Question: 2022 Model states does Tabulated Parts Lists exist for this?

[noahholweck]

Can you make a tabulated Parts List in the idw file with Model States? I know you can with iAssemblies/iParts. But it's greyed out for Model States. See attached image for example.

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Unfortunately, the workflow does not apply to Model States assemblies.

Many thanks!

[noahholweck]

@johnsonshiue , That is a huge shame b/c Model States really is faster to process and easier to work with. If Tabulated Parts Lists were enabled, we would start to change to that workflow. Otherwise, we're still forced to use iAssemblies etc. PS: Generating files for them still takes a lot of time. Especially when you open the master iAssembly and activate a different member to review it and then open the idw file to finalize it and it complains that you need to regenerate all the members when they didn't change... It's a real time eater.

[bike_josh]

noahholweck posted an idea to the Autodesk community back in 2021. I would also really like this to be a feature. If anyone come across this post, please vote for the idea here: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/model-state-support-tabulated-parts-list/idi-p/1068619...

[bike_josh]

@noahholweck I wrote a VBA macro which I use very often to export factory members. I added a button to the ribbon tab for this so that it's easy to access. 

this opens up a GUI which allows the user to select which members to export (or just click all)

and starts the export process. It's very handy because it omits all of the tedious pop-ups prompting for saves and just does what you want it to do. I also added a progress bar that comes in handy for large tables or more complicated assemblies.

This works for iPart and iAssemblies and has checks to make sure it's run on the correct file type.

Let me know and I'll share the code with you. 

[Hunteil]

@bike_josh , What does it exactly do? Does it create a derived shrink wrapped copy of the assembly and break links or something? This sounds like a cleaver workaround we can use for all the warnings. But does it still create tabulate BOMs?

Update: I misread his response. I was kind of imagining a mass shrink-wrap tool or something.

[bike_josh]

@Hunteil the code I wrote essentially right clicks on every factory member (or a subset that you can choose) in the family table and selects the "Generate Files" option. It creates exactly the same file that would normally be created when updating iParts or iAssemblies and maintains the tabulated BOM functionality. It's used for iParts and iAssemblies only so it doesn't solve the tabulated BOM issue on model state driven assemblies. I mentioned it on this post to address the 3rd message on here by @noahholweck where they mentioned the tedious "need to regenerate all the members when they didn't change".

The code I've written isn't an official add-in and requires the VBA Module to be installed (see here: https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/tsarticles/ts/580m5V9igpBgk3WNek5Ydf.html)

[Hunteil]

@johnsonshiue, Is there any work being done to help people convert iAssemblies to Model States? It uses the same kind of table system I think... seems like something you could click a check box to turn off members requiring files. (Generalizing describing it.)

[johnsonshiue]

Hi Noah,

I am aware of the request but I don't think we have a good solution automating such conversion. The process may sound straight forward for individual parts. However, the tricky thing is to convert nested iAssemblies with iParts. Also, any associative drawings will need to be redone significantly.

Many thanks!