Extrusion in Inventor

[Madison]

Okay - keep in mind that this is the first time I've touched Inventor, practically. I've never done anything useful with it. I'm an AutoCAD kid.

I've downloaded the Bosch 30x30 extrusion part from Ed Sparks' website (www.firstcadlibrary.com) and I'd like to use it to experiment with chassis designs.

However, when I go and try to do this as an assembly, I seem unable to individually affect pieces of extrusion.

That is, it I wanted to make a rectangle that is 30" x 36", I can't.

I insert a new part four times, each time choosing the 30x30 profile. Ed's part is extruded to one inch. Each time I edit the part, and then try to edit the extrude feature, I am able to change its length. However, all four pieces of extrusion are affected. I want to be able to change each instance of that part to a unique length. Is this possible?

It seems a little ridiculous that I'd have to go in and create a new part for every unique length of extrusion. I wouldn't mind, even, saving each unique length as a separate *.ipt file, but there must be some way to change them individually within the assembly mode.

Any ideas?

[rbayer]

I haven't used inventor, but normally what you do in parametric CAD programs is create a new file for each type of part. The idea here is that eventually you will want to print off real, dimensioned, CAD drawings of each part. When designing a fairly simple chasis, I ended up with about 37 different files for all the various lengths, angles, etc.

For a rectangle, you really only need two files: one for the long side, and another for the short.

[Madison]

Originally posted by rbayer
I haven't used inventor, but normally what you do in parametric CAD programs is create a new file for each type of part. The idea here is that eventually you will want to print off real, dimensioned, CAD drawings of each part. When designing a fairly simple chasis, I ended up with about 37 different files for all the various lengths, angles, etc.

For a rectangle, you really only need two files: one for the long side, and another for the short.

Okay, that's what I feared. It seems like it makes it difficult to quickly move parts around and try different configurations, and that's really what I was hoping to do.

The rectangle was a simplified example. I have something far more complex in mind.

Thanks.

[Ed Sparks]

Okay, that's what I feared. It seems like it makes it difficult to quickly move parts around and try different configurations, and that's really what I was hoping to do.

I detect a hint of dis-content with Inventor .............

As someone who has used Autocad in the past and now uses Inventor, I hope you will give Inventor a fair trial. You have to "Free Up" your thinking a little when it comes to how models relate to space. Once you master the concept of constraints, you won't want to go back. I know it can be tough, I had a hard time getting over the concept of drawing relative to X=0, Y=0.

I'll soon be converting those extrusion models to iParts. This is a way cool feature added to Inventor 5. After conversion, when the part is dropped into an assemby, a dialog box will ask you for the length and there will be no need to save an individual .ipt.

...... don't give up ......trust me on this ........

Ed

FirstCadLibrary (http://www.firstcadlibrary.com)