IMAGINiT Manufacturing Solutions Blog

Vault Security – Layered Like an Onion

Layer 1 - Global

The discussion around vault security is always interesting.  I say that vault security is layered.  Let me explain why I use that analogy.  The security model within vault is administered in several places, and each part of the security model works with the other parts to provide a resulting set of permissions for a given situation.   When I say ‘a given situation’, I mean that a user’s permissions may be different when considered at a different point in time, or location.  Let’s begin to look at the security model, starting at a high level and moving down to the lowest levels.

At the highest level, a user is assigned a role through their account.  This can be assigned directly to that account, or it can be ‘inherited’ by the account being a member of a group, and the group has the assignment(s).  I use the possible plural here because it is not unusual for more than one role be assigned to that account or group, but I will clarify the right and wrong ways to do this further into the blog.  Below is an image of the roles available within Vault Professional.  Vault Workgroup will not have the roles for Change Order, Custom Object, and Item.  Vault Basic will not have those and will not have Document Manager roles.

Let’s talk about the use of multiple roles.  These roles can be partially grouped, based on the privileges they provide.  For example, the roles of document consumer, document editor level 1, and document level 2 should be considered a group, with document consumer having the least number of privileges and editor level 2 having the highest.  Document consumer is for the read-only users.  They can’t edit anything, only view and print files.  I refer to this role as ‘Search, View, and Print’.  The editor level 1 role can edit files, but can’t move them, whereas level 2 can move files and folders around (with some possible other restrictions applying).  I won’t go into all the individual details, but the other groups I use are Change Order Levels 1 and 2 as a group, Custom Object Consumer and levels 1 and 2 as another group, Document Manager levels 1 and 2, and lastly Item Reviewer with Item Editor levels 1 and 2. 

Each of these groups offers a particular set of privileges, but an account or group should not need more than one role per group.  If you assign Document Editor levels 1 and 2, you essentially have assigned them to have Document Editor level 2, since it has all the privileges from level 1 plus extras.  The other unique role is that of Administrator.  It includes all privileges, so it is unnecessary to assign any other role in addition to the Administrator.  So, a little homework for those of you that have vault implementations in place: go through your users and groups, looking for those duplicate roles and remove the lower ones that aren’t giving you any value. 

I will also offer another suggestion to better manage this level of security.  If at all possible, only assign roles to groups and put the users in those groups.  A user account can be a member of more than one group, which benefits us later in things like the lifecycle security, but it we can confine the role assignments to groups only, it becomes much simpler to manage.  I would rather modify 5 groups’ role assignments versus 50 users’ assignments. 

In my next article, I will look at the second layer, the lifecycles within Vault.

GD&T: An Introduction

What is GD&T?

    In a grossly-over simplified definition, GD&T is a language. It is a precise mathematical language the describes the form, orientation, and location of various features on a part. Like learning any other language, knowing when, where, and how to correctly apply GD&T will take time. In any given manufacturing or engineering corporation there will be people that have varying levels of understanding GD&T. The checker may be fluent in GD&T while the drafter may only have a basic understanding of the language. 

Brief History

    GD&T arose from the idea to produce products that had interchangeable parts. Products that could be quickly disassembled and re-assembled with the parts from a separate, identical product. The very first form of dimensional control was the plus/minus dimensioning that many in the engineering and manufacturing world are familiar with today. Early parts were often checked using a Go/No-Go gage to confirm whether or not the part was made within the plus/minus dimensions.

The beginnings of the GD&T system that we have today has been credited to Stanely Parker from the Royal Torpedo Factory. Like many advances in technology, GD&T came from the military's need to produce products and parts with interchangeability being an essential requirement. The main difference between the plus/minus tolerances and the new GD&T tolerances was the shape of the allowed tolerance zone (more on this in a future post). Mil Std 8 was the first standard in the 1950s and the most current standard is ASME Y14.5-2009.

Why Use It? & Who Uses It?

     GD&T allows engineers/designers to convey their design intent. When applied correctly, GD&T can only be interpreted one way. This eliminates the confusion often associated with plus/minus toleranced parts.

