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SW Limitations.

MadMango (Mechanical)

(OP)

5 Nov 04 14:24

Most of us know of the "300 mates" limitation for assemblies. And we also know that our feature sketches shouldn't be too complicated.

Does anyone know how many sketch segments qualify as being too many? Also, is there a good way of finding the number of sketch segments in a sketch?

"But what... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
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SBaugh (Mechanical) · Answer 1 · 2004-11-05 15:49:45

Quote:
Does anyone know how many sketch segments qualify as being too many?

The only way I can tell is when it gets slow - depending on complexity of the sketch. I know that's not a good answer, but that is the best way to tell. This will vary not only because of Complexity of the sketch but also hardware and other software running.

But hey I have been wrong before?

Quote:
Also, is there a good way of finding the number of sketch segments in a sketch?

No there are no application within SW to do this. I'm sure it wouldn't be that hard for SW to put this feature in, or maybe if you ask TheTick really nice he will make something for you?

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
http://www.3dvisiontech.com
http://www.scottjbaugh.com

FAQ731-376

TheTick (Mechanical) · Answer 2 · 2004-11-05 16:37:51

There are a number of "Get____count" methods in the sketch API. Looks like one must tally up lines, arcs, etc. separately and then add tem up.

"An object at rest can not be stopped."
http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

brengine (Mechanical) · Answer 3 · 2004-11-05 19:04:40

If you preselect them, you can use the (API) Selection Manager and get the number of selected items.

Ken

brengine (Mechanical) · Answer 4 · 2004-11-05 19:06:42

Quote:
Most of us know of the "300 mates" limitation for assemblies.

For those of us that don't, could you please enlighten us?
Thanks,
Ken

MadMango (Mechanical) · Answer 5 · 2004-11-05 19:51:38

This just means that your top-level mates should be no more than 300 mates. More mates can introduce errors in your assemblies.

"But what... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

brengine (Mechanical) · Answer 6 · 2004-11-07 11:49:20

I've never heard this before (with an actual number). So since it's pretty much 3 mates per component, then it's recommended that any assembly have a max. of 100 components?

Is this something you follow or something you found out from other sources? I doubt SolidWorks would ever issue a statement like this, but I am all for finding ways to increase large assembly stability.

Thanks for the info.,
Ken

MadMango (Mechanical) · Answer 7 · 2004-11-07 16:17:11

I believe it was posted by an offical SW source, but have myself only heard it through word-of-mouth.

A way to get beyond the limitation is to use more sub-assemblies in your top-level models, along with configurations to supress unrelated parts and features.

"But what... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

macPT (Mechanical) · Answer 8 · 2004-11-07 17:55:32

MadMango
What kind of errors can we expect in the assembly?

Regards

MadMango (Mechanical) · Answer 9 · 2004-11-08 09:43:54

Mostly rebuild errors and over constrained errors, not to mention a hit on computer performance.

"But what... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

MadMango (Mechanical) · Answer 10 · 2004-11-08 13:19:38

For those interested, here's a marco to count the number of sketch segments in an active feature sketch.

CODE

Option Explicit

Public Enum swSkSegments_e
    swSketchLINE = 0
    swSketchARC = 1
    swSketchELLIPSE = 2
    swSketchSPLINE = 3
    swSketchTEXT = 4
    swSketchPARABOLA = 5
End Enum

Dim Total As Integer

Sub main()
    Dim sSkSegmentsName(5)      As String

    Dim swApp                   As SldWorks.SldWorks
    Dim swModel                 As SldWorks.ModelDoc2
    Dim swSelMgr                As SldWorks.SelectionMgr
    Dim swFeat                  As SldWorks.feature
    Dim swSketch                As SldWorks.sketch
    Dim vSkSegArr               As Variant
    Dim vSkSeg                  As Variant
    Dim swSkSeg                 As SldWorks.SketchSegment
    Dim swSkLine                As SldWorks.SketchLine
    Dim swSkArc                 As SldWorks.SketchArc
    Dim swSkEllipse             As SldWorks.SketchEllipse
    Dim swSkSpline              As SldWorks.SketchSpline
    Dim swSkText                As SldWorks.SketchText
    Dim swSkParabola            As SldWorks.SketchParabola
    Dim vID                     As Variant
    Dim i                       As Long
    Dim bRet                    As Boolean
    Total = 0
  On Error GoTo huboalgo

