These addon bundles occurrences (parts and sub-assemblies) in an assembly in a browser folder. The base idea for this addon was an "Autodesk Inventor idea station" but I have added some extra functions. For example, this addon will not only allow you to bundles occurrences based on the file name but also on an iProperty. You can download the addon in the Autodesk app store.

Also special thanks to Pete Strycharske. With this blog post, he gave me the idea of bundling occurrences by iProperties.

setup

If you downloaded this app from the Autodesk app store: The installer that ran when you downloaded this app/plug-in from Autodesk App Store will start installing the app/plug-in. OR, simply double-click the downloaded installer to install the app/plugin.

You can unload the plugin without uninstalling it by unchecking the "Loaded/Unloaded" checkbox associated with the plugin in the Autodesk® Inventor® Add-In Manager. You may have to restart Inventor to completely unload the application.

To uninstall this plug-in, exit the Autodesk product if you are currently running it, simply rerun the installer, and select the "Uninstall" button. OR, you can uninstall it from 'Control Panel/Programs and Features' (Windows 7/8.1/10), just as you would uninstall any other application from your system.

General Usage Instructions

In the browser panel select an occurrence and Right-click it. In the context menu select: "Bundle by filename" or "Bundle by iProperty: ...".

In some cases, you will find that the "Bundle by iProperty: ..." command is greyed out. This will happen when the value of the iProperty is not set. For example, you have set the property to "Stock number" but the part does not have a "Stock number" filled.

When you select the top node of the browser panel you will also find the command: "Bundle by iProperty: ...". This command will try to put all occurrences in a folder.

In the example screenshot below I used this command. I used the iProperty "Material" as a bundle filter. As you will notice not all occurrences were bundled in a folder. The reason for this is that: Assemblies don't have a material set. And the "occurrence patterns" and "work point" are not recognized as occurrences.

 Configuration

You will find the configuration dialog in the "Options" slide-out panel from the "tools" ribbon.

Here you can select if you want the option to bundle occurrences by "filename" or "iProperty". If you want to bundle occurrences by iProperty then you also need to select by which iProperty you want to bundle. In the list of iProperties you will also find "Custom" iProperties of documents that are loaded.

In the "Folder name template" field you can set how folder names are created.
In this field, you must use the variable {1}. This variable will be replaced with the value of the property or the file name.
You are also allowed to use the variable {0}. This variable will be replaced with the number of occurrences in the folder.

The addon can automatically update the number of occurrences in the folder. I noticed that this can lead to performance issues while changing (moving or deleting) the browser tree. If you run into this issue you can turn this option off.

For cad administrators

All these settings are saved in the file:
..\addon\path\Hjalte.OccurrenceBundler.conf.Xml
This file can be used to copy all settings to other computers.
(if you have problems finding the path to your addons. Have a look at the chapter: "Settings file for the addon." on this page)

Known issues

When you change the "Folder name template" old folders will not get recognized anymore. Therefore the numbers in the folder names will not get updated anymore.

Privacy Policy

This addon does not collect any data from the user.

All information processed by the application remains on the local device and is not accessible by any 3rd party.

Supporting the addon

All of my addons including this addon are created in my free time. Therefore I don't get paid for making them. But you can use them for free. However, if you find them useful and it saves you time I would appreciate a donation. Or if you are near Oosterhout (NB) in the Netherlands I would like a beer. ;-)

If you want to help with improving the addon The source code can be found at Github.