& Construction
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Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
& Manufacturing
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Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Transcript
00:02
Recognize browser bar functionality.
00:05
After completing this video, you'll be able to
00:08
use promote and demote, identify the end of part and end of assembly feature marker, modify consumed work features,
00:14
share a sketch and rearrange feature order.
00:18
Inside of Inventor, we want to open up two supplied datasets:
00:23
Engine Mark 2.iam, which can be found in the assembly subfolder under Engine Mark 2,
00:28
and the ShareSketch.ipt, which can be found in the top of our project.
00:33
We want to begin with the engine and we want to talk a little bit about the functionality of the browser.
00:38
The browser is listed here on the left-hand side.
00:40
And when we're dealing with assemblies, the browser is not looking at the history or the order of operations
00:46
as much as it is the components in an assembly.
00:49
But even though we have components in an assembly, there are still some functionalities that we want to identify.
00:55
First, we want to identify Promote and Demote.
00:58
If we have a couple of components, for example, the engine piston, the wrist pin, and the connecting rod,
01:04
we can select those components, right-click, go to Component and select Demote.
01:11
We can also use the shortcut key, TAB.
01:13
I'm going to give this a name, “RotatingAssembly”.
01:18
This is going to create a new subassembly and once we say OK, we'll select Yes to restructure.
01:26
This is going to create a new subassembly at the bottom called RotatingAssembly.
01:30
And underneath that rotating assembly, we can see that we've got the engine piston, the wrist pin, and the connecting rod.
01:37
It is important to note that when we create subassemblies by using Demote or undoing subassemblies by using Promote,
01:44
that joints, constraints, and assemble tools are going to be consumed within that subassembly.
01:51
In some instances, this does pose potential problems preventing your subassemblies from rotating properly.
01:57
You may need to select your subassembly and select Flexible to allow it to rotate.
02:02
Let's go ahead and go to our position representation, select Free and see if we can rotate this assembly.
02:09
We can see here by using the Free option and making our subassembly flexible,
02:15
we are able to now have a rotating assembly which contains the piston, the wrist pin, and the connecting rod.
02:21
If we wish to undo that, we can select our subassembly
02:24
once again, right-click and go to Component and you can see that we no longer have a Promote option.
02:30
In order to promote these components, we need to select the subcomponents in the assembly,
02:34
go to our Component reference and select Promote.
02:38
We're going to select Yes and Promote will allow us to remove that subassembly and put these components back at the top level.
02:45
Note that the rotating assembly subassembly is still in our design, however, it's now empty.
02:51
This means that we can select it and delete it if we wish.
02:54
In this case, we're going to delete it and remove it from our assembly.
02:58
The next thing that we want to discuss is the end of part marker and the end of assembly feature marker.
03:04
When we look at parts like ShareSketch, they have an end of part marker that allows us to drag it up inside of the browser
03:11
and we can temporarily suppress certain features and sketches in our design.
03:15
When we look at an assembly, the assembly does not have the same end of assembly marker
03:19
because the order of operations is not important in an assembly.
03:23
However, if we do begin to add assembly features from the 3D model tab,
03:27
for example, if we add a small fillet to the upper edge of this piston.
03:31
Let's set this to a small value such as .5 and say OK.
03:35
The fillet feature is time-dependent, which means it does need to have an end of feature marker.
03:41
This means that we can use the end of feature marker to roll back before and temporarily suppress that feature, or roll it to the end.
03:49
Assembly features are only going to apply at the assembly level and will not modify the original design.
03:55
If we find the piston, which is now located at the bottom of our assembly,
03:59
and we open the piston, the upper edge will not have that same fillet applied to it.
04:04
So keep in mind that using the end of part marker
04:07
is different than using an end of assembly feature marker, but they are very similar in nature.
04:11
Let's go ahead and select and delete the fillet and note that the end of feature marker disappears.
04:17
If we take a look at the ShareSketch part, this part contains a single extrusion feature.
04:23
If we expand it, it has a single sketch.
04:25
The single sketch needs to be used multiple times.
04:28
This means that we need to share the sketch.
04:30
One condition for sharing a sketch is that it must currently be consumed, and what that means is it needs to be used in a feature.
04:38
If we right-click on Sketch1 and select the option to Share Sketch, it'll place all shared sketches above the first feature.
04:45
This means now Sketch1 can be reused for additional features.
04:49
Let's go ahead and take a look at using it for an Extrude.
04:52
We want to extrude the holes through the part.
04:55
We're going to use through all and select OK.
04:58
Let's say that we decide to add additional features, for example, a fillet.
05:03
We can add a large fillet to this design, but it does have some implications on how the fillet and the edges are going to be divided.
05:10
For example, this small section is only here because the hole was added.
