Exporting assemblies

[Nick Green]

Currently in Inventor, we export assemblies, mostly for analysis, in 2 ways.
Firstly by Pack and Go which basically is a refined Save As, creating a duplicate assembly
Secondly by creating a derived part. For analysis, this is typically done by deriving a fabrication assembly into a single part with each assembly component represented by a separate body. We also use derive to create mirrored assemblies.

As far as I can see the Clone command covers the Pack and Go functionality but I haven't (yet) found an equivalent to the derived part function.

Can anyone help?

Nick Green
Lead Design Engineer
IHC Engineering Business Ltd.
UK

 

[cowski]

You can use "export part" to create a new file where each component body is converted to an unparameterized body in a single file.
[ul]
[li]file -> export -> part...[/li]
[li]new part, specify part, choose save location and enter name for new part[/li]
[li]object selection -> all objects[/li]
[li]feature parameters -> remove parameters[/li]
[li]window select around all the bodies that you want to export[/li]
[li]OK[/li]
[/ul]

Similarly, the "export parasolid" function could be used instead; the parasolid could then be imported to a new part file. The component bodies would be converted to unparameterized bodies in the new file.

www.nxjournaling.com

 

[petulf]

Does the derived part function preserve the assembly structure? Is there associativity between the source and derived part?

 

[Nick Green]

The assembly structure isn't critical and associativity isn't relevant since we are exporting the files to be used in ANSYS outside of the controlled CAD/PDM environment.

We have tried using derived parts in Inventor to reduce the number of parts being used by making fabrications into single parts; these were associative to reflect on-going design changes. WE have stopped doing this as while the part count went down, we just replaced an assembly of a few thousand parts with one very complicated part which ended up taking longer to process than the assembly.

Nick Green
Lead Design Engineer
IHC Engineering Business Ltd.
UK