Materials group assignment command

This command is used to assign a Woodwork for Inventor material to an Autodesk Inventor part or set of parts.

To open the command, go to:

Woodwork Design –> Material –> Assign

Fill material assignment dialog window

The content of the tool bar varies depending on the specific material being used: fill or cover.

Ribbon for the materials of the fills

Ribbon of the materials of the covers

The filtering command allows gathering all elements that meet the current palette material item.

Depending on the current type of material:

▪	for the fill material, parts with the material of the current item are selected.

▪	for the cover material, faces with the material of the current item are selected.

Only applies to cover type materials. The functionality highlights all faces with the relevant cover and shows the position of the cover with an arrow. The highlight color depends on the cover thickness. This makes it easy to identify the thickness of the cover applied to the specific face of the part. Woodwork for Inventor settings include a link between a cover thickness and a highlight color. Cover position signs are displayed for highlighted parts. By pointing the cursor on the sign, the user can change the cover position for the individual face.

The material picker command enables the reading of the material of the specified element in the model. Depending on the group in which you are in (fill material or cover material), the command will read fill or cover material. The fill material command is in the component selection mode, whereas the cover material command is in the face selection mode. By moving the cursor across the model, you can highlight selectable elements, i.e. the elements that have the Woodwork for Inventor material assigned to them. Once the reading is complete, the read material type is opened which becomes the current item.

This is one of the ways to replace one materials groups with another.

Material replacement dialog

The command gathers all materials that were used in the design process of the furniture model and presents them in a newly opened window. By placing the cursor on the material item, all components or faces (depending on the type of material) are added to the set. By changing the current material item in the material assignment box, the user can replace the material for the entire set with the material of the current item. This command is convenient to use in cases where a furniture model is assigned materials that are not included in the current Woodwork for Inventor material database. In this case, items for non-existent materials are displayed. It is also possible to select all elements with non-existent material and replace their material with one of the similar materials that is already included in the current material database. In other cases, material of one type needs to be replaced with material of another type. For example, Laminated Board needs to be replaced with Board.

Only applies to Cover materials. Face selection mode button. It depends on the cover material being used. The available face options are:

For Veneer materials:

- Single face selection.

- once one face is selected, Tangent faces are selected automatically.

- once a part component is selected, all component faces that can be covered with veneer are selected.

For Edge Band materials:

- Single face selection of side faces of the board.

- once one side face is selected, Tangent faces are selected automatically.

- once one side face is selected, all side faces of the board are selected automatically.

For Paint materials:

- Single face selection.

- once one face is selected, Tangent faces are selected automatically.

- once a part component is specified, all outer faces of the component are selected.

on top / sink

Only applies to cover type materials. The functionality sets the criteria for the calculation of the cover workpiece necessary to calculate the size of the part. In other words, it determines the cover position in relation to the CAD model.

▪	When On top is selected, it is considered that the cover is calculated for the top of the CAD model (virtually attached on top).

▪	When Sink is selected, it is considered that the cover is calculated for the inside of the CAD model (virtually sunk).

overwrite / leave

Only applies to cover type materials. Sets an option that governs the assignment of the cover material to the face that already has a previously assigned cover material.

▪	When Overwrite is selected, the cover position is overwritten with a position specified in the material assignment dialog box. (See description above.)

▪	When Leave is selected, previously specified cover position is left unchanged, independently of its settings.

Oversizes control

Each material can have pre-set workpiece oversizes. These oversizes are set at the time of creating or editing the material. Instructions for setting these oversizes are given in the section on the creation of materials. The user is provided with a wide choice of options for dealing with these pre-set oversizes:

- material oversizes can be unconditionally assigned to the workpiece..

- material oversizes can be assigned only to those sides of the workpiece, to which no oversizes were previously assigned.

- material oversizes are not assigned to the workpiece, leaving previously assigned oversizes.

- all workpiece oversizes are removed when assigning the material.

All Woodwork for Inventor materials in the database are categorised by type. Material type selector allows switching to and viewing only the materials of the specific type. The following options are available:

Fill materials:

- Solid

- Board

- Laminated Board

- Multilayer Board

- Rod

- Desktop

Cover materials:

- Veneer

- Edge Band

- Paint

The current palette item. It shows material color and main material properties.

▪	Mat.Code – material code

▪	Mat. Name – material name

Two additional fields are provided for color-linked materials:

▪	Color Code – color code

▪	Color Name – color name

The following are the materials that are color-linked:

▪	Laminated Board

▪

Desktop

▪

Veneer

▪

Edge Band

▪

Paint

For cover type materials, additional selection window is displayed, which allows selecting one of the cover thickness values. These thickness values are entered when creating the cover material item in the Woodwork for Inventor material database.

By clicking the “Apply” button, the current material is assigned to the selected Autodesk Inventor elements.

The phrase is used to filter all material items given in the box below.

Displays content of the palette of the specified material type.

The palette is presented in the form of icons

The palette is presented in the form of items

Each set of palette items contains a special palette item – a blank material – in the first position. This item is designated as an eraser symbol . If the current material is a blank material, the material assignment task will mean the removal of material from the selected element.

The representation of palette items can be changed using a palette item display button. . If palette items are represented as a list, they can be sorted by a selected criterion. To do this, you can simply mark up a selected column heading using a cursor. If you press and hold the "Shift" key, then you can sort items by several criteria at once, by selecting several columns in a row.

Palette selector. You can use it to select a different palette compiled by the user, if such palette was created. By default, Woodwork Palette is always active after installing Woodwork for Inventor. You can create your own palettes and use them as needed, narrowing the search field in the material database. At the bottom of the selector , you will find a button that allows changing the display mode of the items: from display as items to display as icons.

When performing material assignment, it is important to remember a few important things based on which Woodwork for Inventor material assignment command operates. It can have one of the following statuses:

1.	Fill material assignment.

2.	Cover material assignment.

For the fill material, you should always select an Autodesk Inventor part that is of Normal document type. Meanwhile other types (Phantom, Reference, etc.) are ignored. If materials are assigned in the part design environment, no selection needs to be made when assigning the fill material. Simply click the "Apply" button. For cover type materials and assemblies, it is necessary to specify individual faces of the part so that material can be assigned. When working in the assembly environment, it is always necessary to create sets of elements, to which the material will be assigned (Selection set).

Sets for fill materials can be created in several ways:

1.	By making a selection with the cursor on the screen.

2.	By making a selection on the search bar.

3.	By creating a set based on the specified filter.

4.	By requesting to assign material to an empty set. In this case Woodwork for Inventor automatically gathers all Autodesk Inventor parts that meet the following criteria:

a.	The part has not been assigned with Woodwork for Inventor material yet.

b.	The component taken from the library space has not been inserted in the assembly.

c.	The component has a Normal BOM structure type.

5. The component can be removed from the set by selecting it with a cursor, while you press and hold the "Ctrl" key.

When assigning a cover, you should always indicate the faces of the part to which the material will be assigned. Sets can be created in the following ways:

1.	By making a selection with the cursor on the screen. One should bear in mind that the assignment of the edge band cover can be performed only for the edges of board-type parts.

2.	By creating a set based on the specified filter.

3.	Removal of a face from the set is performed by selecting it with a cursor, while you press and hold the "Ctrl" key.

Important! Woodwork for Inventor cover material cannot be assigned to the parts that do not have a fill material assigned to them.

Material assignment command