This tip was provided to ADA CADPartners by Stuart Penberthy
Applies to: Inventor 11 Inventor 2008 Inventor 2009
The Assembly Tools Add-in is an optional add-in which can be installed after Inventor has been installed on your computer.
Once the Add-in has been installed, a new panel bar will be available in the Assembly environment (called "Assembly Tools") (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Once installed, Assembly Tools are available as a toolbar from the Assembly panel.
The Assembly Tools are (Figure 2):
Rename Browser Nodes - Fast renaming of occurrance name - available choices are "Filename" (display file name of the document from which the component occurrence (has been inserted), "Part number" (the part number file property of the document), or "Default" (the default browser name that Inventor provides for component occurrences).
Add Part - Similar to Inventor's default "Create Component" command, however it bypasses the Type selector, and goes to a "Parts" directory as the new path, if it is seen in the project folder. Further, it does not prompt for a sketch.
Add Assembly - Same as above, only for assemblies, and assumes "Assemblies" as a directory.
Save and Replace Component - Takes the selected component, runs a "Save As" command (with name prompt), and replaces the selected component with the newly saved copy of the component.
Ground and Root Component - Takes the selected component and moves it to the origin of the parent, and grounds it.
Component Derive - This command streamlines the implementation of built-in "Derived Component" command in the part environment. After user selects a base component (part or assembly), this command generates the derived part or assembly using the default options as offered by the built-in command. The only exception is in representations: this command will imply base component's active design view, positional, and level of detail representations to be used in derivation.
Place at Component Origin - Similarly to "Place Component" in the assembly environment, this command adds a component occurrence to assembly; however, the new occurrence is placed at the origin of selected existing component occurrence, by mating the corresponding origin work features between two components.
Alpha Sort Components - Sorts the names of the components that are displayed in the model browser in alphabetical order.
Degree of Freedom Analysis (2008) - Displays a dialog that lists the degrees of freedom (translation about x, y, z axes and rotation about the x, y and z axes) for all the occurrences in the active asembly. The "Animate Freedom" option on the dialog shows an animated motion about the degrees of freedom for any selected occurrence from the list of occurrences.
Figure 2: The Assembly Tools panel bar.
How To
To install the Assembly Tools Add-in on XP, you need to have the Sample and Software Developer Kit files installed with Inventor. Please see the Download section below for the 64-bit system installer.
If Sample & Software Development Kit Files Are Already Installed:
The setup will take you through the installer, and register the Add-in. Next time Inventor is launched, the Assembly Tools Add-in is also launched.
If Sample & Software Development Kit Files Are Not Installed:
If you navigate to the above directories and cannot locate the AssemblyTools folder, you will need to modify your Inventor installation to include them.
From Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs, select Inventor from the installed programs list, and select "Change".
Modify the program, and select to include Sample Files, and Software Development files. You may be prompted to insert the original DVD to include the files. Once the Modify has completed, the Assembly Tools Add-in setup file will be available in the location listed above.
Thanks Stuart! Fantastic Add-in.
Download
Please note: If you are using a 64-bit machine and Inventor 2008, you can download the installer for Assembly Tools here: Assembly Tools 64-bit .zip, 1.1MB To save, right click the link and select "Save Target As".
Notes
If you have a tip or trick you've discovered in Inventor and would like to share it with the community, email it to Melinda You'll be given full credit for submitting a trick in both our newsletter and on our website. Disclaimer: Under no circumstance does ADA CADPartners Pty Ltd assume responsibility in the unlikely event of any possible loss of data that may be incurred from use of this Add-in.
.zip, 1.1MB