05:14
If instead we take that fillet feature and drag it up above the extrusion, you can see that the divisions of the faces on our body are different.
05:21
And that's simply because the extrusion feature was added after the fact and the way in which the faces are created is now different.
05:29
The order of operations and whether or not you share sketches is going to be an extremely important part of designing any single part
05:37
or subassembly inside of Inventor.
05:39
And it's also important to keep in mind that consumed features, such as sketches inside of an extrusion,
05:45
are not the only consumed items inside of an inventor part.
05:49
Let's go ahead and take a look at creating an axis.
05:51
When we select Axis, we can select holes and this will allow us to generate an axis.
05:57
We'll right-click and repeat the work axis and apply one here and apply one here.
06:02
If we want to generate a plane through those points, we can select an axis,
06:07
we can select a secondary axis, and this is going to generate a plane based on our selection.
06:12
Note inside of our browser that Work Axis1 has a shared icon.
06:18
This is because it was shared when creating an additional feature, in this case, Workplane1.
06:23
Work Axis1 and Work Access3 were both used in order to create Workplane1.
06:28
These are now considered consumed features.
06:31
We can also share these and reuse them as needed, but we can right-click on Workplane 1
06:36
and we can change the Consumed Input option to be deselected.
06:40
When we deselect the Consume Inputs option, this will place all of the features at the same level inside of our browser.
06:47
This could be helpful if you want to have a full view of all of the features, in this case, a work axis or a work plane,
06:53
inside of a design, but in most cases leaving them consumed is perfectly fine.
06:58
So in conclusion, it's important to remember that using the browser in a part or an assembly has different use cases and implications.
07:06
Working inside of a part, we have an end of part marker that allows us to determine where the end of the part is calculated.
07:12
This temporarily will suppress any features or work features like work planes that are after the end of part marker.
07:19
We can also reorder features by dragging them around in the browser, in this case, positioning a fillet before an extrusion.
07:26
We can share sketches that are consumed by right-clicking and selecting Share Sketch if we need to use them for additional features.
07:34
An assembly doesn't have an end of assembly marker,
07:37
but as soon as we begin adding assembly features, things like fillets and extrudes,
07:41
then we'll have an end of feature marker at the top of our assembly browser.
07:45
Subassemblies can be created and dissolved by using the Promote and Demote options in the right-click menu.
07:52
None of the things that we've done here need to be saved, so feel free to close the designs out and move on to the next video.
Video transcript
00:02
Recognize browser bar functionality.
00:05
After completing this video, you'll be able to
00:08
use promote and demote, identify the end of part and end of assembly feature marker, modify consumed work features,
00:14
share a sketch and rearrange feature order.
00:18
Inside of Inventor, we want to open up two supplied datasets:
00:23
Engine Mark 2.iam, which can be found in the assembly subfolder under Engine Mark 2,
00:28
and the ShareSketch.ipt, which can be found in the top of our project.
00:33
We want to begin with the engine and we want to talk a little bit about the functionality of the browser.
00:38
The browser is listed here on the left-hand side.
00:40
And when we're dealing with assemblies, the browser is not looking at the history or the order of operations
00:46
as much as it is the components in an assembly.
00:49
But even though we have components in an assembly, there are still some functionalities that we want to identify.
00:55
First, we want to identify Promote and Demote.
00:58
If we have a couple of components, for example, the engine piston, the wrist pin, and the connecting rod,
01:04
we can select those components, right-click, go to Component and select Demote.
01:11
We can also use the shortcut key, TAB.
01:13
I'm going to give this a name, “RotatingAssembly”.
01:18
This is going to create a new subassembly and once we say OK, we'll select Yes to restructure.
01:26
This is going to create a new subassembly at the bottom called RotatingAssembly.
01:30
And underneath that rotating assembly, we can see that we've got the engine piston, the wrist pin, and the connecting rod.
01:37
It is important to note that when we create subassemblies by using Demote or undoing subassemblies by using Promote,
01:44
that joints, constraints, and assemble tools are going to be consumed within that subassembly.
01:51
In some instances, this does pose potential problems preventing your subassemblies from rotating properly.
01:57
You may need to select your subassembly and select Flexible to allow it to rotate.
02:02
Let's go ahead and go to our position representation, select Free and see if we can rotate this assembly.
02:09
We can see here by using the Free option and making our subassembly flexible,
02:15
we are able to now have a rotating assembly which contains the piston, the wrist pin, and the connecting rod.
02:21
If we wish to undo that, we can select our subassembly
02:24
once again, right-click and go to Component and you can see that we no longer have a Promote option.
02:30
In order to promote these components, we need to select the subcomponents in the assembly,
02:34
go to our Component reference and select Promote.
02:38
We're going to select Yes and Promote will allow us to remove that subassembly and put these components back at the top level.
