Autodesk Inventor Routed Systems 2009 Getting Started

Autodesk Inventor Routed Systems 2009

Getting Started

January 2008Part No. 462A1-050000-PM01A

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reproduced in any form, by any method, for any purpose.

Certain materials included in this publication are reprinted with the permission of the copyright holder.

Trademarks

The following are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., in the USA and other countries: 3DEC (design/logo), 3December,

3December.com, 3ds Max, ActiveShapes, Actrix, ADI, Alias, Alias (swirl design/logo), AliasStudio, Alias|Wavefront (design/logo), ATC, AUGI,

AutoCAD, AutoCAD Learning Assistance, AutoCAD LT, AutoCAD Simulator, AutoCAD SQL Extension, AutoCAD SQL Interface, Autodesk, Autodesk

Envision, Autodesk Insight, Autodesk Intent, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Map, Autodesk MapGuide, Autodesk Streamline, AutoLISP, AutoSnap,

AutoSketch, AutoTrack, Backdraft, Built with ObjectARX (logo), Burn, Buzzsaw, CAiCE, Can You Imagine, Character Studio, Cinestream, Civil

3D, Cleaner, Cleaner Central, ClearScale, Colour Warper, Combustion, Communication Specification, Constructware, Content Explorer,

Create>what's>Next> (design/logo), Dancing Baby (image), DesignCenter, Design Doctor, Designer's Toolkit, DesignKids, DesignProf, DesignServer,

DesignStudio, Design|Studio (design/logo), Design Your World, Design Your World (design/logo), DWF, DWG, DWG (logo), DWG TrueConvert,

DWG TrueView, DXF, EditDV, Education by Design, Exposure, Extending the Design Team, FBX, Filmbox, FMDesktop, Freewheel, GDX Driver,

Gmax, Heads-up Design, Heidi, HOOPS, HumanIK, i-drop, iMOUT, Incinerator, IntroDV, Inventor, Inventor LT, Kaydara, Kaydara (design/logo),

LocationLogic, Lustre, Maya, Mechanical Desktop, MotionBuilder, Mudbox, NavisWorks, ObjectARX, ObjectDBX, Open Reality, Opticore,

Opticore Opus, PolarSnap, PortfolioWall, Powered with Autodesk Technology, Productstream, ProjectPoint, ProMaterials, Reactor, RealDWG,

Real-time Roto, Recognize, Render Queue, Reveal, Revit, Showcase, ShowMotion, SketchBook, SteeringWheels, StudioTools, Topobase, Toxik,

ViewCube, Visual, Visual Bridge, Visual Construction, Visual Drainage, Visual Hydro, Visual Landscape, Visual Roads, Visual Survey, Visual Syllabus,

Visual Toolbox, Visual Tugboat, Visual LISP, Voice Reality, Volo, Wiretap, and WiretapCentral

The following are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk Canada Co. in the USA and/or Canada and other countries: Backburner,

Discreet, Fire, Flame, Flint, Frost, Inferno, Multi-Master Editing, River, Smoke, Sparks, Stone, and Wire

All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders.

Disclaimer

THIS PUBLICATION AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN IS MADE AVAILABLE BY AUTODESK, INC. "AS IS." AUTODESK, INC. DISCLAIMS

ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR

FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE REGARDING THESE MATERIALS.

Published by:

Autodesk, Inc.

111 Mclnnis Parkway

San Rafael, CA 94903, USA

Contents

Tubes and Pipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 1 Getting Started with Tube & Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

About Tube & Pipe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Tube & Pipe Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Tube & Pipe Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Tube & Pipe Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Working in Autodesk Inventor Installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Understanding Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Backing Up Tutorial Data Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Workflow for Tube and Pipe Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Setting Up Projects For Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Defining the Master Runs Assembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Create Master Runs Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Add Individual Runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Specify Global Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Chapter 2 Route Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

About Rigid Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Auto Route Cycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Parametric Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

