"Virtual" Parts and Assemblies within an Assemblie

[jeanB99VC]

I would like to be able to create "virtual" parts and assys in an assy without having them to save seperatly. The main assy has all the information within itself.

With this I mean to build up an assy with parts WITHOUT having them to save externaly. This gives me the oppertunity to design freely without having to think about partnames. At the end of my designing staium I can decide wich names I will give the parts and Assy's.

At this moment I must save all the parts although I'm not sure about my design yet. It costs me a lot of unneccesary time.

In comparison to Solidworks, Within Solidworks you can create virtual parts and assy within an assy without having them to be saved externaly. This gives you the oppertunity to design more freely without thinking about partnames till you are sure what the design will be.

[jtylerbc]

The term "Virtual Parts" exists in Inventor already, but means something slightly different.  They only exist in the assembly, but are intended to represent items that are not modeled (glue, fuel, lubricant, etc.), so they have no geometry.  They exist primarily for BOM purposes.

Are you familiar with multisolid modeling in Inventor?  It seems like it could be used much the same way you're describing.  I'm not all that familiar with the Solidworks idea of "virtual parts", so it may have some advantages I'm not aware of.  But Inventor's multisolid modeling techniques may already be able to get you close to what you want.

[jeanB99VC]

I'm aware of the virual parts in inventor but that is not what I mean. I'm also aware of the Multi Body Part assy but is also not what I mean.

What I mean is that I can start an assy (save that one) and start with designing parts and other assy's in it without having them to save externaly. Than I can try several things making parts and assy's during my designstage. Also I don't have to wonder yet about part/assy names.

If a part is not what I what I can delete it out of the assy without being forced to delete part/assy on the harddrive.

The parts and subassy's are stored within the main assy. In solidworks these are called virtual parts/assy's.

Than at the end when I'm sure about my deisgn I can determine  wich parts and subassy's I want to be saved externaly with a specific name and place on the harddrive.

[jtylerbc]

Yes, I understand what you meant.  I pointed it out because you were using a term (Virtual Parts) that already has a different meaning in Inventor to the way you were using it, so it might be confusing to others reading the thread.

Most of what you said you want can be achieved with multibody part modeling right now - it's just a different way of going about getting the same result.  If you would rather do without it entirely in hopes that the exact implementation you want will be added to Inventor in the future, that's up to you.

[jeanB99VC]

Oke, I understand that could be confusing, that's why I named it within quotes.

In regard to Multibodyparts  design I thought it is only possible to make parts from one solid.

I want to use all the possibilities of making parts and assys internaly in one assy, like the frame and for example the shaft generator, (without having them to externalise in files) than when my desig is correct externalise the parts and assys. I thought that this was not possible in regard to multi body part modeling.

[jtylerbc]

Subassemblies aren't technically possible with multisolid, but you can demote parts into subassemblies as needed to make it happen.  That's the main reason why I said multisolid could do most of what you were asking (not necessarily all of it).

The Frame and Shaft Generators (and the other Design Accelerators) are a totally different situation.  The multisolid method doesn't interact with those tools, so there's not really a good way to replicate their functionality (even partially) using that technique.  However, they're also designed from the beginning to work in an assembly context by pulling part data from Content Center.  So to make them work in the scenario you're describing, not only would they have to add Solidworks-style "Virtual Parts", but they would also have to completely rebuild the Design Accelerators and (possibly Content Center itself) to make use of those "Virtual Parts".

[Anonymous]

This is one of the biggest features i miss from solidworks. I am just like you and design from top down and like to have different designs and dont have to worry about names or where to save them! once i am happy with design i can save out the parts/assemblies to their proper location. Also loved using these for little "Kits". Like hardware and common parts but had the configuration set to "promote" so they would still be seperated in the bom