Reference geometry in the drawing (working with background )

[shiva.kumara]

currently there is no option for adding a reference geometry in the drawing view background.

it is frequently used in the large assembles with background geometry as a reference drawing without linking with model (parametric ) as like sketch's with phantom line .

this feature is already available in the other  3d software's.

if we had this feature in  inventor it helps lot those who are working with larger assemblies.

working principle: by browsing model tree in the drawing sheet , select the sub assemble or part and convert it as sketches or make a particular part /assembly in to a reference geometry by converting it and break the link from 3d to 2d( after converting there is no link(parametric) between drawing and model for the converted sketch's)

[Cameron_FlorenceFNF9B]

Yes yes! How I see it is, that there are generally two types of drawings made. Either "detailed" with no reference to any other items outside the purpose of the drawing or "detailed" and showing reference to other items outside the purpose of the drawing. I'll give you an example:

1: A piping spool drg.... It will just be shown all by itself on a drawing.

2: A pipe layout drawing... It will be shown with reference to other components on a site.

What we need to be able to do is place the whole assembly view to be shown as reference only, and then, we can pick which sub-assembly or part of the main assembly is to be highlighted (the actual purpose of the drawing) and make that the solid visible line. I know this can be done with 'select as edges', but when you pick a whole assembly to make it reference it takes forever. Even then, if you add parts to the main assemble afterwards, they also have to be selected and made reference too. We need the view set up to be locked, so nothing other than the highlighted assembly or assemblies show up as a solid line.

It could be just a button on the view window next the hidden line/solid buttons.

Thank you Cam

[rmcdougallLXU26]

Old topic here but toggling parts/subassemblies to be treated as reference geometry is very much a possibility FYI, I do this regularly. Just right-click the given parts/assemblies in the assembly tree, and under "BOM Structure" set the parts/subassemblies to reference. Anything that is selected will by default show up using the reference line style in derived drawings. I typically make a folder for the parts that are to be treated as reference to organize them within the assembly tree (mine is labelled REF in the screenshot below). 

An improvement I would like to see is the ability to toggle visibility of every part/subassembly in a given assembly, as applied to higher level assemblies. So I would have the ability to specify that (for example) any of my reference geometry wouldn't show up in higher level assemblies that my assembly was placed in. This is powerful and has been possible for years in Solid Edge (and likely Soildworks). To my knowledge there's no way to do this in Inventor, so my workaround is to suppress all reference geometry in the assembly file when I need to work with it as a child part in a higher level assembly.