TECHNICAL WHITEPAPER

May 2013

Autodesk Inventor offers some worthy productivity enhancement tools with their Frame Generator. If you’ve used the Frame Generator a few times you’ve probably found yourself wishing that the Bill of Material/Parts List wouldn’t merge the structural members together based on their shape and length.

When additional features are added to one member and not the other, the Bill of Material (BOM) doesn’t reflect that these are actually two separate items in the list.

The purpose of this document is to explain why and how to use a custom part number for frame generator members.

The image below shows a frame with 6 different members, though there are really only 3 different members that have a quantity of two each.

Autodesk Inventor – Frame Generator Part Number Roll-up

The image below shows the BOM after initial placement of frame members. The row for items 2-4 show that there are multiple identical parts rolled up into their respective rows. This will result in the Parts List at the drawing level reflecting one item number for two members with the same shape and length.

May 2013

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Here is the BOM after changing the size of the skeleton part. Notice how the Part Number for the frame members automatically updated to reflect the correct length. Inventor automatically updates the part numbers in the BOM.

While one would expect this to update, there is still a problem where frame members that are not exactly the same are rolled up into one row. This could easily happen if a feature was only added to one of the beams in the assembly as in the example below.

For this example, a hole feature has been added to only one frame member. After doing this, the BOM does not reflect any changes. In many engineering design firms, standards would dictate that a Detailed Drawing be created for this member and possibly a unique part number.

There is an easy way to capture this change and make sure that these parts do not roll up as the same item on the BOM.

Select a part in the BOM and use the following formula in the Part Number collumn.

=<Stock Number> x <G_L> x <Mass>

Copy this formula to all frame generator members. This will be a process you have to do only once for each frame generator member, but if you add members at a later date you will need to go to the BOM again and copy the formula to the new members.

About the Author: Jason Lane Manufacturing Solutions Team Manager, IMAGINiT Technologies

Jason is part of our team of mechanical engineers and consultants that provide “first-in-class” engineering solutions to manufacturing companies by delivering “best practices” implementation solutions tailored to each company’s needs. Specializing in the manufacturing 3D design process and data management, Jason works with many clients to maximize their software investment by optimizing CAD applications to work in the most efficient manner.

That’s all there is to it!! Now the BOM will compare the steel size and shape (Stock Number), the Length (G_L), and the Mass. If there are matching members, it will roll them up. One thing you MAY sometimes need to do is go to the Manage Tab and use the Update Mass tool so the values will display in the BOM.

May 2013

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