idb-p/v1232 and have individuals vote on it.

[cbenner]

Sorry, can't help but add my two cents....

Having a direct link to an outside website has a number of inherent problems for a program like Inventor.

• You would have to be certain there was nothing in your firewall preventing such a link.
• You would have to be willing to accept the components in whatever format and containing whatever data THEY put on them.
• You would have to import the component and then modify it to match your company's standards for any inventory information such as part number.
• They would probably not be prepared (authored) for use in any of the design accelerators, routed systems etc.

I, personally, would rather have the ability to externally access McMaster and other web sites containing components, download them, and then prepare them for use in MY Inventor environment, and the place them in my Content Center.  Just my opinions.

[jtylerbc]

Was about to write something very similar to @cbenner's post, but fortunately refreshed again before doing so.

I don't think, at least in its current form, that this is something I would get a lot of use out of.  Most of the time, I am download and import the MMC model, then format it as desired.  This includes some or all of the following:

• Changing file name
• Filling out iProperties to our desired values.
• Setting materials (for weight purposes) and appearances.
• In some cases, iMates are added.

Most of these files are then placed into a library folder structure, where they can be reused in other projects or by other users.  That way we (theoretically) don't end up with a ton of duplicates all over the server (we don't use Vault).  In reality, some duplication still happens, but we try to keep it to a minimum.

I'm not necessarily opposed to a feature like this being in the program, but if it was there, I doubt that I would use it very much.  I simply do too much modification to the files after download for an insert-from-webpage interface to do me much good.

[swalton]

On more facet to add (see what I did?):

McMaster-Carr models the actual threads on the screws, bolts, and nuts.  This is ok for a small assembly, but I don't want the performance hit of all those tiny surfaces when I have 500 or more fasteners in my top level assembly.  

The rail cars I design are 60 feet long.  I don't need to see the threads for a 3/8-16 bolt.  Cosmetic threads are fine.

[jtylerbc]

That would be another item I typically do as well, but left out of my list.  That degree of detail on hardware is overkill for me.  Even when our assemblies aren't "large" from an instance-count perspective, they tend to be physically large, so that degree of detail doesn't really show up anyway.

[SBix26]

Yep, I routinely use Delete Face w/Heal on the threads of MMC fasteners.  Sometimes find that even knurls are modeled, such as on thumb screws.  Way too many faces for efficient modeling.

I (used to) use McMaster Carr a lot, but have no interest in a "drag-and-drop" connection, for all the reasons others have stated.  Same goes for 80/20; I put most of their metric profiles and a few others as well into our Content Library for use with Frame Generator.  I doubt that Fusion 360 has that capability.

---

Sam B
Inventor Pro 2019.2 | Windows 7 SP1
LinkedIn

[elelieveld]

One thing we are considering is putting MMC part #s into the iProperties of the content center fasteners as we use them.  This way we can have the MMC part # show up in our BoMs.  Purchasing can then choose to get them from MMC or elsewhere but at least they can look up the MMC part on the website to know exactly what we are looking for.  This way they can also enter the items into our MRP system as the MMC # and then add other vendors' part #s into cross-reference fields.

[SharkDesign]

The only branded stuff I can think of in CC is PEM fasteners and Parker hoses. 

I made this video though that shows you a fast way to put simple stuff into CC. It might help you for some McMaster parts. 

https://youtu.be/jpm5XI93uD8