    GD&T is used by engineers, designers, drafters, machinists, checkers, inspectors, quality control, vendors, purchasing agents, customers, and occasionally legal personnel. 

 

Common Symbols

 

Form Tolerances: Control the shape of a feature or features

Orientation Tolerances: Control the tilt of a feature or features

Location Tolerances: Control location of a feature or features (includes position and profile tolerances)

 

    This is just a brief overview/introduction of the GD&T system. Future posts will cover GD&T in more detail.

 

-Brady

 

 

AutoCAD Plant 3D: Vendor Equipment Models

As you build up the complexity of your AutoCAD Plant 3D model, you need to be thinking about things like XREFs, model complexity, networked files, computer hardware, etc. These are examples of things that can negatively affect modelling performance in Plant 3D if you aren’t careful. In this post I am going to take a look at how to use vendor supplied equipment models so they have a minimal impact on modelling performance in Plant 3D.

In many cases you will have access to detailed CAD models of the equipment used in your projects. But manufacturing CAD models of pumps, heat exchangers, even vessels, etc. will have much more detail than is necessary in Plant. Resist the urge to import these models in full detail; Equipment needs to be represented accurately but should be shown with much simpler models than those normally provided by manufacturers. Using highly detailed models will quickly decrease modelling performance in Plant 3D and become a constant frustration.

The good news is that there are a number of ways to create equipment in Plant. Using the equipment builder is a great option to create your own simplified representation of any piece of equipment. On the down side, it can be a tedious and sometimes difficult process to build equipment and arrange nozzles in their correct locations.

You could also insert a 3D block or AutoCAD solid into your model and convert it into a Plant object. This is a good method if you have a simplified model in a DWG format already. Finally, you can use Inventor to work with equipment models (and specify their connection information) to simplify designs and bring them into Plant through Inventor’s BIM Exchange environment.

Let’s work with Inventor and the detailed CAD model of the pump (without its drive motor or mounting platform) below which can be downloaded from KSB’s website.

You might be tempted to use this model directly without any changes in Plant since all the information is already present in the model. It’s an attractive option since the model looks great but some simplification is in order to be sure that my pipe modelling won’t be negatively affected.

To simplify this model use Inventor to open the file in the format you receive it. Then use the shrinkwrap tool in the component panel drop-down to create a simplified part that represents the entire pump.

Inventor’s shrinkwrap tools allow a lot of model simplification without much drafting effort. We can select the style options for how parts will be merged, how to remove parts (by visibility or size), how to remove holes and whether or not to remove any internal voids. There are many options here to be sure and all of the selections can reduce the complexity of the assembly and produce a result as a single part file.

The result shown is a very simple model derrived from the original design. By merging the parts and removing holes we have reduced the overall complexity and face count. There is still a lot of unnecessary detail though, like bolt patterns and mounting feet, etc. Let’s take this a step further then.

All we need for our piping design is an accurate nozzle position. So; mounting surfaces, nozzle centers and a generally recognizable pump model are all that is required to route pipe from. If we step back and use some of Inventor’s other simplification tools on the simplify panel we can define overall envelopes (around the gearbox for example) and manually select which parts to include before performing a shrinkwrap.

By taking the shrinkwrapped file and then replacing the more complex geometry with some basic extrude features the model can be simplified further without losing critical information. While the final representation below might feel too simple it is quite good for use in Plant 3D.

The number of features and faces have been reduced to the minimum needed while still representing our pump nozzles accurately. This representation will return the best result in Plant for our pipe model performance but does sacrifice significant detail.

Once the model is simplified, we can use the BIM Exchange environment in Inventor to create connection information so that, when inserted, this pump will be immediately recognized by Plant as a piece of equipment with two nozzles that can connect to a pipe line.

You might end up with a different result than that shown since there are many different ways to simplify a design in Inventor. As you are simplifying your own equipment CAD models think about the compromise between the detail needed in a piece of equipment and the performance of your piping model in Plant. 

