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Is there a "Group" command to avoid creating mates?

Question asked by Joe Dunfee on Mar 20, 2009
Latest reply on Mar 24, 2009 by Ed Burris

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I have a bunch of parts in an assembly that was imported from Inventor. Picture a pneumatic cylinder, with several items stuck on the end of the rod.

However, they come in without any mates. So, they are in the correct position, but if I attempt to pivot or extend the cylinder's rod, nothing else moves in the assembly. To recreate all the mates deleted by the importing process would take over an hour. So, I created an initial solution by adding all the parts on the rod end to an assembly.

However, I don't want to create this as an assembly, because it makes no sense to do so on the assembly instructions or the drawings I would create. What would be ideal is a way to group the parts together, much the same way as the "group" command works with 2d drawing elements in Microsoft Word.

Is there a way to do this?

Joe Dunfee

Joe Dunfee Mar 20, 2009 1:09 PM

Correct Answer

Thanks Steve I was not aware of how that mate worked, since I had never used it. I thought that was an option that prevented the mates on a part from being changed. Now I understand.

There is a limitation, though. You can only apply a lock mate between two parts at a time. If you select several of parts, they are all unselected when you select the lock mate. This is a bit of a challenge for my assembly because there are a log of parts, and some of them are buried inside another.

Jay, regarding the "parts only" option of a BOM. I was aware of that, but that is an all or nothing option. You can't select which assemblies to show parts for and which not. So, it won't work for me.

It looks like I must mate each part individually, but at least I only need to do the lock mate, rather than 3 other types per part.

Thanks for all the replies.

[SEE THE CONTINUED DISCUSSION FOR SOME CORRECTIONS ON MY COMMENTS]

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Steve Calvert Mar 20, 2009 11:39 AM

Joe, if they come in as an assembly but you don't want to mate them together try saving as a prt file. I do this all the time with imported files from Pro/E.

Steve

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Josh Brady Mar 20, 2009 11:58 AM

The "lock" mate between two components will "lock" their relative position to one another. Using the Lock mate with Multiple Mate Mode you can very quickly lock a bunch of components to a single component.

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Jay Andrews @ Josh Brady on Mar 20, 2009 12:25 PM

Josh Brady wrote:

The "lock" mate between two components will "lock" their relative position to one another. Using the Lock mate with Multiple Mate Mode you can very quickly lock a bunch of components to a single component.

Oh nice.

Also, if you crease a subassembly, you can easily control if the BOM shows all the parts, or just the subasseembly.

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Joe Dunfee Mar 20, 2009 1:09 PM

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Jay Andrews @ Joe Dunfee on Mar 20, 2009 1:15 PM

Joe Dunfee wrote:

Jay, regarding the "parts only" opton of a BOM. I was aware of that, but that is an all or nothing option. You can't select which assemblies to show parts for and which not. So, it won't work for me.

You open each subassembly, under configurations tab, right click a configuration and click properties. There is a check box for "don't show child components in BOM when used as subassebmly". So each subassembly is controlled individually at the subassembly level, and you can even do separate configurations if sometimes you want to show children in BOM and sometimes not.

Maybe you mean something else though...

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Josh Brady Mar 20, 2009 1:24 PM

Joe,
Did you look at Multiple Mate Mode? Hit the little button in the mate property manager that looks like a paperclip with a lightning bolt. You can then select a single component for the "base" and select as many components as you want to mate to it. It will create all the mates at once. You can even have it insert those mates all into a folder to keep them organized together.

The "Don't show child components..." could be a good option too.

EDIT: Changed star to lightning bolt

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Joe Dunfee Mar 20, 2009 3:54 PM

Wow, I learned a lot today!

Thanks again for writing your responses.

Joe Dunfee

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Eddie Cyganik Mar 20, 2009 4:21 PM

Joe,

Optionally, you could open your imported assembly, select all components (graphically or using the FMT) and the select Fix.

