Using Large Excel Sheets to Drive Parts and Assemblies

[andyman744]

As the title suggests I have a large amount of data that I want to use to drive models. I would like to be able to set up the data in excel, link it to inventor, then be able to select variations of the part based on the data without having to change the excel cell start. For reference I am dealing with hydraulic cylinders and rods.

For this I have a large spreadsheet with data corresponding to different models of cylinder and different bores for each model. There are around 350 rows and maybe half as many columns although not every cell is used by every variation. I'm trying to set up a system whereby I could choose a model and a bore and stroke and then Inventor correctly models these parts. They need to be done as separate parts, preferably assembled automatically so that I can use positional representations for any work that's done with them. I haven't used iParts, iLogic or iAssembly before but I've started looking into it in the past few days and think I have a reasonable beginners grasp of it.

What I was hoping people could show me was how to:

1. Correctly arrange the data,

2. Setup the parameters to be multi value and draw from excel (I know the theory of this but can't make it work in practice)

3. Setup iLogic Forms to allow cylinder and rod parameters to be chosen

4. Setup some way of having Inventor auto generate the assembly to save having to constrain the parts each time.

Any and all advice is gladly received.

Kind regards and many thanks in advance

Andrew

PS: Due to the fact that this has to be integrated with company systems, 2017 is the latest version of Inventor that I can accept solutions for. I'm not sure if new features pertaining to any solution have been added since 2017 but sadly I won't be able to make use of them.

[Dnyaneshwar_Maid]

Hi,

I am not sure which way will be good for you iLogic or iPart. But I mainly uses iPart for family table parts.

It is similar to Content Center standard item. If you know how to create iPart then follow below procedure.

- Create a iPart (please create .ipt file, though you are having cylinder assembly)

- Create your library with read/write option from Inventor project window

- After creating the library publish iPart in already defined library. While publishing iPart, Inventor will ask you select key parameters and that time you can define bore or length or cylinder no. are key parameters. Due to this whenever

you insert your cylinder iPart from library, it shows table of key parameters where you can select your required cylinder size and then insert in the assembly.

I hope it will fulfill your requirements.

Best regards,

Dnyaneshwar Maid

[blandb · Accepted solution]

You may get better results from the customization forum, but you can utilize the "List from Excel (1)". This will identify the file, sheet name and cells to use.

Ex:

MultiValue.List("Bore") = GoExcel.CellValues("filename.xls, "Sheet1", "A2", "A5")

The above would grab the values in the cells to make your multi-value parameter.

List from Excel (2) is a condensed version where all you need is cell values w/o the file name, but this has to be used in a rule where Excel 1 has been used.

Ex:

MultiValue.List("Rod") = GoExcel.CellValues("B2", "B5")

This rest can be If-then's, Select case, etc to stretch and move components.

I know this is a 1,000ft level view, but gives you a place to start.

There is a lot involved in this, and unfortunately cannot be done step by step in a post. Maybe look at taking an iLogic class?