Inventor

The integration of speedyPDM in Autodesk Inventor ® takes place as an addin.
In addition to the usual menus and toolboxes, the speedyPDM Inventor addin also provides a roll-up window or, alternatively, an attachable Inventor window.

The roll-up window is positioned above the Inventor title bar and opens automatically when you move the mouse pointer over the title bar.

Rollup window

The rollup window closes automatically when you are working in Inventor.

The roll-up window has a similar structure to the speedyexplorer with the exception of the navigation bar, which has been implemented in the form of a drop-down list to save space.
Alternatively, the roll-up window can also be displayed as an attachable Inventor window. In this case, the window can also be positioned freely or pinned to a main window page.

In the upper area of the roll-up window is the navigation area in the form of a drop-down bar.
The operation is similar to the navigation in speedy-Explorer.

Navigation in the rollup window

Click on the [-] or [+] symbol to open or close the corresponding tree.
The same is achieved by double-clicking on the container symbol.
Double-clicking on a directory entry sets the working directory and closes the navigation window.

After selecting a path, the documents are already displayed in the background.

To the right of the navigation bar is a toolbox for project and folder management:

Symbol	Meaning
	Move up one level in the folder structure
	Create a new container. If the vault is active in the navigation, a new project folder is created. If a project folder or another container is active, a new subfolder is created.
	Edit folder properties
	Update structure view
	Project visibility on/off.

There are several options to choose from:

Inventor:

• You create a new file with the Inventor command File “ New.
• You create the model or assembly using the usual Inventor methods.
• You select the Inventor command File ” Save.
• The speedy dialogue “New Document” appears.
  Enter your data for the new article.

Rollup window:

• Select the command “New Document”.
• The speedy New Document dialogue appears.
• Enter your details for the new item.
  speedy Creates a new document and creates an empty document file based on the template.
• The new article is marked in the document list.
• Select the “Open Document” command.
• The empty document file opens.

There are several options to choose from:

Inventor:

• Select the Inventor command File “ Open.
• The speedy dialogue box Open file is displayed.
• Select the desired document and confirm the dialogue with Open.

Rollup window:

• Search for the document to be opened.
• Select the command “Open document”.

Ribbon speedy ” Open drawing
Context menu “ Open drawing

Opens the drawing for the currently opened model (part/assembly).
If no drawing exists yet, a drawing is automatically created and opened based on the templates defined in the document type.

Selecting a component in an assembly opens the drawing of the selected component.

Ribbon speedy ” Open model
Context menu assembly “ Open model

If you have opened an assembly and want to open the model of a component or a subassembly for editing, you must use the speedy command Open Model command. Parts and sub-assemblies are only loaded in read-only mode when opening an assembly to prevent unnecessary check-outs from the speedy database and unintentional changes. So if you use the Inventor command to open parts, they will be opened in read-only mode.

You have opened an assembly and want to insert an existing part or another assembly. You have various options to choose from:

Inventor:

• Select the Inventor command Insert ” Place Component “.
• The speedy dialogue Open file is displayed.
• Select the desired document and confirm the dialogue with OPEN.

Rollup window:

• Locate the document to be opened.
• Select the document in the document list.
• Drag and drop into Inventor's drawing area while holding down the left mouse button.
• The part or assembly linked to the document is inserted into the current assembly and “hangs” on the mouse pointer.

If the document contains configurations or is a variant part, the Edit Variant dialogue appears after insertion.

Checks out the current file or the selected component for editing.
If you have opened a file only for viewing, you can use the command Check-out to put the current file to work.
A selected subcomponent of an assembly is put to work and opened by the command.

Edits the item properties of the current item or the selected component.
After closing the properties dialogue, the iProperties are updated according to the configuration.
If the command is executed in a drawing, the title block is updated.

When saving assemblies, the system checks whether the assembly still contains parts or subassemblies that do not belong to the current project.
The message can only be confirmed with OK. However, the file is saved in any case. Use the command Rename Component to rename parts that do not belong to the project.

If the current file is used several times, a message window also appears when saving:

You now have the option of checking-in the file under a new item number or saving it under the same name.

If a referenced file has been changed in an assembly, an extended dialogue appears with a list of all referenced files:

The list shows the following information:

• By double-clicking on the status symbol in a line, the document is taken in process and can also be saved.
• The command [Check-out] checks out the document of the selected line.
• The command [Yes for all] marks all files for saving that can also be saved (checked out by the current user).
• The command [No for all] removes the marking for saving.

If an error occurs with a file during saving, this is logged in the comments column.
The dialogue closes automatically after a successful save.

To close a file managed in speedy, you should select the command Save+Close from the speedymenu.

Ribbon speedy ” Save+Close

The model is zoomed into the window and an isometric view is set to provide a meaningful file preview, then the file is saved and closed.

The command “Copy and Replace Components” is used to rename components that are not part of the project or to add files that are not yet managed.

Ribbon speedy “ Replace component
Context menu assembly ” Replace component

The following dialogue appears:

The dialogue shows the complete assembly structure with all referenced files. Select all the components you want to replace.

