Optimizing Factory Design Utilities After a Successful Deployment

TODD SCHMOOCK: Hello, everyone. My name is Todd Schmoock, and I work at Applied, Graitec Group. I will be presenting a session on optimizing Factory Design Utilities after a successful deployment. So at last year's Autodesk University, I delivered a session on Factory Design Utilities, where we met as a group, and we discussed best practices and what to avoid when implementing Factory Design Utilities.

I'd like to pick up where we left off in last year's session and work on how to maintain a successful deployment with a special focus on Inventor simplification workflows, keeping file sizes smaller, managing those simplified models, and updating the simplified models if something needs a change from a vendor or you make a change.

We will recognize what is working currently and how to maintain a successful employment. We'll identify what file should be simplified to reduce file size and how to manage those simplified models. We'll also define how to keep simplified models updated with the latest changes.

If you're already using Factory Design Utilities, you may be familiar with renderings, walkthroughs, clash detections. And on that image to the right, I have before and after where it's being interfered with and then it has been removed. You can see the complexity in that. And if you look down at the bottom image, you will see that it can get very complex. And actually, this one is pretty much a small model. I have models that are even larger than that.

So if you're not using Design Utilities right now, you can have something to look forward to. So you'll be able to do the renderings, the walkthroughs, and the clash detections. But the most important thing is we need to keep the file size small as much as possible because they can get very complex. So as I mentioned last year, I did what I'll call a part one. I'll call it a getting started. It was Factory Design, and we sat together and discussed the issues. That was setting the foundation, making sure everybody was up and running. If you missed it, you can download it and view it.

And I'd like to look at this one as a part two. This one, we're going to get into project files, file size, file organization, and keeping the files updated. And then hopefully I'll end up having a class next year where I'll be doing a deep dive.

So what is working? How do we recognize what's working and how to maintain that deployment? So it really comes down to the project file. And it really comes down to a single unique project file. So you don't want to have a lot of project files scattered all over, as an example, project files that are one for every model or every layout that you're doing. You want one.

And you want to file locations identified. So where are you going to store your assets, your templates? You want them all identified on that. But there's also factory application options. And even if you're only one person, you should be concerned about that. You should be concerned about having just one project file. If you're in a group, it's even more important, and whether you're using Autodesk Vault or not. So there was a time in Autodesk Vault when you could only have one project file, but now you can have more. So we're still down to one project file.

And why? Because simplicity. It reduces file resolution issues. And still back to even if you're the only user, you could have different projects that are pointing to different locations, so you're going to end up having issues with file resolution because maybe the one project doesn't have that location identified.

If you're in a group, people are using all their own project files, and then they end up liking what they have more or maybe a variety of different versions of those assets or other models. And that comes down to the content and the design reuse. So keep in mind that once you get a bad content into the mix of your factory layouts, it can be very challenging to remove. That can happen in even other CAD systems, even AutoCAD and standard Inventor files where you have large assemblies. You just want to avoid that bad content or multi variations of the content either by yourself or with the group.

So if you haven't addressed these subjects, you want to be thinking of the single project file that is unique to your company or how you work and all the file locations have been set up and the structure you feel good about. We'll be talking about that in this class. The big thing is you do not want to use that default project file. Many times, people are new to Inventor, and they end up just working in the default project file. So if you know already you're one of those people, that's the first thing you want to do. You want to get rid of that. Do not use that default. Do not edit the default.

And then, getting familiar with the factory options for each application you're going to be using. I'll be working with AutoCAD and Inventor, and I'll be showing those to you. But another important area is only make the changes that you know what you're changing. Many times, people make changes with things that they shouldn't be changing because they don't know or they don't need to change it. As a matter of fact, I work out of the box as much as possible for that reason. I don't have a need to change it, so why should I change it? And I'll show you just the one or two things that I would be changing in here.

And then, it's very important, document everything. If you don't document it and you think, I'll remember it, it wasn't that big of a change that I made, it's very important that you do document that.

So speaking of factory application options, on the left-hand side are the AutoCAD factory options. If you're already familiar with application options in AutoCAD, you access them the same way, and it ends at profiles. So if you look at the image down at the lower left, you'll see that there are several tabs that have been included for the factory options. The image on the right, that is the factory options for Inventor. So let's take a look.

So I'll start with the AutoCAD first. So you may already be familiar with this. You drop the arrow down would be one way to get to the options. You right-click-- that's what I prefer to do-- in an open area, and I get to Options. Right here's my Profiles. That's where typically it would end, but now I have these tabs at the end here. And there are a lot of settings. And as I mentioned earlier, I do not change settings. Or I should say very rarely do I change settings, because I don't need to. I work out of the box. I've learned that a long time ago, that, why make the change to it?

