Component colors must be calculated in order to display them as directed. Reduced Component Colors in Nested View RepresentationsĪlong with various techniques to reduce the complexity of models to speed up response time in Inventor, the colors and textures of components play a role. Returning to the reduced complexity model is as simple as activating the ‘SubstututeLevelOfDetail1’ LOD. When the Master LOD is activated, the Master LOD is activated in each of the replaced components, bringing the complete complex assembly back into existence. Place the substitute part into each component assembly under the substitute LOD.Ĭreate a new LOD in the parent assembly with the same name as was created in each sub-assembly files (Nested LOD).Īt this point, every top-level sub-assembly currently active has been replaced by substitute part files, corresponding to the LOD named ‘SubstututeLevelOfDetail1’. Open every top level component assembly that is in the parent (current) assembly, and create a new LOD in each file called ‘SubstututeLevelOfDetail1’.Ĭreate the new LOD substitute part for each component assembly file. That’s a lot of file manipulation developed into one step. Let’s say we needed to reduce the weight of the overall assembly, and need to create new Substitute (LOD) for each, and replace the existing components with part files that look like the original assemblies, but with substantially reduced features. In Figure 2, I have two small sub-assemblies in an overall assembly file. Notice the nested LOD.Ĭreate Substitutes takes the large number of steps to reduce the complexity of an existing assembly and reduces them to a push of a button. Then you can minimize the entire group of components from one location.įigure 2: The Create Substitutes tool. Create a Low LOD that includes the Low LOD state in all the sub-assemblies. A good example of this is a working “Low LOD.” If you don’t want much complexity in the main assembly, then you probably don’t want complexity in the sub-assemblies either. Additionally, you can save a LOD in the main assembly, which captures the LOD in sub-assemblies and triggers them back and forth as needed. These named LOD are passed with a placed assembly, and are available to be switched back and forth, without having to open or edit the subassembly. So why not get rid of them until you need to see them in a more detailed view? In fact, the greater the number of components Inventor is trying to display, the poorer the performance. Very often when one assembly is fitted to another, minor details such as pins, some bearings, and interior components add nothing to the benefit of the user. LOD works by allowing you to suppress various components in an assembly, and saving the state as a LOD with whatever name you choose. The best example of its use is for reducing the complexity of an assembly. It can’t be said enough how powerful a custom Level of Detail (LOD) can be. This works great for anything that has been designed with a common origin point.
This tool uses the Place command to insert a component at the origin point of any selected component in the assembly.Īfter the components are inserted, they are constrained with three mate constraints on the three origin planes. Use Ground and Root Component to pick any ungrounded component that is already in the assembly, and have it grounded at the parent assembly’s point of origin (0,0,0), with the axes aligned similarly.įor those who utilize a lot of skeletal modeling techniques, this tool is quite useful. Subsequent component insertions are placed freely in space. When placing the initial component into the assembly environment, it is placed at the assembly origin and then grounded. It can be found in the Assembly tab of the ribbon, under the Productivity tool panel.
This tool is one of the most sensible and productive tools introduced in the latter revisions. This panel on the Assembly tab of the ribbon is a collection of powerful assembly tools, which reduce numerous steps down to almost nothing. The following is a collection of tips and tricks that I use daily, and that I hope will benefit everyone. Ease of use aside, there are numerous shortcuts and new ideas that some folks just haven’t run across yet.
Back May 25th, 2012 Inventor: Everyday Tips & TricksĪutodesk Inventor® 2012 is arguably one of the easiest software packages to learn, and possibly the easiest operating CAD platform I have ever seen.