Resist the temptation to use detailed vendor CAD models directly in Plant 3D. Time will need to be invested in the equipment builder to create new equipment models or in Inventor to remove detail from finished CAD models to prepare them for use in Plant. Whichever method you choose, having simplified representations of your equipment is an essential part of good performing Plant 3D models.

 

-DAP

Checking Inventor Drawings Into Vault

I have been asked many times for the best way to check into Vault all the Inventor drawings for a large assembly where each part has its own drawing. The user is typically checking in each drawing one at a time. However, there is a way to check in all of these drawings at once. And no, I’m not talking about the Task Scheduler. This is a feature that has long been a part of Inventor’s Check In command.
 
Here I have a small assembly where most of the parts have their own drawings. On Check In, only the assemblies and parts will check in by default.  

 
Press the Settings button for the option to include parents.

 
The number of files doesn’t change. Next let’s look at where it should look for parents. Press this little down arrow for those options.

 
The types of parents, and where to look for them, is defined here.

 
Finally we are ready to scan for parents. Start the scan by pressing this button.

 
The locations defined, and number of files in those locations, will vary the amount of time needed for the scan. Typically this goes quite quick.

 
And here they are! All of the drawings that were created for this assembly and any of its children.


 
There you have it. The easiest way to check in all of a projects drawings at once.

AutoCAD Plant 3D: Sharing Catalogs in your Organization

One of the nice things about using AutoCAD Plant 3D is that there is a wide range of available piping and component catalogs available to help your modelling and documentation efforts. The most common catalogs, such as ASME, AWWA and DIN, come out-of-the-box while many more like Victaulic, Pharma, Grayloc, etc. can be downloaded freely from Autodesk’s App Exchange.

Both the out-of-the-box catalogs and any additional content packs downloaded are added to Plant’s content directory located on your computer at C:\AutoCAD Plant 3D 2017 Content. Unfortunately this is not usually the best location to set as Plant’s content directory if you are working collaboratively.

There are a number of reasons why you may want to set this location to a network folder:

1. Free up space on the C: of your workstation(s)
2. Save customized catalog and spec modifications to a central location
3. Allow multiple project admins or users to see the same catalogs for spec generation
4. Restrict what content and specs are available to users for modelling by removing unneeded files

With these points in mind, there are a few options available to move this directory off the C drive and onto a network share.

Deployments

If you haven’t created your Plant 3D deployments or installed Plant 3D to your workstations then you can set this content location during deployment creation or installation. This will copy all the default content to the specified folder during installation. Further, all future Plant and downloaded content pack installations will use this folder setting also.

During setup expand the Autodesk AutoCAD Plant 3D 2017 line in the installer and scroll down to the Configurable Folders area.

Inside the content table click the Default text in the Mode column and select Local.

That will allow you to browse for a location or type a path in the Path column.

Hint: Use UNC paths where possible rather than using networked drive letters.

Setting the Content location inside the deployment will copy all the out-of-the-box specs and catalogs to this location and set this path in the registry on each workstation.

AutoCAD Command Line

If you already have Plant installed on multiple workstations and you need to move the content to a new location then you have to run the PLANTMODIFYSHAREDCONTENTFOLDER command from AutoCAD Plant 3D's command line on each workstation. Simply moving or copying the content folder to a different location using Windows Explorer will cause errors to occur inside the Plant application.

To run this command you must run AutoCAD Plant 3D as an Administrator. In Windows right-click on the Plant 3D shortcut and select Run as Administrator or you will run into the following error when trying to run the command.

Once Plant is loaded open any drawing (project or non-project related) and type PLANTMODIFYSHAREDCONTENTFOLDER into the command line.

In the Modify Shared Content Folder dialog box browse to (or type) the network path where the content will be moved to. You also need to select whether or not to copy the content from the existing folder to the new location.

Copying the folder contents only needs to be done on the first workstation. Once content is in the folder leave the option unchecked on subsequent workstation to simply change the Plant 3D configuration.

Click OK to change Plant’s local configuration (for all local users) and, if selected, copy the content to the specified path. Don't forget to delete the old content folder once you have finished.

This method works well if there are a minimal number of machines to change and if the users have administrative privileges to their computer.  In larger organizations, with many users or where users do not have admin rights, there is a scripted option that can be used.

