How to make iFeatures appear in the Bill of Materials

[AlexFielder]

Due to the legacy nature of the Inventor Assemblies/Parts we create, we have a need to display iFeatures in the Bill of Materials of the parent Assembly of the part they have been used within. (for potential use in Drawings later on.)

I realise that without using the API there's no link stored between an iFeature and any files it is used within but I wanted to see if there's a better way than what I propose below:

1. Create iFeature-base.ipt
2. Publish iFeature.ide file
3. Embed .ide file in iFeature-base.ipt (thus creating a link in Vault when either file is checked in & allowing for later searches within Vault)
4. use .ide in part file(s)
5. Embed used .ide in part file(s) (thus also creating a "Where Used" link in Vault)
6. Place iFeature-containing .ipt in an Assembly file and constrain etc.
7. Run iLogic to parse Assembly.AllReferencedDocuments looking for files where PartFile.iFeatures.Count > 0
8. Create Virtual parts whose names & quantities match those found in step 7
9. Update the Bill of Materials

Unless anyone can suggest a different approach?

Thanks,

Alex.

[rjay75 · Accepted solution]

Or create an regular part file that contains no geometry to represent the iFeature as a part. Just the BOM info. In any assembly with parts that use the iFeature place the representation part in the assembly and override the assembly BOM quantity.

This will allow you to do a where used on a part file that atleast has valid information and won't have to be embedded but actually used in the assembly without having to create virtual parts.

[AlexFielder]

Thanks Rodney, I suppose that was the only other option available to us.

The difficulty with both approaches is that the shared features in question have historically been ballooned on whichever drawing they appear on.

I guess we would need to balloon an existing item (in the required location) and then attach a balloon matching the feature we are highlighting before removing the original balloon.