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Ed Burris Mar 24, 2009 5:39 PM

In the beta release of SW2009, there was (so I had heard...) a new feature that would allow you to place a subassembly into an assembly, but have the BOM of the parent assembly show only the COMPONENTS of the subassembly and not the subassembly itself. Inventor has a feature, called "Phantom Subassembly" to do this. It came about because of the desire to make fastener groups. Does anyone know what happened to this feature? It sure would be useful for things like, say, fastener groups... Thanx.

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9 Replies

Steve Calvert Mar 20, 2009 11:39 AM
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Joe, if they come in as an assembly but you don't want to mate them together try saving as a prt file. I do this all the time with imported files from Pro/E.

Steve
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Josh Brady Mar 20, 2009 11:58 AM
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The "lock" mate between two components will "lock" their relative position to one another. Using the Lock mate with Multiple Mate Mode you can very quickly lock a bunch of components to a single component.
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- Jay Andrews @ Josh Brady on Mar 20, 2009 12:25 PM
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  Josh Brady wrote:
  
  The "lock" mate between two components will "lock" their relative position to one another. Using the Lock mate with Multiple Mate Mode you can very quickly lock a bunch of components to a single component.
  
  Oh nice.
  
  Also, if you crease a subassembly, you can easily control if the BOM shows all the parts, or just the subasseembly.
  Like • Show 0 Likes0
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Joe Dunfee Mar 20, 2009 1:09 PM
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Thanks Steve I was not aware of how that mate worked, since I had never used it. I thought that was an option that prevented the mates on a part from being changed. Now I understand.

There is a limitation, though. You can only apply a lock mate between two parts at a time. If you select several of parts, they are all unselected when you select the lock mate. This is a bit of a challenge for my assembly because there are a log of parts, and some of them are buried inside another.

Jay, regarding the "parts only" option of a BOM. I was aware of that, but that is an all or nothing option. You can't select which assemblies to show parts for and which not. So, it won't work for me.

It looks like I must mate each part individually, but at least I only need to do the lock mate, rather than 3 other types per part.

Thanks for all the replies.

[SEE THE CONTINUED DISCUSSION FOR SOME CORRECTIONS ON MY COMMENTS]
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- Jay Andrews @ Joe Dunfee on Mar 20, 2009 1:15 PM
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  Joe Dunfee wrote:
  
  Jay, regarding the "parts only" opton of a BOM. I was aware of that, but that is an all or nothing option. You can't select which assemblies to show parts for and which not. So, it won't work for me.
  
  You open each subassembly, under configurations tab, right click a configuration and click properties. There is a check box for "don't show child components in BOM when used as subassebmly". So each subassembly is controlled individually at the subassembly level, and you can even do separate configurations if sometimes you want to show children in BOM and sometimes not.
  
  Maybe you mean something else though...
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Josh Brady Mar 20, 2009 1:24 PM
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Joe,
Did you look at Multiple Mate Mode? Hit the little button in the mate property manager that looks like a paperclip with a lightning bolt. You can then select a single component for the "base" and select as many components as you want to mate to it. It will create all the mates at once. You can even have it insert those mates all into a folder to keep them organized together.

The "Don't show child components..." could be a good option too.

EDIT: Changed star to lightning bolt
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Joe Dunfee Mar 20, 2009 3:54 PM
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Wow, I learned a lot today!

Thanks again for writing your responses.

Joe Dunfee
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Eddie Cyganik Mar 20, 2009 4:21 PM
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Joe,

Optionally, you could open your imported assembly, select all components (graphically or using the FMT) and the select Fix.
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Ed Burris Mar 24, 2009 5:39 PM
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Correct Answer
In the beta release of SW2009, there was (so I had heard...) a new feature that would allow you to place a subassembly into an assembly, but have the BOM of the parent assembly show only the COMPONENTS of the subassembly and not the subassembly itself. Inventor has a feature, called "Phantom Subassembly" to do this. It came about because of the desire to make fastener groups. Does anyone know what happened to this feature? It sure would be useful for things like, say, fastener groups... Thanx.
Like • Show 0 Likes0
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Is there a "Group" command to avoid creating mates?

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