Managing Assembly Representations

[mat_hijs]

I'm using large assemblies more and more and I'm trying to work out the best ways to use and maintain view representations and levels of detail. I'll set up a bunch of view representations and levels of detail and this works perfectly fine, but when I add a new component I have to go through all of them to turn off the visibility or suppress the component. I know you can lock view representations, but I don't want to lose the associativity so that's not really an option for me and this also doesn't solve the problem for levels of detail. Is there an easy way around this? How do other people do this? What are my alternatives?

[SharkDesign]

Think Model States in the new version handles this much better. 

If you are suppressing loads of stuff and still on 2020 you could try an iAssembly.

I don't think there's a way to turn off a part in multiple LODs without loading each one and changing it. 

I assume you are doing this purely for performance reasons and not to mimic Solidworks 'configurations?'

[mat_hijs]

I'm not trying to make different configurations or anything like that. To give a little bit more insight, I make curtain walls. Ideally I'd have 1 main assembly that contains everything. In a project with multiple 5-15 storey buildings this is easier said than done. The main thing is performance, but I also use this as some kind of filter as to what I want to be editing, be it the floor I want to edit or a specific type of components. Some examples could be: "Building 1 Anchoring", "Building 2 Sheet metal panels" or "Building 3 Floor 6".

[Fouad-l]

I'm not sure but i think if you turn off visibility of the part when you add it in the master view representation this applies also to other views unless you lock them. The same occur when you add the part in the master LOD and deactivate it. Then you will turn on visibility/activate the part only in the views/ LOD you want.

[Pauli666]

Hi Fouad, I just tried your suggestion.
Do you mean add item/s to the locked master assembly, then turn off.
I just tried that & it did not work.
I have been looking for a way to do this for ages, I sometimes have 10 to 20 view reps.
As original poster suggests locking the view is not an option, (I used to do it that way, even more of a hassle).
Cheers.

[Fouad-l]

Hi @Pauli666 

- The solution i mentioned above works only for view representations. If you add a component to the master view rep and then turned off its visibility, this afects to all other unlocked view reps.

- In case of LOD this solution doesn't work. You may need to use some iLogic rule to do that.

For example, this ilogic rule suppresses the component in all LOD except the active one:

http://inventortrenches.blogspot.com/2014/10/ilogic-suppress-cpmponents-in-all-but.html