Stretch or scale 3D parts

Stretch or scale 3D parts

shehill399
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Message 1 of 18

Stretch or scale 3D parts

shehill399
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello,

Is it possible to stretch and scale 3D assemblies or shrinkwrap an assembly and then do it?

For example, I have several 3D assemblies of different conveyors for different customers of mine. However sometimes I have the same exact conveyor to build just either a little wider or taller but instead of remaking the entire thing and messing up my original files trying to use the same parts, I am wondering if I can just save a copy somehow without corrupting my parts within the file just to scale it wider and or taller etc. without rebuilding the assembly?

 

Thank you

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Replies (17)
Message 2 of 18

mcgyvr
Consultant
Consultant

ilogic "Copy Design" may be very helpful to you..

It can copy an entire assembly/parts and allow you to go in and change what you need without effecting your original.. 

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor/learn-explore/caas/screencast/Main/Details/4292f9b9-...

 



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Message 3 of 18

shehill399
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Thanks for the reply! I will give it a shot right now and see how it works!

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Message 4 of 18

mcgyvr
Consultant
Consultant

@shehill399 wrote:

Thanks for the reply! I will give it a shot right now and see how it works!


@shehill399  There are some other ways too depending on details/specifics of how your company works/what output (files,etc...) are required from your department for manufacturing, etc.... so let us know how that works for you..

ilogic copy design based off your initial information seems like it would be suitable/best though.



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Message 5 of 18

Frederick_Law
Mentor
Mentor

I don't think, scale is the correct term.

 

If you scale a M5 bolt can you still use it?

How about material thickness?

 

You need to setup parameters so you can change dimension.

 

Pack and Go the whole assembly.  Change the file name.  Modify dimension and you have another conveyor.

Message 6 of 18

shehill399
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

So doing the Ilogic copy selection, It shows I have no files or anything in the Ilogic copy popup dialog box

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Message 7 of 18

shehill399
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Yes that's a great point. I have not set up parameters or even began to learn that aspect (as I have bene intending to learn about it because I think that is the best solution) But for the time frame I have been given, I was wondering some other options for now. The material thickness and everything is the exact same. 

The best example I can give would be I need the same exact conveyor, just about an inch off on the width. I don't want to have to remake and resize all the internal parts of the conveyor if there is an option to just stretch the assembly all together to make it more narrow. I am not sure if I am making any sense

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Message 8 of 18

JDMather
Consultant
Consultant

@shehill399 wrote:

I have the same exact conveyor to build just either a little wider or taller but instead of remaking the entire thing ...


Don't repeat work.

Save As>Save as Copy (or Pack and Go) and Edit the Parameters.

Can you Attach an example assembly here?


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Message 9 of 18

Frederick_Law
Mentor
Mentor

No other option.

Scale/stretch will move everything.  Stretch a circle one way and become ellipse.

Scale the model and material size thickness scale also.

 

You need to set everything up properly.

Which part stay the same when conveyor get longer.

Which part will change.

 

You need to "program" the model to do all those.

 

Took a couple months for me to set up conveyors with different configs.

It used took a day to update design just for quote.  After, its 15 minutes and a few drawing update to release.

Message 10 of 18

shehill399
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I will try and do the pack and go on a test example because by trying to open my project in the Ilogic copy option that was suggested earlier, I am now no longer able to open the conveyor file at all. I have attached an image of the error I am receiving now.

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Message 11 of 18

shehill399
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Enthusiast

So when I save as>save copy as> and rename the file. Any changes I make on that new copy, is changing my main master file as well. Is that supposed to happen? Or am I not understanding the point of that process. Again thank you for your help!

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Message 12 of 18

mcgyvr
Consultant
Consultant

@shehill399 wrote:

So doing the Ilogic copy selection, It shows I have no files or anything in the Ilogic copy popup dialog box


@shehill399  Have you selected the project file you are using from the dropdown there?

The project file will let that dialog box know the top level folder where all of your files should be located under.

 

The "ilogic copy design" tool is essentially doing a mass "Save Copy As" like JD was talking about. 

Also.. FYI... When doing a "Save Copy As" the file that remains open is the original file not the "saved copy".. You would need to open the saved copy and perform changes there to not effect the original. 

 

If you don't want to use the ilogic copy design then I would suggest you open your conveyor.iam file and do a "save as" and then for any parts that you want to change use the "Save and Replace" function on the tools tab in the "productivity" dropdown there.. That will make a new copy of that part and replace it in the copied assembly file.. Do that for any part in that saved assembly copy that you need to change and it will keep those separated from your original parts.

 

 



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Message 13 of 18

shehill399
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Enthusiast

When I go to the dropdown, there's only two project files and some default options and neither one of those projects are anything recent I have done. I have probably over 100 different assembly projects on an external hard drive but I am unable to choose those. I did something and managed to browse for one of the files I needed, and now I can no longer access that file as there is an error message I attached somewhere else in the thread below.

As for the Ilogic copy tool, I did open the saved copy file since I noticed it was the original master copy. However, I did not do the Save and replace which is probably why my sub parts are still changing inside the master when I edit the new copy. I will try that now. Thanks a lot for all your help! I have a lot to learn on Inventor it looks like haha

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Message 14 of 18

mcgyvr
Consultant
Consultant

@shehill399 wrote:

 I have a lot to learn on Inventor it looks like haha


Yep 😋 😋

Seems like you don't even have your project file setup correctly or are saving in a location outside of it (shame on you :)... You must have turned off the error warning about "The location of the selected file is not in the search path of the active project file." or just ignore it anytime you open anything..

I'd HIGHLY suggest you go back and do some learning.. It can save you tons of time going foward.. 

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2020/ENU/Inve...

 



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Message 15 of 18

shehill399
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You know what.. lol I have no idea about any of that stuff! I have been using Inventor for a few months and its all self-taught! So I am not going to be too hard on myself haha. But I do know all my custom libraries and project files did not transfer when I updated to 2021 from 2020. I will have to just take the time to learn custom libraries and looks like using parameters for conveyors and mezzanines as that is what I specialize in. Thanks so much again for the help!

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Message 16 of 18

mcgyvr
Consultant
Consultant

Just to dump some more on you you "might" want to look into using iparts and iassemblies too...

They might work very well for what you are doing also as they allow you to quickly setup a "family" of rollers for example and be able to quickly change from a 12" roller to a 14" roller or whatever and to be able to have an "iassembly" that can quickly develop hundreds of conveyor variants. 

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2019/ENU/Inve...

 

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/inventor/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2020/ENU/Inve...

 



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Message 17 of 18

shehill399
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Thank you! These are all options I have ran passed, just need to make the time to learn and set it up! Thank you so much once again!

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Message 18 of 18

johnsonshiue
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi! I believe your best bet is iLogic. You can focus on setting up one conveyor using iLogic rule (to drive parameter changes). Once you are happen with the variation, use iLogic Design Copy to spawn the files. Then you can work on another variation.

Like Bryan mentioned, iPart/iAssembly may help here only if you don't have inter-component dependency or you don't need to drive parameters across different levels. They are best for authoring library components to be reused.

Many thanks!

 



Johnson Shiue ([email protected])
Software Test Engineer
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