In Autodesk Inventor, you can import data containing solid bodies into the part environment. Wireframe and surfaces that cannot be stitched to a good, single body are placed in a Construction folder created in the browser.

Double-click the Construction folder to enter the construction environment, where you can analyze and repair translation errors. After data is repaired, you can copy data to the part environment, where it behaves exactly like native Autodesk Inventor data and can participate in all operations.

To re-enter the part environment, right-click the Construction folder, and select Finish Construction.

What translation errors are in the data?

Many types of data translate into Autodesk Inventor without errors, but complex models require some repairs to create a "watertight" body.

The Quality Check analysis command checks for topology, geometric, and modeling errors. The damaged data is highlighted. When possible, a repair is suggested.

Examples of translation errors are intersecting loops, faces with the normal direction pointing the wrong way, gaps between surfaces, and holes in surfaces.

Why is translated data sorted into groups?

Data is placed into a group, with either a layer name or group name as selected in the Import Options dialog box. Groups are sorted into surfaces, solids, and wireframe subgroups. The number of entities in each group is also shown. If the model does not include a data type, such as wireframe, a subgroup is not created.

Use multiple groups to segregate data for repairs and management. For example, you can require good quality surfaces to generate numeric control paths for producing molds, but you may not need wireframe or solid data. You can analyze the data in the surfaces group, and repair only the necessary surfaces, and then delete the wires subgroup to remove wire data.

You can promote the segregated data to the part environment. Wireframe data is promoted to a sketch and solids to a node in the part browser. Surfaces are listed individually or as a quilt in the Part browser.

Creating groups

Imported data is placed in the construction environment and listed in one or more groups in the browser.

On the Import Options dialog box, you can set an option to import data into a single group or sorted into subgroups by data type. Use Open or Manage tabInsert panelImport, select a file name, and then click Options. In the Construction Group Mapping box:

Choose Place Data into a Single Group to translate all data into in one group. You can optionally specify a group name in which to place the data.
Choose Place Data into Multiple Groups to translate data into groups using the level or group information in the source file. You can choose to sort data into groups according to levels (IGES only) or groups. You can add a prefix to a group, as needed.
For example, if an IGES file has levels, you can change the prefix to the file name. Each layer name is appended to the file name in the browser. If the prefix in the dialog box is set to Change-A, and the file includes two levels Layer1 and Layer2, the result is two groups, named Change-A Layer1 and Change-A Layer2, respectively. This technique is useful when importing a file into a part with only minor changes in the IGES or STEP file.

Once data is imported, and you activate the construction environment, use menu options to organize data in the browser. Right-click a group and create, rename, or delete a group or move data to a different group.

NoteYou can create only top-level groups. Subgroups are automatically maintained within a group to classify data.

Managing groups in the browser

To avoid clutter when a large file is translated, you can click the filter icon on the browser bar and hide subgroups by data type. Or, you can show subgroups that revealed diagnostics data after a quality check.

In the browser, a group’s status is identified by an icon:

Not checked has no status icon.
All data checked and good is indicated by a green check mark.
Checked with errors is indicated by an information icon (the letter "i" in a circle).

If you stopped a quality check analysis before completion, groups that were checked receive a green browser icon, and groups that were not completed are not marked.

Procedures

Create and edit groups in the construction environment

After importing data, double-click the Construction folder in the browser to enter the construction environment.

To return to the part environment, right-click the Construction folder, and select Finish Construction.

Add a new group

Right-click in the graphics window or in the browse, and select Define New Group.

If you specify a group name that is already in use when opening and translating a file, the data is placed in the exiting group name.

Move data to a different group

Open a file that contains more than one group, such as a file where data has previously been imported into the construction environment.
Right-click a group or subgroup name, and select Move to Group.
Click the destination group.

All data is moved to the new group. If you moved all data in a folder, such as a surfaces subfolder, an empty group remains.

Delete a group and subgroups

Open a file with more than one group, such as a file where data has been previously imported into the construction environment.
Right-click a group or subgroup, and select Delete.

You can delete surfaces, wires, or solids in the graphics window. Groups in the browser update with the new totals.

Rename a group

Slowly double-click the group name, and enter a different name.

Set visibility of a group

You can turn visibility off and on:

On the View tabVisibility panel Object Visibility. On the menu, select or clear the check mark on Group Solids, Group Surfaces, Group Wires, or Group Diagnostics.
Right-click a group or subgroup in the browser, and select or clear the check mark on Visibility.

Isolate data with errors

Once you analyze data with the Quality Check command, you can hide data without errors to help isolate and repair the data. Use one of these methods:

To hide browser entries, click the Filter icon on the browser bar, and select Show Groups with Diagnostics. All groups without diagnostic data are hidden.
Right-click the group with the diagnostics data, and select Move to Group. Click the destination group. Turn off visibility of groups without diagnostics data.

References

Group Properties

Access:

In the Construction browser, right-click a node under the Construction folder, and select Properties.

Sets properties for data in the Construction folder.
Appearancee	Accept the default or click the arrow to select a different appearance.
Strip overrides	For nodes such as groups or subgroups, select the check box to remove appearance overrides from individual entities contained in the node, such as bodies and faces. Clear the check box to leave individual appearance overrides intact.

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