Scripted Command Line

The Plant content directory can be changed by creating a batch file and an AutoCAD script file with the proper commands. First, a batch file needs to be created to launch Plant from windows. It can have any name you choose but should contain the following syntax:

"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2017\acad.exe" /product PLNT3D /language "en-US" /w "3D Piping" /nologo /b "[YOUR PATH HERE]\[YOUR SCRIPT].scr"

• "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2017\acad.exe" /product PLNT3D – starts AutoCAD Plant 3D
• /language “en-US” – sets the language
• /w “3D Piping” – sets the Plant interface to the 3D Piping workspace
• /nologo – hides the Plant splash image from displaying
• /b [YOUR PATH HERE]\[YOUR SCRIPT].scr – runs the script file once Plant 3D loads

The AutoCAD script file has an SCR extension and, like a batch file, is plain text. It can be made using Windows Notepad and named whatever you like, just be sure the name you use is set in the batch file above. The script file should contain the following text:

filedia 0 openproject "[projectpath]\Project.xml" -PLANTMODIFYSHAREDCONTENTFOLDER D:\AutoCAD Plant 3D 2017 Content N filedia 1 quit Y

• Filedia 0 – Turns off command dialog boxes
• openproject [projectpath]\project.xml – Opens a specified project. Make sure this is a common project all computers have access too.
• -PLANTMODIFYSHAREDCONTENTFOLDER D:\AutoCAD Plant 3D 2017 Content – Sets the content folder location in Plant
• N – Tells the PLANTMODIFYSHAREDCONTENTFOLDER command not to copy the contents of the current folder. Use Y to copy.
• Filedia 1 – Turns command dialog boxes back on
• Quit Y – Quits the application without saving changes to the current drawing file loaded.

Make sure to set the paths to those needed for your environment and keep in mind that the batch file will need to be Run as Administrator. Finally, if the Plant license has been borrowed from your license server the script will halt at the borrowed license pop-up. A manual click on the Close button will be required to continue.

This is just one step for setting up AutoCAD Plant 3D for use in a multi-user environment but it is often overlooked. Once your content folder has been changed, running a content pack installer will place the new content in the centralized location. Centralizing the content is important to reduce space used on your system's hard drive and to ensure the proper piping specs and catalogs are being used. Remember to keep an eye on the app exchange as content packs and catalogs are continually added and updated. 

-DAP

Creating a custom PLC style in AutoCAD Electrical

There are 5 predefined PLC styles provided with AutoCAD Electrical, numbered 1 through 5. If none of the 5 work for you they are not that difficult to modify.
 


Default Style


Modified Style
 
There are about 3 dozen symbols associated with each style. They are located in the jic1 and jic125 folders. They carry the file name "HP?*.dwg" where "?" is the style number.

·  Windows XP: \Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\\Autodesk\Acade{version}\libs\{library}\

·  Windows Vista, Windows 7: \Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Acade{version}\libs\{library}\

I started mapping out the naming convention but figured this image would just be easier.


“Each Parametric PLC symbol is a building block with a different arrangement of attributes and wire connection points. AutoCAD Electrical selects the appropriate symbols to use, stacks them together in the order defined by the parametric data file, and produces a completed I/O module. AutoCAD Electrical inserts the symbols based upon the rung spacing of the underlying ladder, explodes them, draws a rectangular box around the entire assembly, creates a single block out of the collection, and annotates the attributes of the new module.” 
Copied from Electrical's help

Make sure to copy the new blocks into your custom symbol library before modifying them. If you want to create an entire new library rename all of the numbers to 6, 7, 8, or 9 and then modify them as needed.
I’m only referencing three types of blocks to start. First I modified HP1WA-DL as the top input. I also copied the wire connection point to the additional wires. (Note: When placing this PLC into a ladder on the one rung per block will be recognized. The other wires can be manually wired later.)



Then I used HP1WA-DR which is a secondary left input for off situations like this. 



The third block was the standard HP1WA-D or normal input from left.



