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Exact Degrees Of Rotation ???


vertical horizons

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...I cant think of a single case when you wouldnt want to use constraints to define your model though. Is there any specific reason you want to rotate a component but not constrain it?

 

Instead of building my drawing, piece by piece, in the order that the objects connect to each other, sometimes I insert objects that I have created earler, then build the connecting pieces. Sometimes, the objects come in at the wrong angle, and I need to rotate them to align with the rest of the drawing.

 

Thanks for explaining about the MOVE BODY command.

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  • vertical horizons

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If 2009 didnt support multi body parts you probably dont have Move Body or any move within the ipt come to think of it. Basically the coordinate system in an .ipt part is set. The coordinate system for each part in an assembly will be different from the coordinate system of the assembly file. When you manually move/rotate a component in an ipt file you are changing it relative to its coordinate system. This system is what is used to define all your operations and their sketch planes. When you move a part around in an assembly you are you are moving the part and its coordinate system around.

 

When inserting parts into an assembly file the order doesnt matter. The first component is automatically grounded but that is something you can change by right clicking on the part. You can ground more than one part as well.

 

Basically what should be happening is you should be using the constraints to orient your parts. Using a precise rotation does nothing for locating the component(or fixing the angle at which your rotated it). If for some reason you do not want constraints you can add them and delete or suppress them if you wish. So you could add an angle constraint and then suppress it. Your component would stay at that angle/location. For instance you could add a 45degree angle constraint, a distance/insert. Then when you are creating your parts to connect these(assuming they are adaptive and you choose your setting for extrudes and thing properly) your pipe run(in this case) would update based on your constraints.

 

What it sounds like is you are wanting to visually move your parts around then create the components between them. Be very careful with this type of modeing and make sure you have an understanding of projected geometry, adaptivity and the links created between components when using this process.

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@shift1313:

When you need to write a report about the product you're designing, having all your pieces nicely laid out in an assembly so you can take a screenshot can be damn useful. In addition to this, sometimes you're not ready to attach parts together by constraint... you may just want to get some idea of how they will fit together by aligning them. At the moment you either have to create a constraint and then delete it or go through several views in order to manually rotate in the desired manner. It's imprecise, time-consuming and downright ugly. There is no reason why this feature shouldn't exist... to be able to right-click on a part and say "rotate 180 degrees along the x axis and 90 degrees along the y axis" would save a lot of time and make Inventor nicer to use.

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@vertical horizons:

The easiest way to do it is to create angular constraints between parts and entering the angle you want in the offset field. As long as you have a few flat faces to choose from this can work well enough. When you're finished, delete the constraints and the part will stay in its new position.

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@shift1313: There is no reason why this feature shouldn't exist... to be able to right-click on a part and say "rotate 180 degrees along the x axis and 90 degrees along the y axis" would save a lot of time and make Inventor nicer to use.

 

 

*.IPN has this functionality

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@shift1313:

When you need to write a report about the product you're designing, having all your pieces nicely laid out in an assembly so you can take a screenshot can be damn useful. In addition to this, sometimes you're not ready to attach parts together by constraint... you may just want to get some idea of how they will fit together by aligning them. At the moment you either have to create a constraint and then delete it or go through several views in order to manually rotate in the desired manner. It's imprecise, time-consuming and downright ugly. There is no reason why this feature shouldn't exist... to be able to right-click on a part and say "rotate 180 degrees along the x axis and 90 degrees along the y axis" would save a lot of time and make Inventor nicer to use.

 

 

jimmetry, the method i was speaking of is available for multibody parts in 2010 as i was just trying to give another option for the users because features change from year to year. In 2010 you could draw all your parts in an ipt file, use move body and so on then create an assembly(if you want) from this part file. When i started to explain this i forgot he was using 2009. Once you move up in software its easy to forget the things that were left out of the last version.

 

The method kenkaz was speaking of should be available in 2009 but i dont recall the exact nomenclature as I do not have 2009 anymore. If there is a GripSnap button on the ribbon then you can use that to achieve this. This will let you select an axis that is located in your part(parts origin folder specific to this part and not an origin of another part) and enter an angle.

 

I work with assemblies all the time, designing components around existing products/circuits, housings, framework, mechanical assemblies and i still fail to see the need for a precise rotation that doesnt constrain an object to see how things work together. If you are dealing with assemblies of a mechanical nature you want to know how they interact while constrained so they can rotate and so on. It is extremely fast to adjust constraint offsets and angles in inventor just by clicking on the constraint in the model tree. Just select it then enter a value. Much faster than even right clicking and picking a rotate about option.

 

In this example if there was to be a piece of pipe between the straight section and elbow, i would draw it so that it could be edited(angle, length and so on) and add it to the assembly. Constrain the assembly and edit the part in question. Most of the time there will be some sort of guide line such as this plumbing needs to go from here to there. Create a 3d sketch with two points and have at it. Simple things like using a tube/pipe run and defining gravity, inventor can help plan your route for drainage and so on.

gripsnap.jpg

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  • 4 months later...

Just started my Inventor career - come up against this problem, so thanks for the education!

 

How would you guys do this: Ihave a flanged pipe spool assembly that is flush with a wall, I want to constrain the spool so that the flange bolt holes are off-centre, at the moment I am calculating the rotation degree needed manually then rotating the part by that value, then adding a motion constraint between the spool and the wall (which is grounded).

 

On left is what I start with (bolts holes in line with centreline) on the right is what I want (bolt holes off-centre).

 

rotated flange.png

unrotated flange.jpg

rotated flange.jpg

unrotated flange.png

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Don't understand why you are worring about the orientation? I would model with one hole vertical or horizontal and pattern. In the assembly the assembly constraint will take care of final position.

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I'm getting myself in a knot. I completed all the new user tutorials on the weekend and have a better understanding now, still making the leap from vanilla 3D thinking to parametric "non"thinking if you know what I mean!

 

At the moment I'm still a lot faster drawing 3D pipe runs in vanilla acad than in Inventor, where I'm creating separate assemblies for each length of pipe which in turn get placed in assembly for each pipe run and so on. It takes ages, in vanilla I can very easily alter each extrusion by face selection. Does inventor have a way to make a generic flanged pipe spool and just stretch it between points or faces?

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