Review best practices for asset publishing

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In this lesson, we're going to be looking at the best practices for asset development.

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During this lesson, we'll be focusing on the best practices for asset development and publishing.

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We'll start off learning how important it is to keep our models as simple as possible.

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We will explore multiple methods of converting existing assemblies into single parts.

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And we'll finish up by reviewing the basic asset publishing process.

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The more features your assets contain, the more graphic resources they require.

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In addition, your factory design could contain hundreds or thousands of assets.

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For this reason, it is a recommended practice to generate assets in a simplified form with a minimum amount of detail.

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Assets should represent the design envelope of the actual component and deliver the necessary design information for the layout drawing.

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Several general practices should be followed to simplify the design representation and reduce the model file size.

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Please note these practices are general guidelines and may be adjusted or ignored in certain situations.

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The best practices for modeling simplified representations are as follows.

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Once your model meets the fit form and function of the desired shape or asset,

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your model should be considered done, any other features would be extraneous.

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Try to model your assets with a single part file if at all possible, avoid small fit and finish features,

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like filets, holes, champers, and shells, and remove any fasteners from the overall assembly before converting it to an asset.

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Let's take a quick look at a couple of examples where complex models have been simplified for use as factory assets.

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I've opened up Inventor and I've placed four components.

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Two of the components are the realistic versions of a pump and an electrical panel.

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The other two are simplified versions of the same two parts.

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Let's take a look at the difference between the two.

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We'll start off with the pump.

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Here, you can see a fantastic model of a pump.

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All the features are here.

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I like to call these production level models.

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If you get paid to build pumps, then this is the model that you want to produce.

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But if you're making a factory asset, this is going to be far too much detail to include.

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You see things like holes, filets, champers, the tube is actually shelled out and hollow.

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If we look at the simplified version, you'll see that all of those features have been removed.

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The model visually is certainly more plain but it actually takes fewer computer resources to display this model than this one.

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Let's look at the electrical panel and it's really the same story just a second time.

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The front of this electrical panel is fully detailed.

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If I zoom in, you'll see every switch, every fastener, every button was modeled in incredible detail.

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If I zoom up on these protective covers, they even modeled all the chain links for the cover.

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Now again, this is a beautiful model for production purposes, but it's far too complex to use as a factory asset.

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You need to remember that when you create a factory layout, you could have hundreds or thousands of assets included in that layout.

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And the more complex your assets are, the more taxing it's going to be for your computer resources.

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And in the end, in most cases, our factory layouts are simply a top view.

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And if I zoom out enough, it's very hard to tell the full detailed model from the simplified version.

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As we just stated, it is important to remember that the factory layout process often requires the placement of hundreds or thousands of assets.

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For this reason, it is necessary to publish assets with the simplest model detail possible.

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Whenever possible, it is desired to create assets as a single part.

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The fewer parts in the final factory layout, the better your overall computer performance will be.

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You can utilize the multi body modeling practices to create a part file that looks and acts like an assembly file.

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It is common for designers who are adopting the factory utilities,

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to create their first assets from production detailed models they've created in the past.

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Often these models are far too detailed and feature-heavy to be used as factory assets.

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There are numerous tools available that allow you to convert assemblies to single parts or remove voids in detail from existing models.

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Each of these processes are unique and have certain advantages or limitations.

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A thorough understanding of each process is necessary to determine the most beneficial method to simplify your design.

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The main methods of simplification are the derived component command, the shrink wrap command,

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the multi body solid import option, an Inventor simplification.

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I would encourage you to investigate each of these processes and note the distinct advantages and limitations of each.

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For our brief demonstration, we'll be focusing on the Inventor simplification method.

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In Inventor, I've opened up the mill assembly located in your data set.

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This is actually an assembly of components.

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Some of them are quite simple but some of them are incredibly detailed, far too detailed to be used as a factory asset.

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So, we're going to use the Inventor simplification process to convert this assembly into a simplified single part.

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On the simplification panel, I'm going to select "Simplify View".

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This allows me to select the components that I want to include in my final single part file.

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Now, for this example, I want just about everything.

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I'm going to grab the collet, the end mill, both pieces of the vice, the little screw end here, and the handle.

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Make sure to pick the handle.

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I'm going to pick the table, the saddle, the knee, the hand screws, and what they call the knee steady.

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Really, I think I'm picking everything except for this handle over here.

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I'm going to click the check mark to move on to the next step.

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In our next step, we're going to use the "Define Envelopes" command to convert certain objects into very simple features.

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We can convert any of these models into a bounding box or a bounding cylinder.

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Let's take a look at this knee steady part at the base of our part.

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There's a lot of detail on this cylinder.

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I think we should just use a regular cylinder here.

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So, I'm going to select that.

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And from the mini tool bar, I'm going to replace it with a bounding cylinder.

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I'll click "Apply" to move on to the next step.

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The screw handle for the vice has a helical coil on it.

