- 360 Publisher
- Alias
- AutoCAD
- AutoCAD Civil 3D
- AutoCAD Electrical
- AutoCAD for Mac
- AutoCAD LT for Mac
- AutoCAD Map 3D
- BIM 360 Glue
- Building Design Suite
- Constructware
- Creative Finishing
- Design Review
- Factory Design Suite
- Flame Premium
- Green Building Studio
- Infr. Map Server
- Infrastructure Modeler
- Installation Help
- Inventor
- Inventor ETO
- Inventor Fusion
- Inventor Fusion Technology for Mac
- Inventor LT
- Inventor Publisher
- Navisworks
- Navisworks Freedom
- PLM 360
- Product Design Suite
- Project Galileo
- Project Photofly
- Project Simulus
- Revit
- Revit LT
- Robot Structural Analysis Professional
- Sim 360 Pro and Sim 360 Moldflow
- Simulation 360
- Simulation CFD
- Simulation DFM
- Simulation Job Manager
- Simulation Mechanical
- Simulation Moldflow
- Simulation Moldflow Adviser
- Simulation Moldflow Communicator
- Simulation Moldflow Insight
- Simulation Moldflow Insight 360
- Smoke
- Vasari
- Vault
Tag Tags0
Page statistics
Table of contents
No headersLevels of Detail (LOD) are critical for managing assemblies by specifying which components - and which versions of those components - should be loaded into Inventor. Various amounts of information are needed at different times in the design process, and different users may have need for more or less of that design data.
First, take a look at this relatively detailed assembly of a test press:
This is the "Master LOD" which contains all the components necessary to manufacture. When I make the assembly drawing for this, I'll reference this LOD with the Bill of Material and my views.
Imagine using this press in the next level assembly. Does the next level need to see all the fasteners? What about bearings, bushings, hosing, and connector hardware? In fact, Inventor creates LOD automatically that suppress content center components. Each component I load requires incrementally more RAM. Imagine now my top level assembly has dozens of these presses along with 10,000 other components? I don't want my designers waiting to load all the data from all the sub-assemblies' complete LOD, so I create simplified versions, and make this standard practice with all my users. These "Low LOD" have few of the pieces I don't need to see in higher level assemblies:
You can also go further and use Shrink Wrap to create a single part that represents an entire assembly, thus maximizing your simplification:
Also, if I intend to analyze this assembly, I don't want to have to mesh and solve for every single part. I create a "Simulation LOD" which neglects the components which are not of interest in my current analysis:
When creating an assembly, take the time to create a Simple LOD for the next assembly. Suppress anything that won't be needed for higher-level constraints/mates, depiction on 2D drawings, or visualization/simulation. Think of who will consume your assembly and make LOD for your audience. For my factory layout I don't need to see the nuances of hydraulic fittings and 1/4" nuts:
