iassembly & ilogic with external rules?

[Jon.CoxYDTZY]

i have an iassembly model I've created which is a fairly simple steel pipe with pressed collars either end and the corresponding flanges. Collar/flanges and pipe are all iparts which give me my preset range of diameters and pipe thicknesses. This all works fine and I can select my size and the drw updates accordingly.

What I want to do is drive the pipe length with ilogic where the length of the pipe is determined from the overall length from the pipe collar position as the collar depth isn't a constant.

I've created a rule to link parameters which works, but I need to be able to give my main assembly a new part name and the pipe part a new new number each time i use this in a project. When I open my new assembly the parameter linking rule is still referencing the original part name from when it was created so I would need to go in and change it each time. 

Can external rules be used to apply this parameter link from the iassembly ilogic input which will drive my pipe length? Can this be done on parameter names alone without a part name reference?

I want this iassembly template to have the flexibility for the range of pipe sizes with length option open to the designer and I want the drw to be set up pre-drawn and so it'll update with the changes when it's used on a project.

Screenshots below should show the parts I've described. Any advice would be appreciated   

[Anonymous]

For clarity, do you want to rename the parts in your assembly by adding a parameter found in your model and replace the old existing part (before iLogic) with the new part created based on your parameter imputs?

[philip1009]

This isn't the recommended way to use iParts/iAssemblies, they're meant more for creating a library of files to choose from, not used as configurators.  What's the tolerance on the pipe length and you're other variables?  If .001 inches/mm counts as a difference then you may need to explore another route with iLogic to create this pipe configurator.  I'm not sure how useful it is, but there is an add-in called Tube and Pipe that may do everything you need instead of reinventing the wheel with iLogic.

[Jon.CoxYDTZY]

Hi philip1009,

I was trying to create a mastermodel iassembly utilising the the iparts already created previously and just adding some flexibility to my pipe length. Pipe lengths are only to the mm so nothing too drastic. I've had a brief try with the tube & piping tool, but the libraries would need to be set up to cater for the pipe/collar/flange sets we use (typically stainless 2mm wall or sched 10 or 40) as they don't appear to be in there. I was looking for a quicker automation fix to generate my pipe size and drawing - does the pipe & tubing tool allow you to have drawing templates generated for the elbows/staight sections etc? 

[philip1009]

I don't know the extent of the functionality of Tube and Pipe, I've never used it, but there are other users who have used it successfully.  I understand the need for coming up with a quick solution, but if it doesn't work in the long run, you'll just end up back at square one.  The recommended route is to have a top level assembly template with iLogic to automatically select from pre-generated iPart/iAssembly libraries.  It will take a while to generate those libraries, but it will help you in the long run.

I'd also say, you don't have to create a drawing for every combination, if I were you I'd just create a drawing with every assembly combination while leaving Length open to be called out on an order sheet or something, that way you only have to deal with dozens of drawings instead of potentially thousands.

[Anonymous]

maybe this could be helpfull for you. Also included a snippet file in the link.

5: Creating and Saving parts with unique part identities based on parameters

6: Main assembly replace unique parts with the created parts in 5

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-customization/ilogic-automate-assemblies-quick-guide-snippet...

[Jon.CoxYDTZY]

the processes for pipe fabrication where I'm working (I'm relatively new) is that each flanged pipe section has a unique project related number and welds are signed off and each part is labelled for trace-ability. So currently designers are producing a drawing for each pipe type required on each project - this has massive repetition creating these drawings (and tedious!) and soaks up time so I'm looking to speed things up the best way possible. They already have library iparts for the collars and flanges and the pipe to cover range of DN and wall thickness but length is always job specific. It sounds like the  pipe & tubing tool would be worth the set time and then cover the range of lengths in a table with unique part reference.

Thanks. 

[Jon.CoxYDTZY]

As a follow up to this problem, thanks to those who responded it was certainly food for thought. 

As a short term solution to give the flexibility I was trying to create I've come away from using the ipart family tables and used a middle-out type design within a single part and pushed it out to an assembly to break out the parts and set a drawing behind this. Added my ilogic and rules to the ipt mastermodel and my iam updates accordingly. I can now do copy design and apply new part names and everything updates without having to modify any rule relations.