Collapsing Assemblies?

[Billabong]

Hello,

I need to find out how to collapse assemblies in Inventor. I am primarily a 3ds max user, but one our clients is giving us Inventor files now. If I open them in 3ds max they way they are now. there is way to much information and parts on them. I need to try and simply the files. One way we are doing it with cad program files is to bring them into Deep Cad and simplify them there, but some reason, Deep CAD does not like Inventor files and wont open them, so I need to figure out how to do this in Inventor.

I appreciate any help with this.

Also I would like to note that I am not an engineer. I am product vis artist, SO I don't know a lot about Inventor, so the more detailed you could be in your explanation, would be really helpful to me.

Thanks again

-Brandon

[Bishop]

Is there any way to get them to give you your files in a different format? The poly layout and density that Inventor will create is really less than fun to deal with in Max, even if you have all your parts set up correctly. You'll probably have smoothing errors out the a**, too.

But, to answer your question, you want to derive the assembly into a single .IPT fiel before bringing it in to Max. Create a new .IPT in Inventor, press the DERIVE button (it's on the model tab), and select your assembly. Make sure that you've set it to import as a single composite feature: the button should be checked that looks like two yellow squares merged into a single shape.

I came up in Lightwave, and switched over to using Inventor a few years back. I still do some LW renders now and then, using Inventor parts, so I feel your pain.

[JD Mather]

You might also look into Shrinkwrap substitution (a form of Derived Component).
If you are running 2013 there is a tool on Labs to simplify this http://labs.autodesk.com

[Billabong]

Thank you so much guys for replying.

@Bishop, Unfortunately I'm dealing with quite a large number of engineers, so getting them to all follow the same protocol probably wont happen.

So I attempted carry out your instructions and I got quite a few errors. I'm not really sure what I did wrong or right. I think I may have failed to mention some other things as well. What I would to be able to do is tell Inventor how many different parts I want the model in, or better yet, select that parts of the model I want to combine as one. So for instance the file I have now has around 200 .ipt files. I would like to go through the whole completed model and tell Inventor"I want this object and this object to be combines as one, and do that with the entire whole model. Is this even possible in Inventor. This is what we have been doing in Deep CAD, but like I said, Deep CAD, does not like Inventor to much.
I got your suggestion to work once, but when it did open it up , I noticed the entire model was one object.

@JD Mather

We have tried the Shrinkwrap substitution in the past and it really destroys the mesh when its brought into Max.

Thank you guys for being patient with me.

-B

[JD Mather]

It sounds like you need help with Inventor, but already know this program you call "Deep CAD".
If Deep CAD doesn't read Inventor files, what type does it read?
You could save your Inventor assembly as dwg, stp, igs, sat or several other file types that perhaps Deep CAD will read.

[Billabong]

Yeah i really do need some help with Inventor. Ive never used this program before. The thing is I don't need to model or design anything in it, I just need to figure out how to successfully simplify my models and get them saved out correctly.

I checked out your link after I posted yesterday JD and since it was my second post, I couldn't go back and edit it. That plugin is exactly what I need. I tried it last night and I was getting the following errors.

Constraint was placed with respect to geometry that is no longer available

The assembly contains references that could not be resolved.

So I am thinking that maybe the client hasn't sent me al the necessary files I need to simplify the model? Plus I get unresolved links and missing references when I try to open the files, I just chose to skip them, but it looks like I need them.

I could save out a step file like you said and get that into deep cad, but some of these Inventor files are incredibly large and saving out a step file could pose its own set of problems. I'm just trying to cut down on as many steps as I can.

What are your thoughts?

[JD Mather]

.... following errors.

Constraint was placed with respect to geometry that is no longer available

The assembly contains references that could not be resolved.

So I am thinking that maybe the client hasn't sent me al the necessary files I need to simplify the model? Plus I get unresolved links and missing references when I try to open the files, I just chose to skip them, but it looks like I need them.

You probably don't need them if you don't see obvious missing parts. My guess is that the missing parts are fasteners that might not be seen when looking at the "big picture".

On the right side of the screen you should see a browser listing the parts in the assembly.
Simply find any that are grayed out (or yellow triangle symbol) and delete them.
This should get rid of the missing part and unresolved constraint errors.

You should now be able to work with Shrinkwrap.

If you do need those file - tell the source to File>Save As>Pack and Go so that you get all files including fasteners and library files.

You can simplify things with shrinkwrap - like removing small holes and "flood filling" interior details that won't be seen for your use.
You can set to remove all small details smaller than a certain size (that you specify).

[Bishop]

It sounds like you need to learn how to work with Inventor's Assembly tools, at a minimum. Learn how to fix broken constraints, etc.

Some of the stuff that you're missing may or may not be important stuff. If the engineers are sending you files, then they probably are sending you all the parts that you need, but not the files from, say, the stress analysis, etc. Those will show up as missing references, but can be safely skipped. Other things, like fasteners ... those probably shouldn't be skipped. :p

You might want to spend a couple days going through some of the tutorials in Inventor, just to get a feel for how the basic tools work. Even if you don't intend to do any modeling there, if you have to do any work with Inventor, it'll make a difference.

[Billabong]

Yeah your probably right Bishop. Ill try and get some videos in this weekend.

Ill try you guys' suggestions this afternoon and report back to let you know how it went.

Thanks again guys

-B

[Bishop]

Yeah your probably right Bishop. Ill try and get some videos in this weekend.

Ill try you guys' suggestions this afternoon and report back to let you know how it went.

Thanks again guys

-B

No problem.

Inventor - at least through 2011 anyway, we haven't made the jump to 2013 yet - has some pretty good basic tutorials included in it. They'll give you a basic grasp of the general functions, and a foundation for figuring things out beyond that.

Good luck!