The tree structure distinguishes the following features in the display:

• Entries in green font represent an already known speedy document.
• Entries in blue font represent an unknown local file.
• Entries in red font represent a file that does not exist.
• Entries in grey font represent an additional file with the same name as a main entry.
• Bold Entries written in bold are main entries for which there may be additional files with the same name.

By pressing the “Select automatically” button, all non-project components are automatically selected. By confirming the OK button, the marked components are renamed one after the other. Depending on the option “Assign new item number manually” or “Edit item properties”, further dialogues appear for each new item.

speedyPDM offers the possibility to display a browser window. This browser window displays the currently opened assembly with its individual parts and the speedyPDM status, version and associated properties. The respective documents can be selected here and opened via the RMT. The browser is used to inform the team of changes made by other employees, status changes and new versions.

speedyPDM browser

The browser updates itself. The time after which it checks for a change from external references can be set under [inventor.browser.checkoutdated.elapse].
Via the column description InventorBrowser the columns can be adjusted.

speedyAdd PDM Browser

The “speedyPDM-Browser” can be added via the “+” symbol in the table bar of the rollup window. The tabs can be used to navigate between the Rollup, speedyPDM-Browser and Inventor-Browser.

Replaces the selected component with the latest version of the item.

Displays the part usage of the current file or the selected component.

Opens the reference manager for the current assembly file (see also Reference Manager).

Frequently, purchased, standard or customer parts must be described with the help of an assembly file and several parts files. A typical example is a pneumatic cylinder. In order to be able to use movement or different installation states, an assembly file with corresponding part files must be constructed. However, the administration is only interested in the cylinder as a whole.
For this purpose, either all document types that do not have a parts list are treated as a “parts” document type or the document types are enumerated with the configuration parameter [inventor.partrename.partdoctypes].

If an assembly file is now stored in Inventor in speedy and a “parts” document type is selected in the New dialogue, all components are automatically checked-in as U-parts:

Purchased part cylinder with U-parts

Add more U-parts
If you want to add more U-parts to an existing purchased part, add the component to the Inventor assembly using the usual means.
Now use the speedy “Copy and replace component” command.

Select the component and do not select anything else in the dialogue.
The component is now automatically added to the speedy document as a U-part and renamed accordingly.

Replace U-parts
If you need to replace certain U-parts in an existing purchased part, open the Inventor assembly for editing.
Now replace the desired U-parts with the new components.
Now use the speedy command “Copy and replace component”.
Select the component and do not mark anything else in the dialogue.
The component is now automatically added to the speedy document as a U-part and renamed accordingly.

To convert an assembly with managed components into a purchased part with U-parts, perform the following steps:

• Open the assembly in Inventor.
• Save as command.
• In the New dialogue, select a document type “K - Purchase part”, for example.
• The new purchased part item is created.
• In the automatically appearing dialogue “Copy and replace component”, deactivate the option “Assign new article number manually”. deactivate
• The components are converted into U-parts.

To convert a purchased part with U-parts into an assembly with managed components, perform the following steps:

• Open the purchased part (assembly with U-parts).
• Command “Save as”.
• In the New dialogue select e.g. the document type “B - Assembly”.
• The assembly article is created.
• In the automatically appearing dialogue “Copy and replace component”, activate the option “Assign new article number manually”. activate and select the U-part files in the structure.
• The New dialogue appears for each U-part.

speedyPDM supports mirroring of individual parts as well as assemblies. speedyPDM intervenes in the Inventor save dialogue.

Use the familiar mechanisms for mirroring parts or assemblies in Inventor:

Select the parts or assemblies to be mirrored. Define the corresponding mirror axes.

Confirm the subsequent dialogue for determining the file names with [OK]:

Depending on the configuration, the speedy New dialogue appears for each component to be mirrored.

The following configuration parameters control the behaviour:

Ribbon speedy “ Edit parts list
Context menu assembly ” Edit parts list

Opens the parts list dialogue with the current assembly parts list. If there is no BOM yet, the BOM is created automatically.

To update the speedy parts list, the Inventor assembly is analysed.

Assembly and drawing opened:
If you have opened the assembly and the corresponding drawing, you must save changes in the assembly before switching to the drawing.
When you save, the speedy parts list is updated. This ensures that BOM changes are immediately visible in the drawing.

The Inventor parts list knows two different quantities:

By making the “Item Quantity” columns visible, you can define whether the counted item quantity (pieces) or the total quantity (summed length) is to be used:

• Object quantity column is visible ⇒ Object quantity is used.
• Column NUMBER is visible ⇒ NUMBER is used (if object quantity is not visible)
• Neither of the two columns is visible ⇒ Object set is used.

You can already define the visibility of the BOM columns in the template file of the assemblies.

Saves the active file in an additional file format.
The additional file is checked-in with the same file name in the same directory as the current file. Depending on the opened file type (ipt, iam, idw), different storage formats are available.

Opens the dialogue for editing the user options.