So now to test it... Here is my Acme 123-456 PLC card. After the top input I am staggering the two left inputs. Also I changed the size of the box that is drawn around the terminals to make sure they fit inside.



And here it is…



Taking it to the next level lets add some custom outputs on the bottom of this card.
For the first output we want some headers on it. So I will use the secondary HP1D-AWQ or Output to right with right option.



And then this is the standard output to right HP1D-AW



So after modifying the Acme PLC I have this. Note the two in the Spacing Factor. Between the bottom input and top output I need a bit more room or the two blocks will overlap. The two adds an extra rungs distance between the two blocks.




If you want to update the thumbnails that go with the style they are listed here.              
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\My Documents\Acade {version}\AeData\Plc
Windows Vista, Windows 7:C:\Users\{username}\Documents\Acade {version}\AeData\Plc

“The icon menu graphic that displays for the various PLC styles are bitmap files saved to \Program Files\Autodesk\Acade {version}\Acade\ This is where the Insert PLC and Drawing/Project Properties dialogs access them.
1. Create the style in AutoCAD. 
2. Zoom in to the new PLC style. 
3. Save the file as a bitmap using the following name definition: 

For the Drawing Properties dialog box: the graphic must have the name P_STYLExH.bmp or P_STYLExV.bmp where 'x' is the PLC style number (1-9) and H or V indicate the module orientation
(horizontal or vertical)
For the Insert PLC dialog box: the file name must be STYLExH.bmp or STYLExV.bmp where 'x' is the PLC style number (1-9) and H or V indicate the module orientation (horizontal or vertical)”
Copied from Electrical's help
 

AutoCAD Plant 3D: Spec Driven P&IDs

With the release of AutoCAD Plant 3D 2017.1 Plant 3D users on subscription have the ability to tie their 3D piping spec to their P&ID drawings for the first time using Plant 3D’s new spec driven P&ID feature.

After installing the 2017.1 update Plant users will see some small changes to the interface. A new size and spec drop-down selector on the Schematic Line panel (inside your P&ID Workspace) will be visible and a new node in your project manager palette called Pipe Specs will show all the specs defined in the current project.

When placing schematic lines, in the updated Plant environment, the tag values (and the applicable property values) for the size and spec of the schematic line will adopt the values set in the Schematic Line panel's drop-down. Once a schematic line is placed the Assign Tag dialog box will show the selected size and spec used during its placement. All that remains fully tag the line with is service and line number (assuming the out-of-the-box line tag scheme is used).

Whether or not you enable the spec driven P&ID option in your project, these size and spec values will always be set during schematic line placement.

In addition, the Pipe Specs node allows you to create, edit, remove, rename and update specs in your project. It will also allow you to copy specs into the active project much like you would copy a drawing into your project. There are tools to check-in or check-out spec files if you are working with Vaulted projects and the ability to view a piping spec using the spec viewer palette.

These new selections are nice enhancements that allow access to the spec files from inside Plant instead of having to browse a project directory in windows or Vault. The commands are accessed via the right-click menus on the Pipe Specs node or on the individual spec file nodes.

To fully enable the spec driven P&ID features in a project; access the project setup and under P&ID DWG Settings select the Pipe Specs in P&ID node. In the setup page displayed, on the right side, select the Spec Driven Project option.

Once Spec Driven Project is enabled, select the Pipe Spec Object Mapping node to match the spec objects to P&ID symbols and set any property mappings.

To verify that each object in your spec is matched to a P&ID class definition select the component category button for either Lines, Valves, Fittings or Specialty items, respectively.

With the object type displayed (such as valves shown below) select a component in the list of P&ID objects on the left of the panel. Then, on the right hand side add a check mark to the corresponding object from your 3D piping spec file. P&ID objects with no matching spec object will appear as lighter grey text in the P&ID object selection panel.

In most cases your spec objects will automatically be matched to P&ID objects through acquisition rules. This can be seen because the lightning bolt icon is displayed on the bottom right of the page. If desired you may click the lightning bolt and override the spec object class and link P&ID objects to different object category from the piping spec.