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I'm going to select that and convert it to a bounding cylinder as well.

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Even the handle, I can click that, convert that to a cylinder.

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The same thing for the calt and the mill.

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The table, I can convert to a bounding box.

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We want to do the same thing for the saddle and the knee.

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I'll go ahead and cancel and I'm ready for the next step in our process to convert this assembly in its current state to a single component.

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I'm going to use the create simplified part command.

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This allows me to name the new part.

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Select the correct part template and the correct destination.

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I'll click "Okay".

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And here you can see my single part file instead of an assembly.

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when your model is ready and performing, as expected, you can publish it as a factory asset.

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The publishing process occurs in the asset builder environment.

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Here, you'll find the necessary tools to add common layout functionality to your model.

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You can establish a landing surface and insertion points, so the asset will land properly upright on the floor.

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You can add connectors, so your model will easily snap into place with other similar assets.

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You can define the asset properties that will be tracked and displayed.

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You can also define the key parameters that the end user will utilize to access the functionality available from your parametric or iLogic design.

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You can then publish your asset to your local computer, a shared vault folder, or the cloud for global access.

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Let's finish this lesson by publishing our shelf and testing its factory asset functionality.

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We publish assets in the asset builder environment.

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When you come into the asset builder environment, the first thing you'll probably see is a list of the key parameters that you specified earlier.

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You'll also see a list of commands that you can use to add layout functionality to your component prior to publishing.

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Let's focus on a few of these.

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First, we want to set a landing surface.

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We'll click that command and simply select one of the bottom faces of our design.

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Now, if you don't like the orientation, you can change it by selecting the axis, clicking an edge and then clicking the preview button again.

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You can also establish insertion points.

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When you drag the asset from the asset browser, these insertion points are where it will attach to your cursor.

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You can add multiple insertion points and use the tab button to tab through them, when you're placing your asset.

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We'll click "Okay". And our landing surface and insertion points are added.

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You can also have defined connectors.

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Connectors are the little green dot that you've seen in previous lessons that are used to snap the assets together.

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In this case, we're going to add the connector to these work points that have left visible here.

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Now you need to align the UCS for the connector.

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I have a simple rule of thumb: red out and blue up.

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I click the red axis and then select a face to orient it so that it's pointing outwards or to the next asset that will be snapped to.

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I then click the blue axis and pick a face to align it, so that that axis is pointing upwards.

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I'll right click and select "Okay".

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We simply need to repeat this process on the other side.

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Now that we have our connectors, we can focus on our asset properties.

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Now, in most cases, I will have already filled out all of the properties in the regular iProperty environment.

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But here, you have an additional option to determine what properties are visible when you drop the asset into AutoCAD.

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The descriptor tab is usually set up by default to show the name of the part file.

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There are additional options for connector classes, asset variants, and even BIM content, but we cannot cover those in this short demonstration.

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I'm going to move on to publishing our asset.

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I'm going to click the "Publish Asset Command".

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I'll be prompted to save my file and then I'll be presented with different places to save the asset.

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For your initial testing, I would always save the asset to my local machine.

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That way you can test it over and over again and make sure it works correctly before you choose to save it to your vault area or to the cloud.

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I'm just going to simply save it in my user asset directory.

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I'll click "Okay".

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And the asset will be published.

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Let's finish off by testing the functionality of our new factory asset.

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I go to my asset browser and I now see in my user asset folder, the heavy-duty shelf, I'll drag it out onto the floor.

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We see that it lands upright as expected.

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I can also hit the tab button and toggle between the available insertion points.

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I'll click to drop it off like normal, I'll right click and select "Done".

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And I could actually just snap these two assets together with the defining connector.

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But remember how we set this up, we can actually make very distinct modifications to this asset,

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so that it fits correctly and the uprights don't overlap each other.

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I'm going to select this asset.

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And now in the factory properties palette, I can control all those parametric features and those logic rules that we added to the asset earlier.

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For this example, let's make this shelf green.

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We'll change the length to 48 inches.

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We say I want four shelves this time and I only want my right uprights.

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I'm going to click the "Update" button and the part updates to suit.

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Now, I can drag the component over and snap it in location and it matches perfectly.

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We'll try that one more time.

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I'll drag another shelf in, select it.

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This time, let's make it red, with the length of 72 inches.

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We'll leave it at three shelves.

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But this time I want just the left uprights.

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It is very important when you're making assets that you test them thoroughly before you publish them to your vault or to the cloud locations.

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These assets seem to be functioning, very good.

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Now, if you'd like to try this asset for yourself, the asset that I just created.

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You can go up to your asset browser, you can do a search for shelf heavy duty.

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I published it to the cloud.

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So you should be able to find it on the cloud and use it and test it for yourself.

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I'd encourage you to check it out, go in and look at the logic rules that we created.

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Review the parametric functionality we used to create the asset and explore the overall functionality of how the asset works.

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I hope you picked up something during this lesson.

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I appreciate you taking the time to study it with me.