Frame Generator and Content Center

[Friz]

Part rant, part plea for help but I'm finding all of Inventor's advanced features to help you to be a steaming pile of

While using weldments in SW was buggy until about 2017 in my experience it was always possible to design a workflow that would meet company standards but Inventor seems to lack any customization, as if frame generator or content center are smoke and mirrors for the sole purpose of making the program look competitive in a youtube video. For starters creating a cut list is just...abysmal. The default is just to list everything with the same part number as the same item so multiple lengths yield the result *varies* when trying to get length to appear.

Once you manage to get the grouping set you're met with this slap in the face. In what world is it normal to group items 1 and 2 in the same row? They're literally the same item - the entire BOM should consist of items 1 and 2 with item qty of 2 each.

Lastly you have below where the BOM grouping would imply that items 1 and 2 are the same, except they clearly have different geometry. This literally is just unacceptable. Was it too difficult to just group items by geometry?

Is there any way that this grouping can be improved because the lack of customization in this program frankly makes me want to quit this field entirely and live out my days in a van down by the river.

[Frederick_Law]

the lack of customization in this program

More like lack of training.
Stop thinking in SW's way of doing thing.

Part list is in Style.
All customization can be set in Styles and template.
Setup a default Style to use in template.
Setup a few different Styles you want to switch to.

FG can show length or pcs.

You're riding someone else bike without adjusting seat and flat tires.

Pack n Go your drawing and assembly in zip.
Attach it here.

Or go to Inventor Forum: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-forum/bd-p/78
I'm over there also.

[Friz]

They don't like me over there, dunno why... just kidding, I'm relatively active in the iLogic side

I'll bite though - I spent ~5 hours working on CC and FG with the majority of that going to figuring out the cut list. Getting the lengths is easy peasy, but the grouping should be geometry based - i.e. with the hole you should have 3 items, item 1,2 and 3 but Inventor cut list will combine them into item 1,2 and item 3,4

[Friz]

Drawing was never saved, I spent hours combing through tutorials and youtube videos and no one showed it was possible to combine them by geometry instead of just by length and part number. Looking through the Inventor forum for this only found disgruntled solidworks users and no solution

[Frederick_Law]

I've never done it this way, lots of hoops to jump through:

To "Group" part list need property to "Group".
So I add mass to get the "Group".

Also need to play with this:

I'm using 2023, that's why I recreated all the files.

[Friz]

Is there a specific way that the frame generator needs to be modeled? It looks like all information is stored within the assembly rather than within the frame because (thus if you make an edit to the frame within the frame it's not reflected within the assembly?) the mass within the BOM is shows 2 separate mass and volumes where 2 of them are equal. But when you go to the frame and click on the iProperty for the frame member with a hole in it you get a different mass value than the one listed in the BOM

[Frederick_Law]

Frame Gen in IV is parts and assembly.
SW weldment is multibody part.

Looks like the hole is cut as assembly feature hence you don't see mass different in part.
You can open each frame part to see they don't have hole.
Edit the frame part and cut hole there.

It also depends if the hole is cut before or after welding in actual manufacturing process.
Pre or Post machining.

[Frederick_Law]

IV can do multibody but part and assembly is easier.
You can put multiple frames in another assembly and get a correct BOM.

Frame Gen is based on Master Skeleton/Sketch which can be used to design the whole project.
One sketch connect and control the whole project.

[Frederick_Law]

Just saw your post in IV forum. "Liked" it.