About Flexible Hose Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Route Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

iii

Rigid Route Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Hose Route Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3D Orthogonal Route Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Tool Elements for Pipe Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Tool Elements for Tube Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Change Tool Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Define Angular Position and Rotation Snap . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Define 45-degree Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Define Bent Tubes Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Using Point Snap to Define Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Enter Precise Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Route Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Basic Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Bend Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Dimension Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Parallel and Perpendicular Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Other Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Chapter 3 Setting Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

About Tube and Pipe Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Access Tube and Pipe Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

View and Select Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Setting Style Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

General Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Rules Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Working with Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Create Rigid Pipe with Fittings Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Tubing with Bends Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Flexible Hose Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Create Flexible Hose Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Change Styles for Existing Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Change Active Styles for New Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Adding Styles to Assembly Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Chapter 4 Creating Rigid Routes and Runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

General Workflow for Rigid Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Creating Auto Route Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Manually Creating Parametric Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Automatically Dimension Route Sketches . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Create Segments With Precise Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Define Parallel and Perpendicular Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Snap Route Points to Existing Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Place Constraints On Route Sketches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Create Bends Between Existing Pipe Segments . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Create Pipe Routes With Custom Bends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

iv | Contents

Create Bent Tube Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Realign 3D Orthogonal Route Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Control Dimension Visibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Populated Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Chapter 5 Creating and Editing Flexible Hose Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Workflow for Flexible Hose Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Creating Flexible Hose Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Create Hose Routes with Both Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Change Nominal Diameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Create Hose Routes With One Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Editing Flexible Hose Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Hose Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Hose Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Start Fitting and End Fitting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Bend Radius Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Delete Flexible Hose Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Practice Your Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Chapter 6 Editing Rigid Routes and Runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

About Editing Rigid Routes and Runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Auto Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Parametric Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Editing Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Route Panel Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Tube & Pipe Panel Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Context Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Controlling Individual Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Route Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Add to Finished Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Insert Intermediate Route Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Delete Route Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Auto Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Move Auto Route Segments Approximately . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Move Auto Route Segments Accurately . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Removing Unwanted Segments or Route Points . . . . . . . . . 122

Convert Auto Region to Parametric Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Place Fittings in the Active Project Workspace . . . . . . . . . . 129

Insert Library Parts Using AutoDrop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Adjust Fitting Position and Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Restore Default Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Replace Existing Fittings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Contents | v

Delete Fitting Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Connect Fittings and Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Editing Bent Tube Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Changing Bend Radius . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Moving Coupling Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Deleting Routes and Runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Chapter 7 Using Content Center Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

About Content Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

About Content Center Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Managing and Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Configuring Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Placing Tube and Pipe Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Chapter 8 Authoring and Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

About Authoring and Publishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Authoring Tube and Pipe Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Access Tube & Pipe Authoring Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Author Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Prepare iParts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Author iParts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Practice Your Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Publishing to Content Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Set Up the Library and Subcategories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Publish Authored Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Creating Styles Using Published Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Chapter 9 Documenting Routes and Runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

About Documenting Routes and Runs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

General Workflow for Documenting Pipe Runs . . . . . . . . . . 182

Using Drawing Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Preparing Design View Representations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Creating Drawing Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Create Base Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Create Projected Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Create Detail Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Practice Your Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Recovering Route Centerlines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Dimensioning Drawing Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Creating and Exporting Bills of Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Enable the Parts Only View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Add Base QTY and Stock Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Create and Export Bill of Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Creating Parts Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

vi | Contents

Annotating Drawings with Piping Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Cable and Harness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Chapter 10 Getting Started with Cable and Harness . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

About Cable and Harness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Understanding Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Backing Up Tutorial Data Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Setting Up Projects For Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Working in Autodesk Inventor Installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

About Electrical Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Workflow for Electrical Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Creating Electrical Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Place Pins and Define Pin-level Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Set Part Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Add RefDes Placeholders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Practice Your Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Modifying Pinned Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Delete Pins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Adding Custom Properties to Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Placing Electrical Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Chapter 11 Working With Harness Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

About Working in Harness Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Cable and Harness Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Creating Harness Assemblies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Workflow for Harness Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Using the Cable and Harness Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Setting Properties for Harness Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Customize Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Set Occurrence Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Assign Occurrence Reference Designators . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Chapter 12 Using the Cable and Harness Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