Actually, the only thing that I change in AutoCAD-- now, I have an AutoCAD Inventor focus here in this session. If you are using other software, like Navisworks, you definitely want to be looking at those application options. But one of the things that I change here or add, I should say, is I browse out and get that Inventor project file, and I connect to it.

Now, I did make a unique one for this class. Typically, I'd be using my company project one, but to keep this class self-contained and to present it better, I just created a new one here. And that's what I'm actually pointing to. So you just browse, and you go grab it. So plenty of other factory options. Get familiar with them. Look at them. Understand what they are because you might get to a point where maybe you got to make a tweak to one or two of those, but don't be too aggressive and start changing everything.

And by the way, this factory layout that you see here, this is the underlay in AutoCAD. When I go to Inventor, that's that underlay that you see here. I like using the AutoCAD and underlay it so I can add my assets to this.

Now, I purposely did not fill this factory layout with a lot of detail, because that's not my focus in this session. But I do have walls. You can see the walls that are in here, so that's a little addition there. But I also have that underlay here. And I do have some other factory session assets that I have here. So very important to use the underlays in there if you're going to be working with both of them anyway.

But if you only want to work with Inventor, you can do that, or only with AutoCAD, you can do that too. I just find it easier to work with both of those.

Now, I'm on the Factory ribbon. So now, in this case, in Inventor, all our Factory tools. But over here on the right, I have Options. And if I go here to the Factory Options, a dialog box opens up, and this is the only area that I change. I change this one to match my project file, which I'll show you in a little bit.

But right now, keep in mind everything's out of the default because I've set this up purposely just for this session. But there are other options that you could set. Occasionally, I will adjust these snap settings. I do tend to work out of the box even with these, but there are times when I'm in a larger or smaller or some change that I need to make. So I will adjust these. But get familiar with the other ones, just like you would in the AutoCAD area.

Now, speaking of my project file, so I have a project file that I mentioned earlier that I made unique here. In last year's session, I also talked about the admin. So if you are the key person, the only user, or the key group user out of the group, you might want to create an admin. So if you're interested in that, look at last year's class. But here's the default one that I'm saying that you do not want to modify. I keep this one out of the box.

So here is my company, or, in this case, my session for this class-- unique project file. I only use one, unless I'm that admin and want to make changes. So down here in the bottom, I have the details. And I have my libraries, my frequently used subfolders. Here's where I would be setting up those templates. So I would match this location with my factory options.

But notice that I have a factory asset location that because I have in a library, that matches this. But if you know anything about the project file, libraries cannot be edited. So that's why I have the admin. And then I have my factory locations where I'm going to have my vendor models, my author. I like separating my authored models out.

But if I do need to make some changes to those, I do not have libraries in my admin one, but I do have the factory assets sitting in here. So if I need to make changes, I can. So unique project file, that's what you want to be looking at.

So simplification. Why would I simplify? I simplify because I want smaller file sizes. Because of how large the factory can get, the file sizes-- you've got to look at it, too, that the file sizes not only can be large, but then you're going to be using these assets over and over again. So if you look at the images in the back here, if you use any of those images already, they can be very large. You want to reduce those file sizes as much as possible because you're using many of them.

And then, how would you manage that? So that's what we want to talk about. So as I keep stressing, the goal is to reduce file size. So as I mentioned earlier too, you have multiple instances of those, especially the larger your factory gets or you have multiple process lines that you're going to be working with. They could get very large. So typically, you get a model to save time today. We don't want to model everything ourselves, so we get them from the vendor.

Now, typically, you get them as a STEP, a SAT, or some other file format. So you would want to convert them. Now, I would check with your vendor because maybe they even have a native Inventor format. So I've done that too. If you've got a good rapport with them, you can check with them. But typically, you get a vendor model in a STEP, and you've got to convert it.

And the question really comes down to, is it converting into an assembly or a part file? If it goes into an assembly, it's pretty simple. You know you're going to want to simplify it, possibly even remodel it because maybe you just don't like the way that it turned out. So kind of old school. That's what we try to avoid today, right?

But if it does come into a part file, then I look at the size. How big is it? I kind of have in my mind one meg, plus or minus, but I usually try to shoot for something smaller. You may see me remodel that. I may remodel assemblies if I don't like how they turn out, but I may even model from scratch the part file because it comes in too large. But 50/50, I guess, we luck out. Sometimes it comes in the right size.

