Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Component Pattern in Inventor HSM

In one of the last builds of Inventor HSM the developers add the awesome capability of performing a pattern of toolpaths based on parts in an assembly.
If you typically create assemblies of pallets full of parts or even multiple vises, and the parts on said pallets or vises are named the same then Component pattern is a great tool to use to help place all toolpaths from one part onto the other parts.

Now, keep in mind that when you use component pattern, if you really on each part being a different workoffset value then this won't do that.  Each part will be under the G54 or whichever offset number you give it.  and all locations will derive directly from the 0,0,0 point of your job setup.

Component Pattern is also only available when you are in an assembly.  Here is how you can go about creating a component pattern.
First select the toolpaths that you would like to have patterned.

Once selected, right click on one of the selected operations and then go down the list until you find "Add to New Pattern" and pick on that option.


Once in the pattern operation, pick on the pulldown list for pattern type and select the component pattern option.


With that pattern type selected you will see the options update within the pattern operation to a couple selection buttons.  The "Source" selection should be active, so all you have to do is select the part that you are wanting the toolpaths to be patterned to.  What this is doing is finding all parts in the assembly with the same name and applying those toolpaths to it.


Hopefully this is a helpful tip for those of you that use pallets or vises and such in your milling machines.




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