    Set swApp = Application.SldWorks
    Set swModel = swApp.ActiveDoc
    Set swSelMgr = swModel.SelectionManager
    Set swFeat = swSelMgr.GetSelectedObject4(1)
    Set swSketch = swFeat.GetSpecificFeature


    vSkSegArr = swSketch.GetSketchSegments
    For Each vSkSeg In vSkSegArr
        Set swSkSeg = vSkSeg
        Total = Total + 1
    Next vSkSeg
    MsgBox "Total of segments: " & Total, vbInformation, "SEGMENTS COUNT"
    GoTo THEEND
huboalgo:
    MsgBox "Please select an sketch", vbCritical, "MACRO ERROR"
THEEND:
End Sub

"But what... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

TheTick (Mechanical) · Answer 11 · 2004-11-08 13:26:15

MadMango:

I'm feeling generous. How about a free conversion to addin? Just say the word, and I'll make one available sometime next week.

For anyone who wants to learn....
<http://www.esoxrepublic.com/news.html>

"An object at rest can not be stopped."
http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

MadMango (Mechanical) · Answer 12 · 2004-11-08 14:00:05

TheTick- "word".

An add-in might be nice, depending on how much usability everyone thinks this little utility has. I'm happy with it as macro and could go either way, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

"But what... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

macPT (Mechanical) · Answer 13 · 2004-11-08 18:19:32

Well, I've noticed some of my assemblies behave strangely (for example, as MadMango mentioned, overconstrained parts when it's obvious that there are mates missing to reach this state). Now I suspect the "300 mates" error.

Counting 300 mates it's not an appealing task. So this macro is most welcome. An add-in will be the cherry on top of the cake.

Thanks MadMango and TheTick.

Regards

SBaugh (Mechanical) · Answer 14 · 2004-11-09 09:13:30

MadMango,

Post that in the FAQ section of this site if you haven't already... or who ever wrote it.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies
http://www.3dvisiontech.com
http://www.scottjbaugh.com

FAQ731-376

CorBlimeyLimey (Mechanical) · Answer 15 · 2004-11-09 09:15:49

macPT ... To find the number of top level mates all you have to do is run the Assembly statistics under the Tools menu.
The above macro is for counting the number of sketch segments ... sort of a Sketch statistics feature.

MadMango (Mechanical) · Answer 16 · 2004-11-09 10:05:00

Thanks for that reminder Scott, it's posted.

"But what... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

macPT (Mechanical) · Answer 17 · 2004-11-09 17:18:10

CBL
Damn! I should avoid late posts and sleep a bit more!

Regards

TheTick (Mechanical) · Answer 18 · 2004-11-17 16:08:12

Addin update:

I finished programming, compiling, testing, packaging. All that's left is to update my website with a link to the new program. This should happen by Friday morning.

"An object at rest can not be stopped."
http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

TheTick (Mechanical) · Answer 19 · 2004-11-18 23:19:37

Here it is!

<http://www.esoxrepublic.com/freeware/>

"An object at rest can not be stopped."
http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

EngJW (Mechanical) · Answer 20 · 2004-11-19 09:23:50

About the 300 mates thing, if you break up your assembly into sub-assemblies, are the mates within the sub-assembly included in the total?

John Woodward

CorBlimeyLimey (Mechanical) · Answer 21 · 2004-11-19 09:26:42

No, only the ones that reference the top level planes or top level skeleton/layout sketches.

MadMango (Mechanical) · Answer 22 · 2004-11-19 12:43:44

TheTick, I visited your site, but haven't downloaded anything yet (our IT disallows downloading anything). You have a great sense of humor. It's so hard to find good graphics of mangos. Looking forward to seeing the icons you created.

"But what... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

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