Help with iPart or iAssembly - Creating Custom Size Objects within an Assembly.

[C_Haines_ENG]

I would like to be able to create a drawer box by selecting the two panels it would be going in between, however id also like it to automatically generate an assembly that has the metal sidings and such. 

Is this even remotely possible? its just two panels where their width will be the only thing that changes, but I need to have something quickly resizable and useable in an assembly file. At a minimum, the panels being able to be quickly generated, named and saved in a location would be a massive time saver. See the image below:

Any hints or guides or "inventor cant do that"s would be great. 

[A.Acheson]

What would likely work is an ilogic place component assembly where the user would be promted to give dimensions of keyparameters. So make each part individually constrain in assembly then start driving the parts parameters. Iassemblies/iparts are  ot suitable for this given the custom nature. You could also have a regular assembly with custom iparts but they can get a little hard to manage and have the complexity of factory file and the custom members.

[chris]

@C_Haines_ENG I can probably help you get started if you can wait until Friday, I'm crunched to get some stiff done for a meeting Thursday, but I'd be glad to take a look after that.

[C_Haines_ENG]

I've looked into iParts / iAssemblies but it seems that all parts need to be saved every time. Id like for just the two panels mentioned earlier to be saved but still have the metal sidings, brackets and slides to be included and linked to the same file.

[C_Haines_ENG]

Id be happy to wait!

[WCrihfield]

Hi @C_Haines_ENG.  Have you considered having all geometry in a multi-body part file, where you can fully control all of the named parameters of everything, and can freely resize it on the fly, without effecting any outside files.  Then when you create a new size, just save the bodies out as their own part files.  Each body would likely be controlled by certain parameters, which can likely be included in the file name (or something similar), then when you go to save out the parts, just check in that storage area for another of that type of part that is the same size.  If there is another of that type of part that is the same size, don't save that body out as a part, because it already exists.  If there is not another of that type of part that size, then save that body out as a new part in that storage area.  When you select a body manually in the model browser tree, you get the option in the right-click menu to 'Make Part'.  This lets you 'derive' certain aspects of the parent document into the new part it is about to create.  This will create a link between the 'child' and the 'parent'.  I don't know if that is desirable or not, and you may be able to 'break that link' if needed later.  Just throwing an idea out there that popped into my head when reading your post.  I use a lot of multi-body, resizable parts, some of them really complex (represents a large purchased assembly, or similar), but I generally do not go the extra step of generating individual part files from them, because they are usually for purchased stuff that I need to show in other large in-house assemblies.  It's very clean that way, and takes up much less disk space.

[C_Haines_ENG]

That is my current system, but id like the link to be ideally broken (without having to do it manually every time).

Right now I copy the previous assembly with all the files, rename, manually relink the drawer parts, and then insert it in the assembly. I feel like this could be massively sped up and I was told that in 2023 inventor iParts dont require a new part to be made every time.

So i could have a "master" drawer file that when inserted will generate the new panels and not have to store 300 assemblies in folders anymore.

[A.Acheson]

ilogic place components will do that although the renaming is just a index number which isn't always convenient but if you don't care for the file name then that's fine. Here is a video of that method.

Regard8ng keeping the same assembly file I'm not sure I know of an easy method to do that. In my opinion the parts changing requires a file change and to have a sub assembly to swap out. Maybe there is a workflow in model states that could help. 

[WCrihfield]

OK.  I do not use the 'copy assembly' method either, because it would take up way too much disk space for what we do, so we use the traditional route of reusing every file as much as possible.  I think what they meant by not needing to generate all those member files, is that you could use ModelStates instead of iParts/iAssemblies.  However, when it gets into large enough quantities of variants, the iParts/iAssemblies are still often preferred to using the new ModelStates.  With ModelStates, all variations are saved in the same main file, so no files on disk for 'members'.  When you want to place a different version of the model into an assembly, just change the ModelState of the component to the one you want, and no new file is created on disk.  It can get increasingly difficult to manage though when the quantity gets to high.