Parametric assembly

[dgaudreau]

Hi,I am trying to find out a way to make some sort of parametric assembly.

Where I work, we make conveyors and those conveyors need legs. Those legs are all built the same except for the height and width. They are made of 2 tubes with a cross shaft betwen them + bolts, washer, plastic end cap.... Is it possible to create some sort of iassembly or ipart for this? When creating a conveyor I would like to choose the height and width of those legs when I import them into the assembly.

Thanks in advance and by the way I am using inventor 2012

[Bishop]

Yeah, it's no problem at all to do that.

What you'll need to do is create your tubes as iParts, first. Add the parameters that control height to the table, and then make however many different versions you need. Once you've done this, make an assembly with one version of the iParts, and then make it an iAssembly. You'll need to edit the table for the iAssembly to include the table replace option for each iPart. All your constraints should come through, since you're only changing the parameters, and not the feature that they're associated with. You'll be able to pick which member of the iAssembly is inserted when you place each one, and you can go back later and change them around, too.

I'm at work right now, so I don't have time to actually make an example. There should be some tutorials about it with Inventor, though. Take a look through those.

[dgaudreau]

I've tried this way but I was wondering if there was any other way. The way you explained me, I need to open the ipart of the tube to add a new height, after that I need to open the ipart of the cross shaft to add a new length and after that I need to open the iassembly to add a new configuration. What I would like is something like in the ipart where you can have custom values. That way I could add my iassembly to another assembly and be prompt for the dimensions of the legs I want.

I was also wondering if an ipart can be driven by an external excel sheet. That would allow me to put the width and height in the same file and from there add the new configuration instead of opening individual iparts...?

[JD Mather]

What you really need is iLogic, but I don't think that was available for 2010. It might have been avialable as a subscription bonus - check with your VAR.

[dgaudreau]

I do have inventor pro 2012 but my programmation skills are low do you have any idea where i could find some examples and doc?

[Bishop]

I've tried this way but I was wondering if there was any other way. The way you explained me, I need to open the ipart of the tube to add a new height, after that I need to open the ipart of the cross shaft to add a new length and after that I need to open the iassembly to add a new configuration. What I would like is something like in the ipart where you can have custom values. That way I could add my iassembly to another assembly and be prompt for the dimensions of the legs I want.

I was also wondering if an ipart can be driven by an external excel sheet. That would allow me to put the width and height in the same file and from there add the new configuration instead of opening individual iparts...?

Well, what you really need to do is make your iPart first with all the different sizes you expect to need. Then you make your iAssembly, and create new assembly factory members using the different iPart factory members. (You can do this very easily in Excel with autofill, if you've named things in a rational way.)

Every time you add a new iAssembly or iPart to a larger assembly it'll prompt you for what you want it to be. Alternatively, you can just add them all at once at one size, then as you set up your constraints to align each conveyor stand section, you can right click on them there's a thing in there to replace with a different member. It's pretty easy - just drop ten of them, then right click and select, right click the next and select, etc. Takes just a few minutes to do. The key is to get your tables set up correctly, though.

[dgaudreau]

I have look on the ilogic side looks great but my proble now is that when I import my set of leg, I cannont have different height...
I made an iassembly that drives through the ilogic thing the height and width of those conv. legs. I joined my file to this message so you can take a look and maybe help me out.
PS: it's a zip file but I don't know why I can't upload it on the website unless it is an .ipt so I change the file extension to .ipt. In order to open it just change the extension to .zip
Thanks in advanceTest conv.ipt