Generating the structure of a part

When assigning materials, the model of the part does not undergo any geometrical modifications in the Woodwork for Inventor environment. The assigned cover materials (which affect the calculation of dimensions of the workpiece and the part) are taken into account when generating BOM reports. However, there are certain construction situations, where it is essential for the user to see or show the cover solid in relation to the actual workpiece solid in a technical drawing. This is a common case when it comes to edge banding. Showing the structure of a multilayer material workpiece can also be important. Woodwork for Inventor has a command which, according to assigned materials, automatically creates a separate representation of the part out of solids, which accurately represents the composition of the part. This way, the user can clearly see the structure of the part. When creating the structure, the command takes account of the edge banding material parameter and the rounding radius, which can be set by editing the edge banding material entry in the Woodwork for Inventor database.

Generating the structure of the part

Opening the command

Woodwork Design –> Material –> Build Structure

Build Part Structure Command

Or, if the command is running, it can be accessed from Assembly

Build Part structure Command from assembly

	Select single part	It allows specifying individual parts in an assembly, for which the part structure has to be generated.
	All Woodwork Parts	All parts with Woodwork for Inventor materials are included in the set.
	Build	Generates workpiece structure for selected parts, expressing it as individual solids. Each solid is named according to the type of material of the workpiece it represents. This way, a solid representing the edge band will be named “Edge Band <n>”, a solid representing the veneer will be named “Veneer <n>”, etc. Two View Representations are automatically generated: 1.Monolithic, representing the original solid of the part. This solid is the essential piece of information when working with Woodwork for Inventor. All calculations required for generating BOM reports, CAM technologies, etc. are based on this information. 2.Structural: structural representation of the composition of the part. It can be used at the user’s discretion, including when generating drawings. However, bear in mind that the generated representation is not associative. If the dimensions of the part are changed, the structure has to be generated again using the same Build Structure command or the Refresh command. This is why the drawing should be generated at the last stage of work, when the construction of the part does not change any more, because all notes of the drawing lose their reference during re-generation.
	Remove	Removes the generated structure of workpieces, leaving only the monolithic structure of the part.

Workpiece queuing

The shape of solids of automatically generated cover workpieces depends on the order of placing the covers on the part.

The top edge is second in queue, so it overlays the side edge.	The top edge is second in queue, so the side edge overlays the top edge.

As shown in the figure above, the order in the queue determines which cover workpiece overlays the other. The queue of covers is set by the user, i.e. the order is the same as the order of assigning cover materials when using the Material assignment command. However, the user may not be satisfied with this queue and there is an additional tool to change the order in the queue: Covering Queue. This command is accessible only in edit mode.

Opening the command

Woodwork Design –> Material –> Covering Queue

Cover Queue dialog

The dialogue is divided into two zones:

Part Structure	This zone displays the layers of a multilayer material. It is for information purposes only. The order of layers cannot be changed here. It can be changed only by editing the composition of the multilayer material using the Material Editor command or by creating a new material using the Material assignment command.
Cover Queue	This zone shows cover workpieces and their order can be changed by shifting the position of the item in the queue of covers. The place of the item in the queue is also represented in the model. The workpiece may be selected both in the dialogue window and the graphical model of the part.

Build	Creates or re-generates workpiece solids.
Remove	Removes the structural representation of the part.

Quick switching between representations

After creating the Structural View of a part, a ‘Structure’ button appears in the main toolbar (ribbon). This button allows you to quickly toggle between the two-part representations – Monolithic and Structural – enabling seamless switching between the two states of the part.

Enabled Structure Button

Indicates that the Structural state of the part is currently displayed.

Disabled Structure Button

Indicates that the Monolithic state is currently displayed. To switch to Structural state, press the button. We strongly recommend that the modification of the product structure, placement of hardware and sculpting are carried out in the Monolithic state.

Important!

A Structural representation is a type of part view designed to closely reflect the real-world shape of the part in both 3D models and 2D drawings. However, this form of representation is incompatible with functions such as Material Assignment, Hardware Attachment or CAM technology design. Therefore, whenever the Structural representation is active, a switch to the Monolithic representation will be offered when trying to use the above functions. As a general recommendation, use Build Structure once the furniture design and CAM technology have been finalized, the design is mostly settled, and the final generation of production information (such as BOM and drawings) is in progress. In some cases, when the structure is modified, the Structural representation may not correspond to the current Monolithic state. To resolve this, use the Refresh function.

Each Cover, whether Edge Band or Veneer, can be rounded during actual construction using a special milling operation. In other words, cover materials can have their own rounding radius, which can be specified when populating the cover materials database. Based on this information, the edges of the bodies representing the cover are rounded to match the specified radius.