Thoughts on internal / external drawings and part list design

[perX7YAP]

I work at a manufacturing company with both manufacturing and sales. We have a fixed product family, but there are constant updatess and new developments. My job is boh to provide the workshop with assembly instructions and spareparts manuals for the customers. These differ slightly in appearance and how much information we want to disclose to customers. The similarities are that both contain exploded views and part lists.

We have just updated to Vault software and started to use Items and have not decided any routine how to do this yet.

The internal drawings/Assembly instructions will automatically generate PDF:es that the workshop can see thru Autodesk Thin Client. This is in place today and working well. I create an idw with the same name as the part/assembly and set the item to released, then a PDF:er is generated and the workshop has access to it. Perfect.

The problem is with the external drawings/spareparts lists. Of course, I want to use the same iam, ipt, ipn as for the internal files. But I had wanted to separate thes drawings automatocally in some way and generate a Pdf into a separate folder. I would also have liked a nicer part list without the lines and maybe additional styling.

So my question is, does anyone have any tips about this for a smooth working method with as few worksteps as possible.

And if you can make a nicer part list directly in Inventor without having to export it?

I work with Inventor/Vault Proffessional 2020 and Item structure.

Hope you unerstand me as google translate works greate but not perfect!

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! If I understood your request correctly, I think you should be able to do that by using a different drawing template. But, it largely depends on the customization you need. If the external drawing and partslist need to change the data, not just the formatting, it is likely you will need to use separate iam, ipt, and ipn files (or at least separate iam and ipn).

Please feel free to share an example here so forum experts can take a look and provide guidance.

Many thanks!

[perX7YAP]

I will probably have to use different templates, yes. The data does not differ between internal/external drawings, only which properties we show in the different partlists.

If I get the part list below I am satisfied. Remove the lines, be able to change the font and text color.

But even if I get to a nice part list and do two different idw's. The they will be included in the same Item. Are there any disadvantages to this?

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! Not really. You just have more files to manage. I have seen users create multiple idw files for one given assembly. It is personal preference.

Many thanks!

[perX7YAP]

Okay, but do you have any suggestions how I can get to a similar part list that I posted earlier?

[johnsonshiue]

Hi! I don't think Inventor offers an option allowing a borderless table. You will need to use Excel to create one. Then copy and paste. Is borderless table according to a standard?

Many thanks!

[perX7YAP]

No it is not by any standard, but the wishes from the management. And for me, it would have saved a lot of time to be able to do it directly in inventor.

[lena.talkhina]

Hello @perX7YAP  !

Great to see you here on Inventor Forum.

Did you find a solution?
If yes, please click on the "Accept as Solution" button as then also other community users can easily find and benefit from the information.
If not please don't hesitate to give an update here in your topic so all members know what ́s the progression on your question is and what might be helpful to achieve what you ́re looking for. 🙂

[perX7YAP]

Nope, no solution yet.

The current issue is how I can easily separate internal as well as external idw drawings. And place the external generated Pdf:s in a specific folder.

And how I could greate borderless Part list right in Inventor?

[swalton]

You are using Vault and Items, correct?

In that case I suspect your solution will be in Vault.  Maybe a custom Job Processor task to make the external PDF files and store them in a special directory, or put those PDFs in a different Category and use saved searches to include/exclude them as required...

I also see something as basic as filenames. 12345.iam is documented for assembly in 12345.idw and for customers as 12345-ext.idw.  The filename changes may have some extra steps if you are using Automatic Numbering sequences and Copy Design with Vault.

Talk to your reseller/implementation consultant to see what has worked in the past. 

[perX7YAP]

Thanks for the reply!

I talked to our supplier and they suggested a similar solution as your proposal.

Alternatively using a properties to separate the drawings.

So the only thin left. Someone who has a suggestion on how to make nice looking partlists?