SW to Inventor : various questions

[Anonymous]

Hello forum. New member. I'm currently transitioning from SW to Inventor. 

Question ...

In SW I created weldments as multibody parts. This would include any structural shapes, which appears to work in a similar fashion to the Inventor frame generator. When it came time to create a drawing of the multibody part, I would insert a cut list instead of a bill of material. The cut list listed each body (including each structural piece) as a separate line item. It was pretty simple and fast to be able to work through the entire weldment in a single part file.

In Inventor, the frame generator appears to only come up at the assembly level ... with each individual piece being a separate part file ... and I haven't figured out how to add things like mounting pads without making the pads as separate part files that need to be mated (constrained).   

Is this correct? In SW I can/could create a weldment as an assembly with mated parts and a whole bunch of part files, but it would be a pain, so I avoided that method. I'm hoping that I'm missing something in Inventor that mimics the SW multibody ability I just described. Yes/No?   

I'm sure there will be more question to come ... Thx in advance for any help!

[swalton]

Inventor weldments and Frame Generator frames, just like the shop floor, are assemblies.

Inventor does allow multi-body modeling in part files, but I am not aware of any iFeatures or sketch blocks out-of-the-box that you can use to build a frame/weldment.  You can make your own if you want.  Seems like lots of work for limited benefit.

As I understand the multi-body modeling method, you will need to push the bodies to an assembly if you want to have a parts list on a drawing.  There are tools in the part environment for this purpose. My Inventor practice does not lend itself to this modeling technique, so I don't know all the details.

[Xun.Zhang]

Hello @Anonymous,

Welcome to Inventor world!

With limited knowledge of solidworks, sorry, I don't know how there frame works.

In Inventor, if you go through the leaning path of Frame Generator, then, you will find the cut list and bunch of cut details in that list which is based on a frame assembly.

Overall Frame Generator introduction

Cut list

Enjoy yourself!

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Thx, for the replies.

Question 2 : Soildworks had a big problem if you opened a part/assy file from a server. Apparently, the file had to be on your local drive or it would eventually get corrupted after repeated saves. I learned this the hard way.

Is there any comparable problem with Inventor? The company I'm with now just started using Inventor and they open and save all their files on a common server. No reported problems, but my SW experience has made me nervous about this practice.  

[Mark.Lancaster]

@Anonymous

Yes this can happen and it can happen to any application where you work and store your files on a network location.  

Update:  Its not a common issue or happens every time you work with info coming from the network location, but it can happen..

[swalton]

We run Inventor, Solidworks and Creo for our various clients.

We have not seen any issues with corrupt files on the network share due to repeated saves.  We had an issue in 2016 where several of the drives in the network SAN failed at the same time.  150 or so files saved in Vault the week before the SAN failed were damaged.  We restored from the remove work site and fixed the issue.   

Creo 18+ years (some clients in Intralink/Windchill, others on the network share)

Inventor 10+ years (some clients in Vault, others on the network share)

Solidworks 8+ years (some clients in PDMworks?, others on the network share)

Have you had issues with other file types on the network, like Word or Excel, get corrupt?