If you do remodel it, that gives you a chance to keep it simple. Do overall shapes for the footprint and the height, the width, and all that. I will put images. I use the decal feature, and I'll put images on there to make it look better, to make it look more presentable when people are looking at my factory because that's usually why people end up putting detail in there that they don't need. But by remodeling it, you keep it simple, and it keeps the file size down.

A lot of times, it actually reduces the odds of you having to make changes too, because you did simplify it enough that even if the vendor makes changes, it really doesn't matter because those subtle changes that they made don't matter from a visual standpoint. The footprint is still the same, unless they make a major change where you got to adjust it. But that's even easier to make the change to because the goal is a simple representation. That's what you want to look at.

So if we look at the dialog box on the left and we take that classic-- I get a STEP file from a vendor. That's the conversion option. It has the reference model where you can actually use it as is. But in this case, we're going to make an asset out of it, so we'd want to convert it. So I like converting it into a solid. You'll see in that image that I got the solid checkmark there. That's usually what I try to do.

I try to avoid surfaces because then I get a patch, and then it gets large again. But at the bottom, notice I have the Save In Subfolder checked. Because I have my vendor model location, I convert it. And then I keep it in a subfolder that's in there. The middle one and the right one are all about the simplification. So say it converted to an assembly, and now I want to convert it-- or simplify it, so convert it into a part file. That's typically how I think of simplification.

There is an option on the ribbon, on the Assembly ribbon, to get that dialog box to the right. But I like having it attached to the assembly that I'm working with. So that's why I go through the model states. So if you're not familiar with model states, you definitely want to get familiar with it. So I go to the simplification that way.

The Properties box on the right is actually the simplification area that you want to be looking at. So stressing the project file and folders because you-- well-planned single project file, identify the folder or all the folders that go with it. I already showed this from a dialog box from the project dialog box area.

It's got a single source of truth, so you're always using the same one; reduces duplications; bad content; changes are made easy. And I mentioned earlier that my assets are underneath a library address or the library link. And then I had the vendor and authored components under my subfolders.

So here's that same screen from showing how I've made those changes, which I showed earlier. So you should already be getting familiar with it. You can see where my assets are in the libraries, and you can see where my vendor models are and my company authored.

I just want you to know that this isn't the only place that you need to make-- or you can make these changes or the only way that I'm doing-- that I'm doing it doesn't mean you have to do it. You can make adjustments to it. I'm just showing you what I do, and it has worked for me. So if you're starting from scratch, maybe this would be a good starting point for you to go to.

So back here at the assembly, I'll open up that typical vendor area. So if I look at my project file, just doing a simple open, here's my project. Here are all my links. There's my project file. I never navigate outside of the look in. There's my authored. Here are my assets. And here are my vendor models.

So I like having my vendor models separated, especially if I'm going to keep the simplified version linked. But right now, we're looking at only Inventor files. I need to go look at that STEP file. So I happen to have a STEP file sitting right here. Notice the size right here, 5 megs. Look at how large that one is. So they can get quite large. And so we're down-- we want to try to reduce it.

So if I come in here and open this one up, I get this dialog box, and that's the one from the image earlier. Now I already have this already created, just for time's sake, to get through the class. We only have a certain amount of time. So I'm not going to go through all the conversions because just watching-- it doesn't take that long, but just watching these things and taking up time is not my goal here. I want you to see the big picture, the overall picture.

So I would recommend too that you practice with some of these. If you've got some standard vendor models that you already want to use, and if you haven't done it already, practice with these. But notice down at the bottom. So I'm back to I converted it, I got the solid. But down here at the bottom, I'm saving into a subfolder, in my vendor-- if you look at the grayed out area here, I'm saving in my vendor models, and I have the storage tank right here.

So I already did that. So I'm not going to go that distance with that one. But if I open that up, I'll change back to my Inventor models. Here is that subfolder that I created. And here are the modifications where the conversions that have taken place. So look at all these file sizes. It can get quite large. Here is just the assembly. So look how large that is, individually not as large as a STEP file. But add all these up, that's where it can get out of control.

So if you look at this, here we have our as-is converted model. It did convert as an assembly. I could create additional model states. And again, I have this already done, but I'm going to show you the dialog box. And by the way, here's my Assemble tab. And over here is my simplification. So I could do it this way. That's where I don't want to do it. For me, personally, I like to keep it all contained in here so I can get to it very easily.

