Inventor: iParts in Upchain

The Upchain CAD plugin for Inventor enables you to register iPart factory and iPart member files into Upchain. The following topics outline how this is managed in Upchain and the current limitations. Read more about iParts in the Inventor help.

Parent-child relationship

Upchain treats the iPart factory file as the child of its member files. This relationship is shown when viewing the cBOM throughout Upchain. However, if an item is created for the factory file, it is not automatically added to the eBOM. This has further repercussions on iPart factory and member item management, as is described in the following help sections.

Limitations and user tips

• iAssemblies are not supported.

• iPart files are not renamed during registration regardless of the filename.pattern tenant property. This means that you must ensure a unique naming convention for any iParts you want to register into Upchain.

• The Copy > Clone/Replace functionality is not supported.

• The Replace component function is not supported for factory files.

• You cannot use the Item View in the CAD plugin to create an item, save, or check in an iPart factory file.

• When you download iParts from the web, this does not retain the same folder structure as when you download iParts from the CAD plugin.

• The Generic Plugin does not recognize iParts. Therefore you cannot use it to register or manage iParts.

• Custom Inventor iParts will not follow the same sub-folder structure as normal iParts.

• You must be using CAD plugin version 24.1 or higher to use the iPart support functionality in Upchain.

  • If you have iParts that were registered in Upchain prior to 24.1 and now proceed to check out a member and check it back in, Upchain duplicates any existing sub-folder structures in the home folder. This means that Inventor may load the incorrect files into Upchain during a check in. You should clear out your home folder of all Inventor iParts before proceeding to work with iParts after 24.1.
  • If some of your users are using a CAD plugin at a version prior to 24.1 and they check out iPart member and factory files, the behavior they see reverts to previous behavior and users using CAD plugin version 24.1 will see duplicate files again. It is recommended that all users upgrade to CAD plugin version 24.1 to avoid this issue.