The result of this selection is seen on placed components in your P&ID drawings. Matched components will have a Class and Spec Part property value filled out automatically. If there are multiple components of the same type in the piping spec (ie. multiple Globe Valves or Gate Valves, etc.) then the Spec Part property, when selected, displays a drop-down list of the specific components that can be selected from the piping spec.

If the Map checkbox is unchecked in the project setup then there will be a Class property filled but no Spec Part value displayed and no connection to your piping spec will be seen for that component.

Once the applicable components have been matched to you piping spec you will see in your P&ID tool palette which parts are available in the selected piping spec and which are not. Any component that is not available in the selected piping spec will show with a darker grey cross-hatch. This is a quick indicator of your organization's available components when creating your P&ID drawings.

While the hatching is a good indicator of "in spec" parts it can be deceiving. For example; I may have gate valves available in my piping spec and therefore no cross-hatch is shown in the palette. However, if my gate valves start at 4” and get larger then looking at my palette I would not know that I can’t place one on a 2” line. In fact there is nothing to stop me from putting any out of spec component on any line even if the object is hatched in the palette. To find out what symbols are in or out of spec on a drawing we need to use another new-in-2017 tool called the P&ID Painter.

The P&ID Painter was new for the 2017 RTM release of Plant 3D. Included with the 2017.1 update is a new out-of-the-box configuration for the P&ID Painter named Off Spec Piping that can be used to highlight out of spec components in your drawings. The painter will temporarily colorize all the inline components yellow if they are "in spec" and red if they are "off spec". This provides a quick visual guide to help validate that designs are in spec.

As you can see above, by enabling the P&ID Painter, the 4” schematic line and gate valve are “in spec” while my needle valve is “off spec”.

Some final notes about the new spec driven P&ID's feature before you get started:

• No update or migration is needed to the spec files to enable the link to P&ID drawings.
• Spec driven P&IDs are disabled by default in all existing projects.
• The spec driven P&ID feature must be enabled in the project setup.
• Set template projects to have the spec driven P&ID feature on or off as desired for new projects.

 

-DAP

Creating a Table of Contents or Drawing List Report – AutoCAD Electrical

AutoCAD Electrical has a built in Drawing List Report that can report any of the drawing properties within the active project. 

It’s a little unusual in that its nowhere to be found in the reporting tools. Instead its on the active project’s right click menu.

  So first of all a project file is needed. Simply create a new project file. Save it in the same location as the drawing files. This will make it the active project automatically. In this example I’m assuming you are all ready using the Title Block Update utility. In that case the drawing properties are already filled out. If not, right click on any of the drawings and choose Drawings/Drawing Properties from the menu. The Drawing Property dialog is shown to the right. Any of these properties as well as file name, last modified date and time and more can be pushed to a table or exported. 

Creating a Drawing List Report
After all drawing have been added to the project and all properties have been filled in, right click on the active project and choose Drawing List Report. Press New Report.


Like every other '”project wide” tool, there is an option to choose what drawings are to be included in the report. Simply press ‘Do All’. This pushes all of the drawings down into the process side. Then press OK.

The following is a quick preview of what fields are currently selected, the order they will report, and they column headings. Each of these will be explained below. Pressing ‘Put on Drawing’ will take us to the Table Generation
Setup dialog.

Here column widths, text heights, table layer, as well as a number of other table settings are specified. Pressing OK closes all dialogs and allows table placement on the drawing. 



The table can be manipulated as needed and future updates of drawing properties will not update the existing table. For example: I would like the TIME column slightly narrower. That change can happen using normal AutoCAD methods.
As drawings are added or removed simply rerunning the Drawing List Report will update THIS tables values. It does not delete this table and place a new one.


The Options
From the Report Generator dialog there are a number of options. ‘Change Report Format’ not only all drawing properties and a number of file properties, it also shows all attributes of the active title block! The order of the selected fields determines the order they will be displayed in the table. Use the ‘Move Up’ and ‘Move Down’ buttons to change the order.
Each columns header can be modified here as well. Note the arrows. 

 
Modifying the ‘Sort’ order is another option. Select any field from one of the ‘Sort Columns’ and the table will update accordingly. 


