Hagerman & Company, Inc. Technology Bulletin

Customizing the Content Center to include your company’s Part Numbers and Descriptions

By Micheal Kelley,
MCAD Solutions Engineer
Hagerman & Company
Memphis, TN

Creating a Library

The Content Center libraries installed by default are read-only and cannot be modified. Use Create Library to create a new read/write library and then use the Copy to command in Autodesk Inventor to copy read-only library parts into the new read/write library. The new library can then be modified to meet your needs.

You can only publish to a read/write library. If you created standard parts for your company that you want to add to the Content Center, use ADMS Console to create a read/write library that you can publish to.

Note: By default, a new library is read/write. To change the status of a user-created library, right-click the library in the navigation pane, and select Read Only.

You must be a Content Center Editor to make edits to Content Center libraries in Autodesk Inventor.

You must be a Content Center Administrator to perform Content Center administrative task in ADMS Console.

From the ADMS right click over the Libraries folder and select Create Library.

Enter the Library name.

Adding your Company’s Library to the Project File

Notes:

	The configuration of Content Center libraries must be configured for each project.
	If you have Microsoft XP operating system and are a user with limited or restricted permissions, you cannot configure libraries for read-only project files. The project files that are installed with Autodesk Inventor, sample.ipj, tutorial_files.ipj, or default.ipj are read-only for users with limited or restricted permissions.
	Libraries should be configured on ADM Server (by the ADMS administrator) before you configure Content Center libraries in the Autodesk Inventor project.
	The server administrator uses Autodesk ADMS Console to create, attach, import, export, detach, copy, and delete Content Center libraries on ADM Server, and to change a library status.
	You must be connected to the ADM Server to change the library configuration in the Autodesk Inventor project.

Tip: Remove all Content Center libraries you do not use. If you remove libraries from Content Center, the amount of displayed data is reduced and the performance increases.

From Inventor select File/Project.

Select the Configure Content Center Libraries icon in the lower right corner of the Projects dialog box.

Select the Add Library icon in the lower right corner of the Configure Libraries dialog box.

Select the Library Name from the drop down list on the Add Library dialog box.

Press OK on the Add library and Configure Libraries dialog boxes. Lastly, press Done on the Project dialog box.

Populating the New library

From Inventor, select Tools/Content Center Editor.

Select the library from which you would like to copy the content from. In this example the Inventor ANSI is selected as the from location.

You can copy categories and families into a read/write library. When you use the "Copy to" command, the category structure is created in the destination read/write library. For example, copying a family in a sublevel category copies the family to the library with the whole category structure, from the top-level category to the category level of the copied family.

Categories and families copied from a source read-only library maintain a link to the original family and library. If the content is later updated by the original library provider, the link is used for identifying the source family and transferring the updates to copied families.

Notes (Secondary Copy):

	If you copy a Family that was created as a copy of a read-only source Family, the secondary copy will create a link to the original source (not to the primary copy). That means the secondary copy is updated when the library from the original provider is updated, but does not change when the primary copy is changed.
	If the primary copy of the family includes your modifications, modifications are kept only on the primary copy, but are discarded on the secondary copy upon update.
	If more than one copy of a family is available in the Content Center configuration then the last time modified Family is used in Merged View.

The view of the newly created read/write library is by default merged with the view of the read-only library.

The time of copying is dependent on how many families you copy. A large category can take several hours to copy. The Copy to command displays a message with time to complete the copy process.

Notes:

	You can only copy to a read/write library. If needed, create a read/write library in Autodesk ADMS Console, and then in the Content Center Library Configuration dialog box, add the read/write library to the current project.
	If the Content Center libraries are installed on a remote server, you must be assigned Editor permissions in the ADMS Console to perform editing tasks, and you must be logged into your vault server.
	If you work in a single-user environment, you automatically have permissions to perform editing tasks and you are automatically logged into the Autodesk Data Management server on your local drive.

Changing the Family Identity

The Family Properties dialog box displays or edits information about the selected part or feature family. Family properties can be modified only for read/write families.

Note: If Content Center libraries are installed on a remote server, you must be assigned Editor permissions in ADMS Console to perform editing tasks and you must be logged into your Autodesk Data Management server. If you work in a single-user environment, you automatically have permissions to perform editing tasks.

Right click on the part and select Family Properties.

Changes to the Family Name will now appear in the Inventor Browser as what you have entered. The Description will appear in Bill of Materials as what you have entered.

Modifying iProperties

Use the Family Table dialog box to edit the data for members of a part family. Each family member is represented by one row in the family table, and each column represents one family property.

Notes:

	You must have editing permissions and you must be logged into your library server to perform any of the editing tasks.
	Only the read/write families can be edited.

Right click the Part Name Column header and select Column Properties to change the part number to your company’s part number.

The Column Properties dialog box is used to define name, caption, expression, or mapping for a column in the family table.

Notes:

	Only the read/write families can be edited. If you open the Column Properties dialog box for a read-only family, you can view the column properties.
	You must have editing permissions and you must be logged into your vault server to perform any of the editing tasks.

Verifying the Part Number and Descriptions

From Inventor, start a new assembly file and select Place from Content Center.

Set the filter to ANSI.

Place the High Crown component in the assembly.

Select Tools/Bill of Materials.

Note the Part Number and Description for the component.