Automactic Drawing Generation?

[Anonymous]

In my organization, I typically supply Cut Sheets for every single part in my assemblies......to our fabricators.

I was wondering if anyone knows of a solution that could create a simple drawing for every part ? It would save me a lot of time not having to generate each & every one from scratch.

I would still plan on manually annotating each drawing created to ensure its dimensional accuracy etc.


.....maybe I'm crazy for think this could work........but maybe not 😃

Thanks,
Mikegore
IV11 SP3, XP PRO, 4g ram , 3gb switch

[Anonymous]

I gave a presentation at Autodesk University last year and one of the sample
programs I demonstrated does essentially what you're asking. It's not fully
automatic because it allows you to determine what views of each part you
want but if your parts are similar enough that you know this up-front then
the program could be modified to create the views automatically. The
presentation was at a high level and didn't get into the API specifics but
instead was intended to provide some ideas of what can be done and provide
the source code to use for further investigation.

I've posted the complete presentation in the
autodesk.inventor.customer-files group since it's quite large. Look for the
post called "Drawing Automation". The particular sample you'd be interested
in is the CreateDrawingsFromAssembly VBA macro in the "Drawing Samples.ivb"
file.
--
Brian Ekins
Autodesk Inventor API

[Anonymous]

I've just downloaded the files, but Haven't yet looked at them. Thank you very much in advance.

Can you tell me which version of Inventor this was written for ? I will need to install a newer version to view this example.

-Mike Message was edited by: mikegore

[Anonymous]

Hi Brian

I asked this question a while back but got no responce.

I have a web-based product configurator that is distributed to a number of people within the company. This configurator has a 'request drawings' button. When someone clicks the button, a request is sent to my machine. My scripts pick up the request and generates the model and drawings. Saves me hours of repetative tasks! The problem I have is that when I walk away from my machine to get a boost of caffine, i lock my computer. When the computer is locked, my scripts generate the assembly models fine but freeze upon idw update. Is it not possible to generate drawings this way?

[Anonymous]

Drawings don't behave exactly as we would like with the API. The drawing
code has some dependencies on the user-interface being present. For example
you can't edit any of the sketches in a drawing unless you activate that
sketch for edit. There isn't that limitation in parts or assemblies. I'm
sure that's the problem you've run into here. I don't know of a solution
other than to not lock your computer.
--
Brian Ekins
Autodesk Inventor API

[Anonymous]

Wow, that's crazy talk. A script that auto generates drawings by request ? Where-O-Where could I find such a utility? 😃

[Anonymous]

I don't know if there will ever be the ability to automatically generate a
drawing for any part or assembly. However, for special cases it can be
possible to automate some and maybe all of the drawing creation process.
Take a look at the presentation I posted in the
autodesk.inventor.customer-files group yesterday.
--
Brian Ekins
Autodesk Inventor API

[Anonymous]

Thanks Brian

Just to add, the drawing is not generated from scratch. Its updated from the changes made in the assembly. My script edits parameters, face colours, materials and renders, features suppressions and constraints as well as deleting any parts that are not required. It seems to fall over on entering opening the idw.

I am not hopeful as I have tried many times already, but If i crack this one I can spend more time drinking coffee! (---- thinking time -----).

Thanks

[Anonymous]

This is exactly what my company wishes to do as well. I tried to down load Brian examples but recieved errors when downloading. Can anyone give any direction as to how to go about doing something as Scott has done? I can generate models and manipulate them with VBA, adjust boms and excel sheets as well with VBA, any direction would be helpful.
Thanks
Wayne Fisher