‘User Post’ options are customizable scripts that can be run on the report data outside of the generator dialog. One script is included to get you started and it’s actually a pretty useful one. It adds in additional rows to the table if there are any gaps in the sheet numbers. See row nine below. 
Modifying or adding new post processing utilities is a another post for another day. 
 

And finally when using the ‘Save to File’ button here are the available export types. 
   

The only real option that should be pointed out on the Table Generation Setup dialog is the ‘Column Widths’ option. Using this defines column widths before actually placing the table on the drawing. 


Drawing List Template
Rather than setup a settings file and constantly placing new tables, why not place a Drawing List table and customize as needed? Shading, borders, font, colors, ect are all set using AutoCAD’s Table Styles. The table style being used is ACE_TABLE_1.  
Save the drawing as a template (.dwt) and then insert it whenever a drawing list is needed. Rerun the report and when placing the table ‘Use Existing’ will automatically be selected. The table from the template will update. 

Overview of Reports in AutoCAD Electrical

There are three types of reports in AutoCAD Electrical. Schematic, Panel, and the Drawing List report. 

Schematic reports only pull values from schematic symbols on the drawings in the project. Panel reports only pull values from the panel footprints. However the Panel report has an option (Full) that will include all values from ALL components. The Drawing List report uses the data stored in the project descriptions and drawing properties. Of course a few other types could be added to the list if the audits and export options were included.

Reports are broken down into the following categories. Each of the categories come with their own options, sorting, and reportable properties list. 


The Basics

All of the reports allow project wide as well as active drawing wide reporting. Project wide isn't necessarily all drawings. A separate drawing selection dialog opens to allow selection of individual drawings as needed. Most of the reports also have an option for a manual selection (pick) of components to report on. 

    
Note: If “Active drawing” is not available it is more than likely because the drawing is not a part of the active project. Any Project report, in this case, will be from the active project and NOT the project the active drawing is from.

Filtering by Installation or Location Code can further limit the components being reported on. This filtering is far more powerful than single values. See the blog post about wild cards to see how to include/exclude multiple values. 
INST & LOC Codes Honor Wildcards When Searching


Typically there are a number of report type specific options in the middle of the Reports dialog. 


All of the report types have a Format button. Pressing this button opens a new dialog that allows the user to select a report settings (.set) file. The .set files store formatting and selection options. These are created from the Report Format Setup command.


The Report Generator 


The Report Generator shows a preview of what records will be reported and what data about each record will be included. Here header information can be added, sorting and grouping can take place, and columns can be added or removed from the table. The User Post button allows scripts to run on the data. Typically there are one or two scripts already provided under User Post for the different types of reports.

Finally either Put on Drawing or Save to File is pressed. Put on Drawing brings up a table wizard that allows control of the report table formatting. Save to File gives the following file types as exports.


Updating Existing Reports

Currently reports are not updated automatically as changes are made to the schematic. Simply rerun the report and then choose Place on Drawing. If that report was already placed somewhere in the project, the Table Generation Setup will default to Update Existing. Simply press OK and any changes will update in the existing table. 


When saving the report out to a file, saving a new report export can save over the old export. (Electrical will prompt stating a file will be overwrote) Just be aware of this because any changes made to the original export will be lost as the new file completely saves over it.

Using Shape Generator in Autodesk Inventor

The Shape Generator functionality in Autodesk Inventor adds generative design technology to design workflows. Shape generation uses part-level geometry and returns a mesh result. Designers can utilize the Shape Generator in three ways:

1. Use in conjunction with normal part modeling tools. The mesh result is used as a guide, but modeling work is still needed to create a finished design product. Designers can cut or add material to create the finished part design.
2. Extract geometry from the mesh. The new Fit Mesh Face command can extract geometry directly from the mesh result. Users select mesh facets and extract surface geometry from them.
3. Use the mesh directly in an assembly. This is only feasible if the Shape Generator creates a suitable result and the user expects to use advanced manufacturing methods, like 3D printing, to manufacture the part.

To learn more about how Shape Generator may apply to your design needs, download our whitepaper, “Shape Generated! Now What?”