Autodesk Inventor: View representations vs. Levels of Detail

(Part I of 3)
View Representations What are they?
Inventor R9 introduced many new capabilities, one of which was View Representations (VRs for short). What was a VRs purpose? For one, VRs pre-existed, but as Design Views that were saved as .idv files outside of Inventor. So VRs bring that same capability inside Inventor as selectable representations of the assembly. Doing so also allows better, real-time control over an assemblys component visibility and view orientation. Having this capability allowed users increased clarity in their design by allowing parts to be hidden from view yet still exist within the assembly file.

View Representations Capabilities, benefits and restrictions
VRs brought a wealth of power in manipulating assemblies for better design visualization. With VRs, users can identify components that should be hidden from view so that the design and/or internal components can be more clear in both their functionality and possible use for adaptivity. The most beneficial capabilities of VRs are:

1. Manipulating a components visual state for clarity of design
2. Allow specific view orientations to be saved
a. Saved orientations can have visually hidden components
3. Saved VRs can be loaded as default representations when opening the assembly
4. VRs allow for alternate color application of the models (sales/marketing use)

Restrictions
Memory management always comes into question when dealing with VRs. The truth is that no reduction in system memory allocation of the assembly is governed by VRs. The restriction with a VR is that in dealing with a large assembly, using VRs only gain Video Card memory, and that alone is insignificant in helping general performance or system/program stability.

Practical use of View Representations
Learning VR Defaults
Looking at the Inventor browser, you can find View Representations tucked under the Representations folder. The top item View: Default houses the default level VRs as well as any custom VRs that you will create. Lets get an understanding of the default VRs before moving on.



Setting up Custom VRs
Key Note: Prior to setting up a View Representation, you should determine which components will not be needed. You should also determine if a certain view orientation will be beneficial. Try to identify VRs by their importance in the design, review and documentation process.

Now, on that note, lets look at creating custom VRs. Much like in the world of AutoCAD, when in doubt, you can right-click for access to tools and shortcuts. Inventors browser allows many tools and features to be accessed via right-click. Creating VRs is just one of the many processes that can be started in the browser window. By right-clicking on the View: Default tree heading, you access the VR creation and editing functions. For custom VR, selecting New simply places a new sub-View Rep below the Default VR. Naming the custom VR is as simple as selecting it and hitting F2.

Once the custom VR has been created, you can now identify the components that will not be visually needed and any particular view orientation that may help. Highlight the components either from the modeling window or the browser window, right-click and disable the Visibility check mark.

Access VRs When Opening the Assembly
Having these VRs would not be as efficient if we were not able to access them prior to loading the assembly file. To access the VRs, simply select the desired assembly file and prior to clicking Open, look to the left of the Open button and select the Options button. Inventor provides a dialog box with pull-down selection of the VRs. New with the introduction of R11, the default VR to load is last active which displays the last used View Rep during the last assemblies save.

View Representation Utilization in IDWs
What VRs deliver to the IDW environment
When working in the IDW environment, VRs can be used for Base View creation. Specifying the VR to be used can be done either prior to placing the view or editing the view after placement. Taking a look at the Base View placement dialog below, we can see that all VRs are available to choose from. If many VRs are used in the assembly, the selection window allows scrolling through the listing for quick and easy access.


View Representations in the IDW environment give increased visual control over the assembly for dimensioning and annotations. For example, using a VR, users can detail manufactured components without identifying or cluttering the display with purchased components. Appling VRs in this manner, the user creates a cleaner drawing and yet still has access to the full BOM of the assembly file. No components are removed from the BOM by simply disabling their visibility. This is key when utilizing Inventors power for BOM management.

Once a drawing view is placed, the VR can be changed and a Projected View can be a different VR than the Base View that it is being projected from. Again, you must take note that if you create a drawing view based on a Private VR, then that view will not be associative and therefore no changes made to the component will be reflected in the IDW.