About the Cable and Harness Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Locating the Cable and Harness Library File . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Displaying the Library Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Adding Library Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Create New Library Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Modifying Library Wire and Cable Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Copy Library Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Edit Library Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Delete Library Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Add Properties to Library Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Contents | vii

Importing and Exporting Library Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Import Into the Cable and Harness Library . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Export Library Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Practicing Your Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Chapter 13 Working with Wires and Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

About Wires and Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Setting Modeling and Curvature Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Inserting Wires and Cables Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Insert Wires Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Insert Cables Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Moving Wires and Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Moving Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Moving Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Deleting Wires and Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Deleting Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Removing Cables and Cable Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Replacing Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Assigning Virtual Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Importing Harness Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Configuration File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Comma Separated Value Data File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

XML File Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Review Harness Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Import Harness Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Adding Shape to Wires and Cable Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Add Wire Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Redefine and Move Wire Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Delete Wire Work Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Setting Occurrence Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Wire Occurrence Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Cable Occurrence Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Override Library-level Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Restore Library-Level Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Changing Wire and Cable Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Chapter 14 Working with Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

About Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Define Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Selecting Work Points for Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Plan Segment Start Points and Endpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Apply Offset Distances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Creating Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Add Segment Branches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Manipulating Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

viii | Contents

Redefine or Move Segment Work Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Insert Segment Work Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Delete Harness Segment Work Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Delete Harness Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Setting Segment Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Setting Diameter Behavior in Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Changing Displays of Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Setting Segment Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Chapter 15 Routing Wires and Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

About Routing and Unrouting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Defining Manual Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Defining Semi-automatic Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Route Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Defining Automatic Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

View Wire and Cable Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Unrouting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Unroute Wires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Unroute Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Unroute All Wires or Cables from All Segments . . . . . . . . . . 301

Practice Your Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Chapter 16 Working with Splices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

About Splices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Recommended Workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Creating Splices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Insert a Splice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Modifying Splices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Splice Wires or Add Wires to the Splice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Redefine the Splice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Splice Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Access Properties for Splices and Splice Pins . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Control Length for Splices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Delete Splices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Practice Your Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Chapter 17 Working with Ribbon Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

About Ribbon Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Defining Raw Ribbon Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Placing Connectors from Content Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Creating Ribbon Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Adjust Ribbon Cable Orientation and Shape . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Chapter 18 Generating Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Contents | ix

About Generating Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Workflow for Harness Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Using the Report Generator Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Formatting Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Use Sample Configuration Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Edit Configuration Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Generating Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Create Part and Wire Bills of Material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Create Wire Run List Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Create Custom Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Chapter 19 Working Nailboards and Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

About Nailboards and Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Nailboard Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Nailboard Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

The Nailboard Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Creating a Nailboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Set Display Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Manipulating the Harness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Move the Harness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Arrange the Harness Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Arrange the Wire Stubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Arrange the Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Changing Nailboard Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Change Segment and Wire Line Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Change Fan State and Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Annotating the Nailboard Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Dimension the Nailboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Add Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Add Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Placing Connector Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Create an Assembly Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Printing Nailboards and Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Practice your skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

IDF Translator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Chapter 20 Using the IDF Translator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

About the IDF Translator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Exchanging Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Understanding Import IDF Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Select document type to create . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Select items to import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

x | Contents

Item color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Importing IDF Board Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Using IDF Board Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Contents | xi

xii

Tubes and Pipes

Part 1 of this manual presents the getting started information for Tube and Pipe in Autodesk

®

Inventor

™

Routed Systems. This add-in to the Autodesk Inventor assembly environment

provides the capability to create complete tube and pipe systems in mechanical assembly

designs.

1

2

Getting Started with

Tube & Pipe

This chapter provides basic information to help you get started using Tube & Pipe in Autodesk

®

Inventor

™

Routed Systems and the exercises in this manual.

It also provides information about the tube and pipe environment, how to get started with

a tube and pipe assembly, and how to use tube and pipe data.

About Tube & Pipe

Tube & Pipe provides features for setting tube and pipe styles, adding runs and

routes to mechanical assemblies or product designs, adding initial fittings to

create route branches, and populating selected routes. When a tube and pipe

assembly is complete, the tube and pipe information can be represented in

drawings and presentations, and output to different data formats.

