Retrieving Sheet Metal Extents in Partlist

By Mark Flayler, IMAGINiT

One documentation challenge in recent Inventor releases has been the availability to obtain sheet metal extents for length and width in a parts list or Bill of Material. This is a beneficial process for some users that need the values shown here whether it is company convention, ease of accessibility or for purchasing requirements.

I must have answered this question once every other month over the last year and a half. The truth of the matter is that currently there are a couple ways to do it, but only one actually uses information directly from the programming and the other use a series of tricks of reference dimensions and parameters.

Here is the best method without need for custom programming, add-ins or dimension and parameter tomfoolery:

Inside your sheet metal template or any sheet metal part, access the iProperties Custom tab.Create 3 new iProperties here in the following format for Length, Width, and Area (if desired):

Notice that the units of measure are in cm. This is the native unit of measure for Inventor and how the programming likes it. We will fix this in a bit.

Click Apply and the Properties will populate if the flat pattern already exists. If you have not yet created a flat pattern of the current sheet metal piece the properties will appear as just the units behind them.

Create a Parts List as normal and RMB on it to Edit the Parts List. Use the column chooser to locate your user properties from the list and position them in your parts list heiarchy.

Now to fix that nasty cm unit. In your new column in your parts list, RMB on the column title and choose Format Column. Apply a unit formatting to your liking close the dialog. This will work only for Length and Width since there is no unit overide for Area at this time.

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