Managing iPart Factories in Autodesk Inventor
In Autodesk Inventor, iPart Factories are used to create "families" of similar parts – that is, models that share common design intent but have different parameter values. Parameter values of each member of the family are stored in a spreadsheet, allowing you to easily modify one or several variations of the model.
The iPart Factories can be Standard or Custom. Only Standard iPart Factories are managed in Windchill as a family of objects (or Family Table). Custom iPart Factories are treated in Windchill as independent objects, with a reference to the iPart Factory.
Standard iPart Factories are represented in Windchill as follows:
• iPart table – A spreadsheet that defines variations of a model, where each row represents a member of the iPart factory (called an “instance” in Windchill terminology), and columns represent varied parameters. Because the iPart table is embedded in the iPart factory model file, it is not exposed to Windchill as a separate file.
• iPart Factory – The model file that is used as a basis for creating the iPart Factory members using the iPart table. In Windchill, the iPart Factory is represented as a generic CAD document (also known as Family Table generic). The model file with the embedded iPart table is the primary content for the generic CAD document.
• iPart Factory member – A part or assembly that corresponds to a row in the iPart table. When a model containing an iPart Factory is saved in Windchill, each iPart member is stored in a separate file that is represented in Windchill as an instance CAD document.