Use the Content Center commands to add standard parts or features in your designs, and edit or update placed standard parts or features.
AutoDrop is the default placement method for Content Center components that enhances drag-and-drop techniques with functional design automation. If you switch off AutoDrop, you can select the size of the component in the Family dialog box, and place the component in the assembly manually. The manual placement method is automatically used for all components which do not support AutoDrop.
Content Center library includes two types of families:
Standard families define all parameters for their family members in the family table. When you select a family member to place in the assembly, the family member data fully specify the standard part to instance.
Members of standard families are by default placed as standard parts. A standard part file is created in the Content Center Files folder specified in the project. The File Name and Folder Name family properties define the standard part filename and folder. Standard part files are read-only and are edited by using the Change Size and Refresh Standard Components commands. A special icon marks the Content Center standard parts in the assembly browser.
Custom families include one or more custom parameters mapped to a geometric parameter in the family template. A custom parameter can be a range of numeric values, sequence of numeric values, or Boolean. You enter the value of the custom parameter on the part placement. You can create plenty of different parts based on the same member of the custom family.
Members of custom families are by default placed as custom parts. You select the folder and filename of the custom part file on placement. Custom parts are treated as regular Autodesk Inventor files, and use the part icon in the browser.
If appropriate, place standard family members as custom parts, or custom family members as standard parts. Select the As Custom or As Standard option in the Family dialog box. To change the default for custom families, set the Custom Family Default option on the Content Center tab of the Application Options dialog box.
Content Center standard components are created in the Content Center Files location defined within an Autodesk Inventor Project file.
When Content Center creates a component, it first searches a cache of previously utilized content located in the Content Center Files location. This search improves access time to commonly used components. It is possible to set a different Content Center Files location per Autodesk Inventor project. However, we recommend to you use the same Content Center File location for every project to optimize performance. Also, do not change the location of the Content Center Files folder while a project is active.
Content Center files managed with a data management system
Each member of a workgroup that uses Vault or other data management system must have a local folder to store Content Center files. The data management system controls the local Content Center Files folder.
If Content Center part files are managed in Autodesk Vault Basic, the following reasons can result in a missing writing permission for a file:
A standard part placed in the assembly becomes out-of-date when the family member in the library is different from the existing standard part. The following reasons can cause the difference:
We recommend that you refresh assemblies after you migrate them into a new Inventor version, or when you edit a library or change the library configuration. If an assembly is not refreshed, it may contain out-of-date standard parts. When you perform a Content Center operation related to an out-of-date standard part, the corresponding part file can be silently refreshed. All occurrences of the out-of-date part (in other assemblies) are then replaced by a new version of the part.
The refreshing process consists of two steps:
When you place, resize, replace, or open a standard Content Center part, a part file is created in the Content Center Files folder. When you later place another instance of the same part, the existing part file is compared with the part from the library. If the library includes a new version of the part, the next step depends on setting of the Refresh Out-of-Date Standard Components on Placement option. The original part file is either automatically replaced with a new part file or the file from the Content Center Files folder is used.
When you open a file, select Options Design View drop-down Hide Content Center Components to open the file with all content center components invisible.
To set the iProperties for a part family, map appropriate family table columns to iProperties by using Content Center Editor.
To change iProperties for a placed Content Center part saved in the Content Center Files location, edit the corresponding Content Center family. Map appropriate family table columns to iProperties. Then use the Refresh Standard Components command to refresh the library part in the assembly.
All work features are by default hidden for placed Content Center standard parts. You cannot change the work feature visibility for a standard part in an assembly. You can set the visibility of work features for specific family members by creating a visibility column in the family table.
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