Where I was showing you earlier is I would right-click here. Rather than go to the ribbon, right-click here and fly out under the folder, under Model States, Simplify. And that same dialog box comes up. It remembers what I did before. So you're getting a preview is what it comes down to. So if I change this value and I make it 250, as an example, you'll get more content. This particular one is excluding parts and components at a certain size file.

If I put 0, I'm going to lose nothing. It's going to be one to one. But up here is where I could be doing the model states. I could be doing view reps. So if you do have-- if you're familiar with model states, you could just take advantage of those already. I can also turn areas into squares and rectangles to take up that volume as if you modeled it yourself. That's what this would be. I have none set. So you're seeing the actual modeled image on that.

You can also patch and fill holes. Notice I have everything saying, hey, remove them all. So you can make adjustments. So think downstream. If you took away too much or not enough, you can come back in here and tweak this. Down here, because I already have a Simplified_1, it's incrementing up to two. But what I really want you to see is where am I storing this. So I'm taking that simplified model, and I'm storing it in my authored. I already have that one already sitting in there, and it's already authored, again, for time's sake in this session.

But then what do I want-- or how do I want it to go? I don't like using this one, because it's going to create a solid for every one of these components that are sitting in here. I really like the seam one. So it creates a seam around here so I tell the difference between these, versus the no seam. Then it's just kind of one hunk of thing. So that's my favorite one right here.

So if I cancel out of here and I activate my simplified model, that's what the simplified model looks like. Now, with that said, take a look at that simplified model. Notice what it looks like. I've removed a little bit more here. Here is what my assembly ends up looking like. Notice I have more in this one. So I have already have this set up to show you the end result, but it is already simplified in here. But now maybe I might need to make some changes.

So anyway, my project file is organized where I can store these items. I can also maybe go into-- if I open up my authored one, I could come into my storage tank and open that up into its own file. Go to the Factory tab, go into my authored component, and I can publish it. So it will want to be saved. Even if you saved it, it's still going to ask you for the save.

And this is where I can save it down into my factory asset that I have identified in my project file. I'm not going to make any changes here. Matter of fact, I may come back to that. But right now, I don't need that.

So if I go back to our project file here, you see that, back to what I was showing you there, where I was authoring it into that factory asset. So just in case you haven't seen that.

So updating them-- there are several reasons, at least two, that you could think of why you'd want to update it. One, the vendor makes a major change, and you want to capture that. So maybe they add an extra part to it. Maybe it significantly changes it to where you need to add that part. So that storage tank that I told you, maybe they added another inlet or outlet, and you need to capture that because you're going to connect to it.

So that would be a major change. I probably would make that change to it. And I could model that myself and add it. Typically, when I've converted it, and I've taken it to the next level and got it authored, I'll typically add some of those myself. The other option is to, of course, do it all from scratch, which I typically try to avoid. But what if you made a change? As I showed in that last session, I made a change to where I simplified it even more. And it could have went to the other way, where I simplified it too much, and I want to simplify less of it to show more.

So this is where we could go in and edit that model and the simplified version of it. And it goes back to what I just mentioned, that maybe your vendor makes a change. Maybe you need to make a change because of how you're presenting it. If it's just taking a volume or you're trying to get detail-- it's kind of like when I worked with just standard Inventor, and people like to model threads, cut the threads in. It's not important. You're adding too much detail there. Just use the image file that goes with it.

So if you look at the left-hand side, you can see that same image, that glyph that's to the left of the Storage_Tank.iam. And you can see that same image I showed you in the simplified version of that. So that same image is falling through there. Well, you have the option. Now, this is opening up the simplified part. If you didn't break it, look at the image to the right because we have the ability to edit that simplified model. And that's how I have mine set.

Many times, if I've got a model that I came from a vendor that hasn't changed for years or decades, it's the same thing I've been using over and over again, and that's something that I run into quite often, I may-- sometimes I suppress it, but many times I break it. I take that last option right there.

So keep in mind that you have the ability to suppress, you have the ability to break. If you do break it, though, keep in mind that you will not be able to do what I'm about to show you right here. So you want to make sure that that's what you want. And your asset would then stand alone. Your asset would be all by itself just sitting there, and you could modify that asset. But you won't be able to go back to the assembly where I'll be going to.

So looking at the simplified properties box on the right, I already showed that, where we can go back and make tweaks to it. So even when I was making the new one, it was remembering the old settings. And then when all of the adjustments are made and you republish and you go back, just be assured that you can update those. And in all your assembly, and I'll show that in a little bit, you have an update asset.

So let's take a look at that. So you already know that I have modified this. I made it more simple. So now maybe I don't need these connects. Maybe it's just sitting there, and I don't need these connections. But maybe I want to make an adjustment. So I come up here, and I open up that simplified model. Here's that image that I showed you. Remember when we were looking at the simplified version? It will come up again. And I'm in my simplified part.

I can right-click on here, and here's where I get the options. So the key is you got to open up that simplified part. Just remember that. So you got your simplified part. You got the Edit Simplified Assembly because I did not break it. I could suppress it to turn it on later, and I could break it. Many times, I do break it. Back to I know it's not going to change. It's been there forever. There's no reason for it. Why do I want it linked back to the parent? And then in my vendor model, I may go in and delete that out.

But let's look at the edit. So you're already looking at the modified version. So just keep that in mind. So I have the ability to come in and make the changes-- notice, not the path, because that's already been identified. But I could change the style. I could add or remove those bounding boxes or envelopes. I could exclude or add components or features.

So if you need to make changes, you know that you can. I'm not going to worry about making the changes, because I already have it done. But I'll go back to my Inventor. I guess I'll stay back here. I was going to show you something else in the PowerPoint, but I'll come back to that later.

If I go here and go back to my assembly, and now I have the assembled component sitting in here. And here is the old version of it. I simplified it more because I don't need to make those connections, for whatever reason. Maybe this is a situation where something comes up and gets attached later and fills it. I don't need to worry about that. I got plenty of room. So now I'm on my factory layout, and I come in here and I go Update Assets.

By the way, typically, I'm going the other way, just so you know how I end up working. A lot of times, I've simplified it too much because I'm back to my goal where I want to make it as small as possible. So I come in here and pick this Update Asset. Now, I've made a very simple model here on purpose for this session.

But as you see, everything's checked. But as I hover over these, and it says out of date, notice the quantity or the instances of them. I only have one storage tank to make it easy. But notice how it highlights in the browser also. So it's letting me know. And a lot of times, I am just hitting all, but I'm going to uncheck this. I'll move this over to the right here. And I'll say, hey, I just want to update this storage tank because I've simplified it. And I go Update.

Now I have the simplified version here. And as I mentioned, most of the time, I'm going the other way. But now I got the simplified version. And if we look at file size-- matter of fact, I could go right here-- if I look at my vendor model, as I showed before, we have the size. It's quite large. If I come in here, you add all these up, and what's that size? But even by itself, the assembly with all the links to it, look how large that is, just under a meg.

But if I go up to the top here and I look at my authored part that has been turned into a part file from the assembly, look how small that is. So we're purposely making it small. That is the goal.

And then back here-- I already showed this, but if I wanted to go back into my asset, if I open this guy up here, and I wanted to go back into my factory and build it, publish it, go back into saving it down into my asset, here's where it's sitting. So that's because I published it, updated it. And that's why when I came to my assembly here, everything was able to be updated.

So the real key here in keeping things simple is a well-planned project file, identifying your file locations. Goal always for me, keeping the file sizes down because I'm using-- I have a large assembly. I'm using possibly multiple instances of those, as I showed in that update. And then if changes are made, I can make those changes.

And even if I break the link, I can still make changes that simplify part and publish it again and still use the same workflow at the end. So in this session, I want to make sure you realize too that whether you're a single user, work with a team, vault, no vault, it doesn't matter. You really should be setting up some form of this so you know where everything is going and you have a single source of truth to where it's coming from.

So we recognized what was working. And if you're already using a single project file, you know already that that works. If you're not, that's what you want to do at least as a foundation to get it working. Do not use the default project file. Whatever you do, do not use that. Too many people do. And a lot of times, it comes from you're new, you've learned on your own, you didn't take classes or whatever. So just make sure you do not do that. Do not use it. Do not edit it.

And we identified what needs to be simplified. If it's an assembly, immediately I go to simplification. If it's a part, then a lot of times I model it myself. But I'm really looking at the file size. So kind of a 50/50 there. I end up taking-- if it converts, great. And if I don't have to make a change, you will not see me make a change. I will keep it that way. But usually, all files to some extent need to be simplified. So even if it turns into a part, I might remove some things that I don't want.

And then we discovered how to manage those simplified models and how to keep those simplified models updated with the latest changes. Whether you made a change or a vendor made a change, you have the ability to make those changes. And it really comes down to the project file. Yes, it comes down to some workflows, the simplification workflows, the update workflows, but if you got a solid project file and you got your files organized correctly, it really comes down to the project file and then getting familiar with the software.

Thank you.