02:45
Note that the rotating assembly subassembly is still in our design, however, it's now empty.
02:51
This means that we can select it and delete it if we wish.
02:54
In this case, we're going to delete it and remove it from our assembly.
02:58
The next thing that we want to discuss is the end of part marker and the end of assembly feature marker.
03:04
When we look at parts like ShareSketch, they have an end of part marker that allows us to drag it up inside of the browser
03:11
and we can temporarily suppress certain features and sketches in our design.
03:15
When we look at an assembly, the assembly does not have the same end of assembly marker
03:19
because the order of operations is not important in an assembly.
03:23
However, if we do begin to add assembly features from the 3D model tab,
03:27
for example, if we add a small fillet to the upper edge of this piston.
03:31
Let's set this to a small value such as .5 and say OK.
03:35
The fillet feature is time-dependent, which means it does need to have an end of feature marker.
03:41
This means that we can use the end of feature marker to roll back before and temporarily suppress that feature, or roll it to the end.
03:49
Assembly features are only going to apply at the assembly level and will not modify the original design.
03:55
If we find the piston, which is now located at the bottom of our assembly,
03:59
and we open the piston, the upper edge will not have that same fillet applied to it.
04:04
So keep in mind that using the end of part marker
04:07
is different than using an end of assembly feature marker, but they are very similar in nature.
04:11
Let's go ahead and select and delete the fillet and note that the end of feature marker disappears.
04:17
If we take a look at the ShareSketch part, this part contains a single extrusion feature.
04:23
If we expand it, it has a single sketch.
04:25
The single sketch needs to be used multiple times.
04:28
This means that we need to share the sketch.
04:30
One condition for sharing a sketch is that it must currently be consumed, and what that means is it needs to be used in a feature.
04:38
If we right-click on Sketch1 and select the option to Share Sketch, it'll place all shared sketches above the first feature.
04:45
This means now Sketch1 can be reused for additional features.
04:49
Let's go ahead and take a look at using it for an Extrude.
04:52
We want to extrude the holes through the part.
04:55
We're going to use through all and select OK.
04:58
Let's say that we decide to add additional features, for example, a fillet.
05:03
We can add a large fillet to this design, but it does have some implications on how the fillet and the edges are going to be divided.
05:10
For example, this small section is only here because the hole was added.
05:14
If instead we take that fillet feature and drag it up above the extrusion, you can see that the divisions of the faces on our body are different.
05:21
And that's simply because the extrusion feature was added after the fact and the way in which the faces are created is now different.
05:29
The order of operations and whether or not you share sketches is going to be an extremely important part of designing any single part
05:37
or subassembly inside of Inventor.
05:39
And it's also important to keep in mind that consumed features, such as sketches inside of an extrusion,
05:45
are not the only consumed items inside of an inventor part.
05:49
Let's go ahead and take a look at creating an axis.
05:51
When we select Axis, we can select holes and this will allow us to generate an axis.
05:57
We'll right-click and repeat the work axis and apply one here and apply one here.
06:02
If we want to generate a plane through those points, we can select an axis,
06:07
we can select a secondary axis, and this is going to generate a plane based on our selection.
06:12
Note inside of our browser that Work Axis1 has a shared icon.
06:18
This is because it was shared when creating an additional feature, in this case, Workplane1.
06:23
Work Axis1 and Work Access3 were both used in order to create Workplane1.
06:28
These are now considered consumed features.
06:31
We can also share these and reuse them as needed, but we can right-click on Workplane 1
06:36
and we can change the Consumed Input option to be deselected.
06:40
When we deselect the Consume Inputs option, this will place all of the features at the same level inside of our browser.
06:47
This could be helpful if you want to have a full view of all of the features, in this case, a work axis or a work plane,
06:53
inside of a design, but in most cases leaving them consumed is perfectly fine.
06:58
So in conclusion, it's important to remember that using the browser in a part or an assembly has different use cases and implications.
07:06
Working inside of a part, we have an end of part marker that allows us to determine where the end of the part is calculated.
07:12
This temporarily will suppress any features or work features like work planes that are after the end of part marker.
07:19
We can also reorder features by dragging them around in the browser, in this case, positioning a fillet before an extrusion.
07:26
We can share sketches that are consumed by right-clicking and selecting Share Sketch if we need to use them for additional features.
07:34
An assembly doesn't have an end of assembly marker,
07:37
but as soon as we begin adding assembly features, things like fillets and extrudes,
07:41
then we'll have an end of feature marker at the top of our assembly browser.
07:45
Subassemblies can be created and dissolved by using the Promote and Demote options in the right-click menu.
07:52
None of the things that we've done here need to be saved, so feel free to close the designs out and move on to the next video.
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
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