Tube & Pipe Features

With the tube and pipe tools you can:

■ Create tube and pipe assembly files.

■ Define, view, modify, copy, delete, and share tube and pipe styles that

conform to industry standards.

■ Create tube, pipe, or hose routes using automatic solutions the system

calculates based on the style criteria.

■ Create derived routes and edit the underlying base sketch.

1

3

■ Use sketched tools to create parametric regions in rigid piping and bent

tubing routes.

■ Utilize the existing geometry and drawn construction lines to navigate the

rigid piping and bent tubing routes.

■ Defer updates on automatic routing for the tube and pipe runs assembly,

pipe run, and individual routes.

■ Modify both routes and runs by placing dimensions and geometric

constraints.

■ Access and use the Content Center to place conduit parts and fittings in

tube and pipe assemblies. Fittings can be used to initiate route branches.

■ Author custom tube and pipe iParts and standard parts for publishing to

the Content Center Library.

■ Populate selected routes with library components.

■ Suppress memory-costly tube and pipe components in Level of Detail

representations, especially in large tube and pipe assemblies.

■ Place non-adaptive occurrences of master runs assemblies, runs, hose

assemblies, and routes and make them adaptive for reuse.

■ Swap in the needed master runs assembly member in the tube and pipe

interchangeability set when a tube and pipe iAssembly factory is created.

■ Recover the route centerlines in tube and pipe drawings.

■ Use the bill of materials to document routes and runs.

■ Move pipe runs rigidly and edit hose routes in positional representations.

■ Save tube and pipe data to ISOGEN .pcf files or ASCII bend tables.

■ Use the browser to edit tube and pipe runs and to change visibility for

routes, runs, and components.

Tube & Pipe Environment

Tube & Pipe provides the familiar Autodesk Inventor assembly environment

in addition to design tools for adding routes and runs.

When you open an assembly in Autodesk Inventor Tube & Pipe, a tool appears

on the Assembly panel bar for adding piping runs to your design. Once you

4 | Chapter 1 Getting Started with Tube & Pipe

add your first run, the tools specific to creating tube and pipe runs in an

assembly are displayed.

The following image shows the application window that is displayed once a

piping run is added to a new assembly file. Tube & Pipe-specific tools are added

to the standard toolbar, Model browser, and panel bars are enabled.

The features added by the Tube & Pipe environment include:

The tool set for the master runs assembly environment.

Enables you to add new individual runs to the master

Tube & Pipe Runs

panel bar

runs assembly, define tube and pipe styles, set Gravity,

and output the ISOGEN data.

Use the panel bar title to switch between the Tube &

Pipe Runs and Assembly panel bars.

The tool set for the master runs assembly environment.

Enables you to add new individual runs to the master

Tube & Pipe panel

bar

runs assembly, define tube and pipe styles, and output

the ISOGEN data.

Use the panel bar title to switch between the Tube &

Pipe, Tube & Pipe Runs, and Assembly panel bars.

The tool set for the hose assembly environment when

the flexible hosing style uses the subassembly structure

Tube & Pipe Hose

panel bar

to contain the hose route. It does not provide Tube &

Pipe specific tools.

Use the panel bar title to switch between the Tube &

Pipe Hose, Tube & Pipe, Tube & Pipe Runs, and Assem-

bly panel bars.

The tool set when the tube, pipe, or hose route envi-

ronment is active. There are several ways to enter the

Tube & Pipe Route

panel bar

route environment, such as creating new routes in a

pipe run, double-clicking an existing route, and right-

clicking a route and selecting Edit.

Enables switching between the Model browser, Content

Center Favorites, and Representations.

Browser toolbar

Contains the content of the tube and pipe assembly

in a hierarchy, along with the main Tube & Pipe Runs

Model browser

subassembly. The main run acts as a container for all

routes and runs and the components created or placed

in the routed system.

Tube & Pipe Environment | 5

Contains several Tube & Pipe-specific tools in addition

to the standard Autodesk Inventor tools, such as the

Display/Update Settings tool and the Active Style list.

