Derive and Move Bodies Within a Part

Most people will be aware that Inventor has a Derive tool, allowing you to Derive a Part or Assembly into another Part file.

This can be a useful tool for many different reasons, including creating Mirrored components, Scaled components or a Multibody Solid of different parts.

If you Derive parts into a file it is likely that they will not arrive in the right place, so the steps below will highlight a method for adjusting the geometry to suit your needs.

• Firstly open a Part file into which you want to derive another Part into, or start a new Part file to Derive various Parts into.
• Now click Derive on the Model TAB. You will be presented with the Derived Part dialogue, where you can change various settings, including Derive style, Status, Scale factor, Mirror part etc. The important elements in this exercise are to set Derive style to Solid Bodies and select Solid Bodies as the information we want to bring in. Then click OK to Derive the part into the open file.

•  The Solid Body will appear, located about the Origin in the Part file you have Derive into, this is set by the Parts original Origin.

• To Move the new Body to somewhere more appropriate, simply click Move Bodies on the Model TAB. This will present you with the Move Bodies dialogue where you can choose to either Free Drag, Move along ray or Rotate about line.

• Using a combination of these methods you can Move your Bodies around to make up the design you are after.