Tube & Pipe Grounding

Okay,...

So have you ever spent any amount of time working on an Inventor ® Tube & Pipe assembly, with multiple sub-assemblies... getting everything just perfect, only to return to the top level assembly and accidentally click and drag your tube & pipe runs?  They move!  Freely!  They move, and all of your careful, hard work explodes before your very eyes.  After thanking your deity of choice for the existence of an Undo button, try this:

When you create your first T&P run in an assembly, Inventor creates a top level sub-assembly beneath which all of your pipe runs will reside called Tube & Pipe Runs:

Tube & Pipe Model Tree

As soon as this is created (along with your first run), return to the top level of your assembly.  Use mate and align constraints to constrain Tube & Pipe Runs.iam to the top level; origin plane to origin plane using all three origin planes.  Then for each individual pipe run sub-assembly you create, constrain that to Tube & Pip Runs.iam.... origin plane to origin plane, just like you did to the top level.  Do this before you place any fittings or sketch any routes.  Now your runs will stay put where you modeled them, as if they were grounded.

This doesn't seem like much, but if you remember to do it before you start running pipe or adding fittings, it can make life a whole lot nicer!

Enjoy!

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