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HOW TO: Modify existing content libraries so your parts list make sense


TLRstacker

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Hi All,

 

this is my first "how to" post so please be kind. ;) i am more then open to constructive crit and happy to make changes as required. please forgive the formatting as i originally did this in word with pics and have copied and pasted it here. it didn't work so well. :( if anyone wants the PDF i will be happy to email it out i can't attach it as it is 1mb and to big for the forum :( so that said;

 

below is a short "how to" to modify existing content centre libraries so they will auto fill iProperties for parts placed from the libraries in a way that matches your companies standard format for parts lists. in this example i have used our standard format and only changed the Comments and description iProperties, but as far as i know this should work for all the available iProperties that you can select the way shown.

 

please feel free to ask me questions and i will help where i can. as stated above i am also open to any CC you would like to offer. :)

 

Happy Inventing. :)

 

 

if you don't already have one you will need to create a read/write library to complete this how to. if you need to create one and are not sure how, check out this tutorial first.

 

 

1. Open inventor

 

2. Go to “Tools” tab

 

3. On the “Content Centre” panel click the “Editor”button. This will open the “Content Centre Editor” dialog box. the family treeand all families visible will be faded unless you have a copy of the familyalready in your read/write library.

 

4. Browse to find the “Part Family” you wish tocopy in the same way you would to find it to place a part.

 

5. Right click on the desired family and from thedrop down menu select “Copy To” and then from the fly out select yourread/write library

 

1. The “Copy To” dialog box will appear whilecopying the family to your read/write library and then disappear. The copiedfamily icon will now be highlighted while the rest of the families will stilllook faded.

 

2. Right click the family again and from the dropdown select “Family Table”. The “Family Table” dialog box will appear anddisplay the information used to create the part in a spread sheet style table.

3. On the top left corner of the dialog box fromthe menu bar, select the “Add Column“ button (5th button from theleft in the standard layout). The “Column Properties” dialog box will appear.

 

4. In the column name field add Comments

 

5. From the “Map To Inventor Property:” drop downselect “System Information.Comments” and then press OK to close the dialog box.

1. Back in the “Family Table” dialog box all therow numbers now have a small lightning bolt beside them and the new column willappear at the end of the table highlighted yellow.

2. In the row 1 cell in the “Comments” column enter“PURCHASED ITEM” and then click apply.

 

3. The “publish Result” dialog box should appearsaying “Published Successfully to the Selected Library.” And you will notice the“Comments” column has now changed colour to match the rest of the table and thelightning bolts in the row numbers have disappeared.

 

4. Highlight the first cell (should contain thewords “PURCHASED ITEM”) and press Ctrl + C to copy to clipboard. Select the nextcell in the “Comments” column and while holding down the left mouse button dragdown to select the rest of the cells in the column. Then press Ctrl + V topaste “PURCHASED ITEM” into the cells which will turn yellow again and thelightning bolts will reappear in the row numbers boxes. Click “apply” to applythe changes. You will notice the “Comments” column has now changed colour tomatch the rest of the table and the lightning bolts in the row numbers havedisappeared.

 

5. While in the table find the row(s) that mostsuit the desired description for your parts. In the case of the bolts it islikely to be “Size Designation” (usually displayed as M8 x 25 for example). Makea note of the exact spelling and where the capital letters are for each columnyou wish to use in the description. Click “OK” to close the “Family Table”dialog box and return to the content centre browser.

 

1. Right click the family again and from the menuthis time SELECT THE “Family Properties” and the “Family Properties” dialog boxwill appear. In the “Family Description” field you will need to clear theexisting text and replace it with something like

 

=

x example example example

 

In the case of the bolts it will be

 

= LG HEX HEAD BOLT

 

To match our standard format forthe parts lists. Where the terms between the arrows () will pull theentry from the selected parts row and place it in the description thus changingto match the part placed.

 

2. Change the “Standards Organisation” to your companyname and click “apply” and then “OK” to close the dialog.

 

Your parts are now ready to be used. Go to your assembly andplace a part from the modified library and have a look at the iProperties forthat part from the right click menu. It should now have “PURCHASED ITEM” in theComments section of the summery tab and the description should now readsomething like M8 x 25 LG HEX HEAD BOLT.

This is the exact same process for all content centre partsand after the first 2 or 3 should only take 60 seconds or so to change them.Well worth doing for the bits you are about to use to slowly build the libraryand save yourself a WHOLE lot of time filling out parts lists.

 

 

 

 

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