Use Tools ➤ Customize ➤ Toolbars to enable the

additional Tube & Pipe and Tube & Pipe Runs toolbar.

Standard toolbar

Contains the Tube & Pipe Authoring tool to author

tube and pipe iParts and normal parts for publishing

to the Content Center.

Part Features panel

bar

Tube & Pipe Browser

All tube and pipe components added to an assembly are contained in the

main runs subassembly. The components include individual runs and their

associated routes, fittings, segments, and route points.

Each run contains an Origin folder, one or more routes, and any segments or

fittings that are populated or manually inserted.

Routes contain the designated route points. To become familiar with the

various components in the browser, open a sample tube and pipe assembly.

Use the Tube & Pipe Browser

1 Open the sample tube and pipe assembly, Accumulator. By default, it is

located at: Windows

®

XP C:\Program

Files\Autodesk\Inventor<version>\Samples\Models\Tube & Pipe\Accumulator.

Windows

®

Vista

™

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor<version>\Samples\Models\Tube

& Pipe\Cooling Tower

2 Activate and expand the master runs assembly Tube & Pipe Runs and

Pipe Run 1.

Pipe Run 1 contains components for a bent tubing style run.

6 | Chapter 1 Getting Started with Tube & Pipe

3 Expand Hose Run 1 to view components for a flexible hose style run.

4 Continue to expand folders in the hierarchy until you are familiar with

the contents, and then close the assembly.

5 To view components for a rigid pipe run, open the sample, Cooling Tower.

By default, it is located at: Windows XP C:\Program

Files\Autodesk\Inventor<version>\Samples\Models\Tube & Pipe\Cooling

Tower.

Windows Vista

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Inventor<version>\Samples\Models\Tube

& Pipe\Cooling Tower

6 Expand the folders in the hierarchy until you are familiar with the

contents, and then close the assembly.

Working in Autodesk Inventor Installations

If Autodesk Inventor Tube & Pipe is not installed on the system viewing the

tube and pipe data, the master runs assembly and all that it contains is

read-only. This means that the outline of the tube and pipe component is

visible through Autodesk Inventor, but the component cannot be edited, and

new tube and pipe components cannot be added.

When the Tube & Pipe add-in is not installed, the tasks you can perform with

the tube and pipe data include:

■ Open a Tube & Pipe Runs subassembly.

■ Determine interferences with tube and pipe components in populated

routes by selecting the entire tube and pipe runs subassembly in the

browser.

Working in Autodesk Inventor Installations | 7

■ View the outline of tube and pipe run data within the context of an open

assembly file.

■ Turn visibility off to completely hide the Tube & Pipe Runs component

in the graphics window.

■ Create detailed drawings of populated routes within any file.

Understanding Prerequisites

It is assumed that you have a working knowledge of the Autodesk Inventor

interface and tools. If you do not, use the integrated Design Support System

(DSS) for access to online documentation and tutorials, and complete the

exercises in the Autodesk Inventor Getting Started manual.

At a minimum, you should understand how to:

■ Use the assembly, part modeling, sketch, and drawing environments, and

browsers.

■ Edit a component in place.

■ Create, constrain, and manipulate work points and work features.

■ Set color styles.

■ Use Content Center.

Be more productive with Autodesk

®

software. Get trained at an Autodesk

Authorized Training Center (ATC

®

) with hands-on, instructor-led classes to

help you get the most from your Autodesk products. Enhance your productivity

with proven training from over 1,400 ATC sites in more than 75 countries.

For more information about training centers, contact [email protected]

or visit the online ATC locator at www.autodesk.com/atc.

It is also recommended that you have a working knowledge of Microsoft

®

Windows

®

XP, or Windows Vista

™

, and a working knowledge of concepts for

routing tube and pipe through mechanical assembly designs.

Backing Up Tutorial Data Files

For each exercise in this section, you use files that contain the example

geometry or parts for that task. These files are included in the Tutorial Files

8 | Chapter 1 Getting Started with Tube & Pipe

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Autodesk Inventor Routed Systems 2009 Getting Started

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