iparts and imates clarification.

[mda2249]

lately I have been working a lot with assemblies that require multiple instances of a part. my latest project, a lamp shade, the part size varies slightly.

I was able to accomplish placing multiple instances of the shade, but things get wonky quickly.

I'm needing to place the entire set of shades on my spoilboard for milling. the relevant Imates are:

z_spoilboard :This places the part flat on the surface

X_angle :this aligns the parts

gap :this should create an aprox 1/8 in gap between the parts, it also imates to another instance

I placed some quick solids in the assembly to constrain the imates to; is it correct that imates don't constrain to planes in an assembly? I couldn't get them to.

anyway, I can't get the constraints to work. If you are able to. could you send me notes on what you did? with the time I have spent attempting to automate this, it would have been quicker to place and constrain all these by hand.
This is a good learning exercise for me, as I haven't understood these in the past, and i'm sure to have other similar assemblies.

i've attached files. the "panel_shades_dissasembly"  is the imates part and is derived from a shades outline, which is derived from the main outline. hopefully everything will be intact.

[mda2249]

edit/ update. just by constraining imates relative to the same part, the "shades disassembly" in the attached files above. this seems to only work for two of them, then the Imates are "used up" and when placing the third shade. so I deduce that once an imate finds a pair, you cannont ad another constraint to it. which pretty much rules out patterning, so what's the point of an imate then?

[mda2249]

delete this comment

[cadman777]

I don't use iMates. I discovered that when there's a lot of them in an assembly (not matching ones like you are using), the computer gets bogged down real bad. Also, I found much  more difficulty in placing iMates than in doing the process manually. Long ago I tried using matching iMates, but that requires way too much 'pre-planning' work, so I've never used them.

[mda2249]

what are matching vs non matching imates. is matching where you list a match for the imate when creating it?

I have a workstation that will handle it. and there are 30 parts here, each one needs 4 constraints. imates could really help out here.

[cadman777]

Here's a start...

And this...

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I took a quick look at the files. It is incomplete. Spoilboard and Shade are missing. But, I guess you are asking about how iMate Matching works. Here is a short summary.

iMate match, regardless of components, happens when the two iMates at the same level are the same type (Mate, Flush, Angular, and so on) and the offset values are the same. These two conditions have to be met in order to have a match. For example, an iMate with 30mm offset will not match with an iMate with 20mm offset. A Mate iMate will never match a Flush iMate.

The match list is more for priority. Inventor will try to match by names from match list (above two conditions satisfied) and then by type. Matching will not stop even if the match name list is exhausted. Inventor will go ahead match by type anyway. I think this is the behavior surprising to some users.

Many thanks!

[cadman777]

I recall reading some threads some time ago (can't recall which ones) where cabinet makers were using iLogic and iMates. If you can search for those threads, you may find answers from them. The cabinet guys reuse parts constantly, as well as using parts that are identical except for length or width or height. So essentially, they're matching the same part to the same part using the same joint in all permutations of their 'furniture'. There are Inventor apps that make cabinet making with Inventor much easier by automating all these connections. Sounds like that is what you're after.