All about Inventor Model States (Part 1)

These “states” allow you to build configurations within a single Inventor file.

In Autodesk’s Inventor, Model States manage components. You can use Model States to show your designs at varied sizes, steps of production and levels of simplification. You can also manage parameters, suppression, iProperties and bill of material (BOM) details for each member.

Model States serve three main purposes:

  1. Simplification, performance and IP protection
  2. Documentation
  3. Configuration

Working with Model States

You manage Model States within the Model browser. Double-click a state to activate it and click twice slowly to rename it. All other options are available via the right-click menu.

To create a new state, select New from the Model State node right-click menu. Or use Copy to duplicate an existing state and use it as the starting point for the new state. There are no restrictions on Model States. You can create as many as you need to work effectively.

With part and assembly features, you can change feature characteristics for specific states. Then change these characteristics without affecting the other states. Here, you can change the size and type of the hole for the second state. Notice that you can toggle between the states to restore the hole sizing.

With Model States, it is important to be aware of scope status. With Edit Factory Scope enabled, changes apply to all states. When Edit Member Scope is enabled, changes apply only to the active state. You use the pencil icon to toggle the scope.

When working with parts and Edit Member Scope, active new features are automatically suppressed in the other states. An advantage to this is that you can introduce new features without worrying about the impact on existing states.

All parts and assemblies have a [Primary] state. You can change these as with other model states. However, you cannot rename, reorder or remove primary states.

They act as the default, hence the name. Therefore, it is best practice to configure the primary state as the default working state. For example, all components are unsuppressed and in their default states. Or perhaps it is an as-built state, as in what is getting manufactured.

When opening an assembly or part, you can specify the model state that Inventor will use when you are opening the model. By default, the [Primary] state is used.

When placing a component, you can also select the desired state before inserting it into the assembly. You can also change the component’s state after you insert it.

Within an assembly, it is possible to insert multiple occurrences of the same part but with each occurrence in a different model state.

Suppression

Suppressing features or assembly components makes them unavailable. It is like deleting the feature or component, except Inventor remembers how to put it back. Suppressed features and components are invisible and appear dimmed in the browser.

Inventor holds the constraints and other relationships. Meaning things do not blow up and cause errors when suppressing components. However, be cautious when suppressing components participating in positional representations. Moving components based on a suppressed component do not always update expectantly.

Often not all features apply to the task or configuration of the model. Use feature suppression to disable (hide) specific elements to simplify the model or to capture manufacturing processes. For example, using states to show the raw material, the initial lathe work, subsequent machining and the primary for the final product.

A suppressed component does not participate in the BOM.

More tools

To adjust the iProperties for a specific state, right-click on the state and select iProperties.

Use Edit via Spreadsheet to edit the states in Excel. In the spreadsheet, all dimensions and conditions that vary between states have their own columns.

If you remove a column in the spreadsheet, Inventor applies the value from the active Model States to the other states.

An assembly model state can call a nested assembly’s state. The assembly state drives all model state settings below the nested assembly occurrences.

To activate a nested subassembly state, right-click on the component (browser or graphics window) and select Representations. Within the dialog, select the desired state.

The Assembly Productivity Tool Link Model States propagates the selected state, setting it active in any part or subassembly containing a state with the (exact) name.

Model States and the Bill of Materials

As states manage suppression and capture component iProperties, they also manage the BOM. Use states to present the required (and only the required) information. For example, use states to document the stages of assembly.

In Inventor, each state has its own mass properties and BOM. Quantity can vary between states, including showing zero in the BOM when all instances are suppressed.

Use the BOM Settings to manage the inclusion of suppressed components. When enabling (checking) Hide Suppressed Components in BOM, zero quantity components do not appear.

Enable Automatically number items sequentially when you do not want gaps in the item numbers and when zero quantity rows are removed.

In this example, part 305-01 is initially listed as item 1 but has a quantity of zero. Hide Suppressed Components is enabled and item 1 disappears from the table. Then Automatically number items sequentially are enabled, which renumbers the visible rows.

Model States vs View Representations

Making components invisible improves performance. Why? Inventor loads less information into your system graphics.

Inventor only loads a component into memory when making it visible. By using View representations, you can manage component visibility. However, there is no method to unload these components, other than closing Inventor and reopening the assembly.

So, both View Representations and Model States manage the number of visible components. Therefore, both can improve assembly performance and capacity, but Model States provides tools to manage Inventor’s RAM usage. How? By suppressing components.

If you want to learn more about View Representations, check out this article.

Use Copy to View Rep to create a new View representation from the state. Suppressed components are made invisible in the new view representation.

Use Copy to Model State to create a new state from the view representation. Invisible components are suppressed in the new state.

Pro Tip: Unlike Model States, View representations do not alter the BOM.

  • When to use a model state (vs a View representation)
  • ·When you need to reduce memory (aka large assemblies)
  • When placing a reduced complex component into a subassembly
  • When removing intellectual property (IP)
  • With assembly configurations

Model States, View and Positional representations can be used together. They are not linked, however. Adjusting one type of representation does not alter the others.

Model States in Presentations and Drawings

Like drawings and other assemblies, presentations use specified Model States. In a presentation, when inserting the model, use Options to specify the desired model state.

Further, a presentation updates to reflect changes to the model state. For example, after adding tweaks in a presentation and then suppressing assembly components via the model state, it shows the new state when you return to the presentation. If suppressed parts participated in a tweak, the tweaks are deleted.

You can select a model state when creating a drawing view. Each model state can have unique members and iProperties. You can also select Design View and positional representations so that the combination is represented in the view.

When inserting a Parts List, you not only select the assembly but also the state. This means the Parts List can use a different state than the views in the drawing. Parts Lists (and associated balloons) use the selected model state to display the appropriate components and their iProperties.

These Model States aid with documentation and allow you to build configurations within a single file and assist with performance.