Some warnings, error messages and user queries can be deactivated by selecting an option “Do not ask this question again” or “Do not report this notice again” in the message dialogue. These deactivated messages can be reactivated using this command. A dialogue with all deactivated messages appears. Select all messages that are to be reactivated, i.e. that are to reappear the next time a message is displayed, and confirm the dialogue with OK.

In the Variants tab of the article master, you define whether the article is a variant part.
A variant is described in Inventor with the help of iPart or iAssemblies.
Variant parts are described by a variant definition (parent definition), which serves as the basis for the variants (child articles).

The parent article describes in a kind of template for the child articles and their properties.

Unfortunately, the full potential of speedy variant management cannot be exploited in Inventor, as Inventor does not provide any mechanisms for this or has technical limitations.

Meaning of the input fields:

The properties of the basic article are inherited when a new variant is created.

The properties of the variants can also be described using formulas. The formula is stored in the basic article and can, for example, refer to a dimension from the model.
Start the formula editor by double-clicking in an input field with the control key [Ctrl] pressed or by pressing the [fx] button (see also Formelinterpreter).

An addin is available for the following Inventor versions:

Call Addin Manager

Addin Manager window

If you have used the installer for the client workstation, the Inventor add-in is automatically registered. Manually, the Inventor Addin can be installed using the batch file register_inventor.cmd. Start the batch file register_inventor.cmd from the platform subfolder (bin64) of the speedy directory. The batch file always registers the latest Inventor addin. If you want to install a specific addin version, you can also register it via the command line. To do this, open a command prompt and enter the following command:

regsvr32.exe \\<servername>\speedy_bin$\bin64\aisSpeedy72022.dll 

In Autodesk Inventor, you can use the add-on module manager to check whether speedy has been registered correctly and to control the loading behaviour.

The Apprentice Server is a mechanism provided by Autodesk to give applications access to Inventor file information. With the help of the Apprentice Server, references of Inventor assemblies, parts and drawings are determined and exchanged in speedy/PDM.

The Apprentice Server can only be used outside Inventor. However, speedy provides an additional mechanism so that the references can also be exchanged within Inventor (e.g. commands in speedy/Rollup). The speedy/Apprentice “dwApprentice” must also be registered:

x:\speedy\bin64\dwApprentice.exe /RegServer

As of Inventor version 2019, the Apprentice Server from Autodesk will only be delivered as a 64-bit version. This means that it is actually no longer possible for 32-bit applications to use this mechanism. But speedy also provides a corresponding solution for this. After installing or updating Autodesk Inventor 2019, the file “Inventor2019Surrogate.reg” must be added to the registry:

regedit x:\speedy\inst\redist\Inventor2019Surrogate.reg

The above installation steps are carried out automatically by the client setup programme (speedy-client.exe). Alternatively, you can also call the batch file register_inventor.cmd after an Inventor update or upgrade, for example.

x:\speedy\bin64\register_inventor.cmd

Inventor uses projects to organise and access files associated with a specific design job.
For projects, a project file (.ipj) is used to store the paths to the containers where your design data is located.
Create a project configuration that points to the speedy vault as the workspace or uses the speedy vault as the storage location.
When creating the project, select the type “New central project”. Please check out the Inventor manual for all other settings.

The assignment of speedy/PDM document properties to file properties is done with the help of a configuration and assignment file (see also Konfiguration).
The configuration files are located in the subdirectory “\config”.

The assignment of the document properties to the iProperties is done in the configuration file aisSpeedy.ini.

Inventor divides the file properties (iProperties) into several areas:

The user defined properties are mapped normally by attribute mapping. The Inventor specific file properties (iProperties) are addressed by the range:

Assignment of iProperties of content centre parts to parts list properties is done in the configuration file aisStandard.ini.
If content centre parts are not managed in speedy, iProperties must be assigned to speedy properties so that the content centre parts can be recorded in the speedy parts list.
In order for a parts list item from Inventor to be transferred to speedy, the item must either already be a managed document or a property must be assigned as a document number (dm_docno).

In addition to all typical iProperties, the following special properties are available:

[ATTRIBUTE_MAP]
dm_docno  = "inventor.partnumber"
dm_title  = "inventor.partnumber"
BEN1      = "Description"

In order to transfer the copy properties from the assembly components to the speedy parts list, a mapping must also be carried out.
The assignment of the copy property to an item property in speedy is done in the general assignment file aisSpeedy.ini.
In the section [BOMPOS_ATTRIBUTE_MAP], the copy properties are assigned to the item properties. Note that “@Inventor User Defined Properties” is appended to the user-specific copy property in the mapping:

[BOMPOS_ATTRIBUTE_MAP]
HERSTELLER     = "HERSTELLER@Inventor User Defined Properties"

The script file “aisSpeedy.vbs” can be used to make further adjustments in Autodesk Inventor. The script file is located in the speedy subdirectory “\script” and is also loaded when the addin is loaded.
The script can react to various events in Autodesk Inventor and the speedy add-in. The following event functions are available: