Using the Content Center, Part 2

This is the second in a set of three Skill Builders which replace the Content Center tutorial previously supplied with the Inventor software. In this Skill Builder, you will learn basic Content Center administration tasks including: adding libraries, configuring libraries, modifying library content and publishing to Content Center using the Autodesk Data Management Server (ADMS) Console (referred to as: “the server console” hereafter). If you will not be responsible for these tasks you may skip this Skill Builder.

Expected completion time: 10 to 15 minutes.

Use with: Autodesk® Inventor® 2009 and the server console.

This Skill Builder is targeted at the single-seat user who will need to perform basic Content Center library management. You will automatically have permissions to perform editing tasks by accepting the default user ID “Administrator” and default password <blank> for the Log-in to Autodesk Data Management Server located under the File menu on Inventor’s main menu bar.

If the Content Center libraries are installed on a remote server and you are working in a multi-user environment:

• You must have Editor permissions in the server console to perform any of the editing tasks.
• You must log into your vault server to perform any editing tasks in the Content Center Editor dialog box in Autodesk Inventor.
• You must access the server console on the remote server to perform administrative tasks.

Note - If the Content Center libraries have already been installed on a remote server there is likely a site system administrator who manages the installation. You should discuss data management access and permissions with your site system administrator before considering completing this Skill Builder.

Performance Considerations – The Content Center database is extensive and covers 18 international standards with over 750k components.  To optimize hard disk space and enhance performance using Content Center, it is recommended that designers install only required libraries during the initial installation process.  By selecting the Options for the Content Center libraries during installation, you can cancel the selection of unneeded libraries to optimize the installation.

Configured libraries are dynamically accessed by Content Center and related tools.  Therefore, the fewer libraries, visible in a project configuration, the better the performance of Content Center.  Library configurations are managed through the Inventor Project Editor using the Configure Libraries command.

In general, the fewer libraries actively searched by Content Center, the better the performance.

To begin this exercise, you use the server console to create a read/write library so that you will have access to editable content.

Create a Read/Write Library

1. From your system’s Start menu, select Programs > Autodesk > Autodesk Data Management > Autodesk Data Management Server Console 2009

2. In the Login dialog, enter your user name and password. If you are working in a single-user environment or you were not assigned a login name and password, enter Administrator in the User Name field and leave the Password field blank.
3. Click OK.
4. In left-hand panel of the server console window, click the “+” to the left of the top-most node
5. Click the “+” to the left of the Libraries node. The program lists the available libraries.
6. Right-click the Libraries node, and then select Create Library…
7. In the Create Library dialog, enter Test Library in the Display Name field.
8. Click OK.
9. You will see the hourglass cursor for a few seconds and then receive a message stating that the library was created successfully.
10. Dismiss the message dialog by clicking OK.
11. The newly created Test Library will appear in the list of available libraries in the browser.

The icon indicates this library is read/write.

Note - Inventor includes a read/write library labeled: My Library. Unless the library was detached or previously deleted, you should also see this library in the list of available libraries. You created Test Library as an exercise, however you could use the read/write My Library in place of Test Library for the rest of the following exercises.

Make the New Library Available to Inventor

1. If Autodesk Inventor is not running: launch Inventor (otherwise return to the active Autodesk Inventor session).
2. Click File > Projects.
3. With no files open, select tutorial_files as your active project.
4. Click the Configure Content Center Libraries tool (located just above the Done button on the lower-right side of the Projects dialog).

5. In the Configure Libraries dialog, click the Add Library tool (located in the horizontal row of buttons located above the OK and Cancel buttons).

6. On the Add Libraries dialog, select Test Library from the dropdown listing of Library Names, and then click OK.
7. Notice that Test Library is now listed (as read/write) on the list of available libraries in the Configure Libraries dialog. Click OK.
8. Click Save in the Projects dialog.
9. Click Done. This attaches the new library to the Content Center.

How to customize content provided by Autodesk

1. Select Tools > Content Center Editor  (you need not have a document open).

The Content Center Editor window is similar in appearance to the Place from Content Center dialog box. The two windows share the same layout, however, the Content Center Editor has unique features and tools.

Like the Place from Content Center dialog, by default, the Content Center Editor displays a merged view of all content contained in your content libraries. Any content that is read only is represented by a partially transparent, faded icon or thumbnail.

2. Click the “+” to the left of Shaft Parts (in the Category browser).
3. Click the “+” to the left of Circlips.
4. Select the External category.
5. In the right-hand panel, right-click the R-Ring family.
6. In the context menu, select Test Library by first expanding the Copy To > menu selection. You should see a message stating that the content was copied successfully.
7. Close the message dialog by clicking OK.
8. You should now see a message giving you the option to refresh the local server view. Click Yes.

A read/write copy of the R-Ring family now exists in Test Library. The original read only still exists but it has been replaced with the read/write copy in the presented merged view of available libraries.

9. Select Test Library from the Library View drop-down menu (located near the top of the dialog box). The view is filtered to show only content contained in Test Library, in this case, the R-Ring circlip family.
10. In the right portion of the dialog, right-click the thumbnail for the R-Ring family
11. Select Family Table… from the context menu.
12. In the Family Table dialog box, select Property Columns only from the filter drop-down menu.

13. Scroll to the far right side of the dialog box.
14. Click in the Material cell in the first row.
15. Change Steel, Mild to Titanium by selecting Titanium from the dropdown list of available materials.
16. Click OK.
17. You will see a message stating that the content was published successfully. Close the message by clicking OK.
18. You will now receive a message giving you the option to refresh the local server view. Click Yes.
19. Click Done to close the Content Center editor.

Verify the Changed Content

1. In Autodesk Inventor, Open a new assembly.
2. Select Place Component From Content Center in the Assembly Panel.
3. Press the Alt key, and then double-click the R-Ring family.
4. In the Family dialog, select the Table View tab.
5. Select Property Columns only from the Display menu. In the Material Column, notice that Titanium is the material type for the first row.
6. Close the Family dialog.
7. Close the assembly without saving.

Prepare a Part to Publish to Content Center
In the following exercises, you will prepare and publish an iPart to the Content Center (plain parts may also be published). The published iPart is saved as a part family to a selected category. Publishing requires that some basic conditions are satisfied:

• You must be logged into the server console. If you are working in a single-user environment, you are automatically logged in.
• You must be assigned Content Center editing permissions in the server console. If you are working in a single-user environment, you automatically have permissions to publish.
• There must be a read/write Library in the current Content Center Library Configuration project. You can publish only to a read/write-enabled library.

Note – some of the applications (such as Design Accelerator, Frame Generator and AIP Routing) require a special authoring and publish procedure. Please refer to the application help and tutorial for details. Authoring is not discussed in the following exercise.

1. Open Brace.ipt
2. Use Save As to create a copy named: Brace_copy.ipt (which will now be the open file).

To publish the part, you will map part parameters to existing Content Center category parameters. In this exercise, you will map the part's length, width, and height to corresponding category parameters that exist in the Structural Shapes Channel category. Other library families will have other parameters as required by the category.

In this exercise, before you publish, you will create an iPart factory based on this part. The rows in the factory will correspond to the Content Center family members (size variations) in the published family.

3. Click the Parameters tool (on the Sheet Metal Features tool pallet) and take note of: d0 (part width),  d1 (height) and d2 (length).

4. For the sake of clarity, give these parameters more meaningful names. Click d0 in the Parameter Name column and enter a more descriptive name: channel_width for example.
5. Rename d1 to channel_height.
6. Rename d2 to channel_length.
7. Click Done to accept the name changes and dismiss the Parameters dialog.
8. Select Create iPart from the tools menu.
9. In the lower portion of the dialog box, right-click the existing row 1, and then select Insert Row from the context menu.
10. In the new row 2, change the channel_length value to 200 mm.
11. Click OK.
12. Save the part.

Publish to Content Center

1. Select Tools > Publish Part  from the main menu.
2. The first page of the Publish Guide displays the list of read/write libraries to which you can publish. Ensure Test Library is selected.
3. Select a language (as required), and click Next.
4. Scroll down and select Channels (located under Structural Shapes) from the Category menu.
5. click Next (the category parameters display).
6. In the Base length row, click the down arrow in the (Please Select) cell.
7. Select the channel_length part parameter. This maps the part parameter channel_length to the required Content Center category parameter Base length.
8. Scroll down so that you can see the Shape Height row.
9. In the Shape Height row, click the down arrow in the (Please Select) cell, and then select the channel_height part parameter.
10. Scroll down so that you can see the Shape Width row.
11. In the Shape Width row, click the down arrow in the (Please Select) cell, and then select channel_width.
12. Click Next (the Define Family Key Columns panel is displayed)
13. Select channel_height from the Table Columns list.
14. Click the right-pointing Add arrow to move the column to the Key Columns list.
15. Select channel_length from the Table Columns list.
16. Click the right-pointing Add arrow to move the column to the Key Columns list.
17. Select channel_width from the Table Columns list.
18. Click the right-pointing Add arrow to move the column to the Key Columns list.
19. Click Next.
20. In the Name field, change the default file name to sheet metal channel (for this example, you can leave the remaining fields blank).
21. Click Next. In this example you will use the default thumbnail.
22. Click Publish (the part is published to Test Library).
23. Click OK to dismiss the publication notification dialog.

Validate your Published Part
In this exercise, you use the Content Center to insert a member from this published family into an assembly.

1. Close the file Brace_copy.ipt
2. Open a new assembly
3. Click the Place from Content Center tool.
4. In the Category View panel, select the Channels category, nested under Structural Shapes.
5. Press the Alt key, and then double-click the sheet metal channel family.
6. Select the 125 mm member in the channel_length field.
7. Click Apply.
8. Press Esc.

9. Now select the 200 mm length member.
10. Click OK. Click to place the longer part.

11. Right-click and select Done
12. You can close the assembly without saving.

Summary

This Skill Builder provided exercises to help you understand the basic capabilities of administering the Content Center. You were able to:

• Create a new read/write library
• Add your newly created library to the configuration of libraries available to Inventor
• Copy content from a read only library to a read/write library
• Modify read/write library content properties
• Create a new family of library components from an Inventor iPart
• Define key parameters which allow selection of individual components from the family
• Verify that your published parts were available from Content Center and that they placed as expected within an Inventor assembly

What Next?
As mentioned when you began, this Skill Builder is one of three that deal with using the Content Center. You may decide to complete each of the additional Skill Builders to get a better understanding of how to use content from your Content Center or how to more easily find components using the search and favorites capabilities in Content Center.

You may also want to simply become more familiar with the variety of parts contained in your Content Center libraries by browsing the categories and families listed in the Content Center dialog or by reading the on-line help concepts that discuss these topics.