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iAssembly parts lists best practices


Enfiel3D

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Greetings!

 

I started to explore iAssemblies and I have some questions regarding best practices, parts lists in particular.

 

Right now I am a little confused about the possible workflows, when iAssembly contains iParts. I have no questions with modeling, but drawings are more difficult.

 

I find strange that different members of the same iPart inserted into iAssembly have different item numbers. I don't understand how really to create assembly drawing given that feature.

 

If the item numbers would be the same for each member, I would simply create assembly drawing with balloons and the aggregate parts list - that would work because each iPart member wold have had the same balloon number.

 

But given that each iPart member has unique item number, the confusion arises. I can create separate assembly drawing with its own set of balloons and own separate parts lists - which is not the easiest or fastest workflow. I can also create aggregate parts list, which lists all iPart members, but I still need separate assembly drawings, again because of the unique item numbers for each member.

 

Am I missing something here? I repeat, I only started to explore iAssemblies.

 

I am very interested in learning best practice from experienced users who employ iAssembly drawings and parts lists in their real workflows.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I'm doing this a lot right now, actually.

 

I've got, for instance, an iAssembly which is made up of 3-5 iParts, each of which has between 5 and 50 different factory members. The iAssembly then is made up of in some cases ~200 different ways the stuff can be put together.

 

I make sure that I've got the assembly and all the tables locked down tight, with everything exactly the way that I want it. Then I make a single drawing for the most generic and popular member of the iAssembly, and once I've got that checked and released, I can go back and change the model state to make drawings of the other units, and they're pretty much automatically released, because it's just showing a part with a different marking or whatever.

 

Anyway, to make sure that the balloons stay consistent across every drawing, I'll edit the parts list and assign the same item number to a bunch of different things. For instance, all the box bodies (regardless of options like color or number of holes) will be #1. All the covers (again, regardless of options) will be #2, etc. Inventor will complain about having non-unique item numbers, but it won't stop you from doing it. After that, I sort first by item number then by stock number. Once that's done, right click on the parts list and save the changes to the BOM. Now you can simply save as a new file name, change out the factory member, and your parts list and balloons will update correctly

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

i too am new to this and thus have VERY limited knowledge, but 2 things i have noticed is that things in the parts lists are grouped according to what you have set in your standards. this may not be set right in your setup. if that is correct, then can you set it to group by say Part Number and assign a static part number for all your components via the data table? just a couple of thoughts that might work. let us know what the results are as i am sure i am about to hit the same wall! :lol:

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i too am new to this and thus have VERY limited knowledge, but 2 things i have noticed is that things in the parts lists are grouped according to what you have set in your standards. this may not be set right in your setup. if that is correct, then can you set it to group by say Part Number and assign a static part number for all your components via the data table? just a couple of thoughts that might work. let us know what the results are as i am sure i am about to hit the same wall! :lol:

 

 

 

Yes, you can sort it to your own criteria. I've never experimented to see if the sorting you do in the BOM window of an assembly carries over to the drawing environment, but when you're there, double-click on the Parts List and you can sort by any of the columns that you have defined. There's a button there, looks like the old Excel 97 sort button. A over Z, with an arrow to the left of it.

 

I usually just sort by item number, but I've got the item numbers assigned to the pieces based on where the balloons are on the drawing. I prefer to go in a circle, clockwise, starting at either the 6 or 12 o'clock position whenever I can.

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