How do you do Customer Parts in Large Assemblies?
How do you do Customer Parts in Large Assemblies?
(OP)
Hello,
We design custom automation machinery. My current project is to assemble a steering column that comes in as "dumb" imported geometry, all compoents in the assembly are fixed...no mates. There are 200+ components and the customer informed us that they are going to change, some soon and some in a month or so (but we need to start our design ASAP).
My question is, (for better computer performance/user time efficiency) how do you design around the customers parts? Currently I have about 12 different configurations that I made by combining components within the supplied assembly file, but the "watching-the-hourglass spin" time is really getting annoying. I am now in process of breaking this assembly down into 12 subassemblies and just I'll insert subassemblies in my design (rather than skimmed configurations of the large customer assembly) as needed. That has shown improvement in the past, but it's a pain to setup and a *major* pain to re-do each time the customer REV's their design.
Note that I am trying to limit the number of assembly/ subassemblies that I have to make as well as limit inserting the dumb part files straight into our designs because with each customer design change, the customer sends a complete batch of files (both those that changed and those that didn't) and a new assembly file. All of the part filenames are based on the date they sent us (whether they've been REV'd since our last package or not), so it's not like the existing SW files can be overwritten and mates/relations automatically maintained.
So how can I increase my performance without sacrificing the time to re-do my versions of their assembly structure each time? Or should we be doing something totally different? There are 5 designers slated to work on this project and I was hoping to sort this out before it got out of hand.
Thanks,
Ken
We design custom automation machinery. My current project is to assemble a steering column that comes in as "dumb" imported geometry, all compoents in the assembly are fixed...no mates. There are 200+ components and the customer informed us that they are going to change, some soon and some in a month or so (but we need to start our design ASAP).
My question is, (for better computer performance/user time efficiency) how do you design around the customers parts? Currently I have about 12 different configurations that I made by combining components within the supplied assembly file, but the "watching-the-hourglass spin" time is really getting annoying. I am now in process of breaking this assembly down into 12 subassemblies and just I'll insert subassemblies in my design (rather than skimmed configurations of the large customer assembly) as needed. That has shown improvement in the past, but it's a pain to setup and a *major* pain to re-do each time the customer REV's their design.
Note that I am trying to limit the number of assembly/ subassemblies that I have to make as well as limit inserting the dumb part files straight into our designs because with each customer design change, the customer sends a complete batch of files (both those that changed and those that didn't) and a new assembly file. All of the part filenames are based on the date they sent us (whether they've been REV'd since our last package or not), so it's not like the existing SW files can be overwritten and mates/relations automatically maintained.
So how can I increase my performance without sacrificing the time to re-do my versions of their assembly structure each time? Or should we be doing something totally different? There are 5 designers slated to work on this project and I was hoping to sort this out before it got out of hand.
Thanks,
Ken






RE: How do you do Customer Parts in Large Assemblies?
I'd keep assembly references out of the parts you design. Otherwise the replacement dumb solids will result in dangling geometry in the parts you use references in.
I think you've got a headache until your client gets things completed.
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reality is no respecter of good intentions.
RE: How do you do Customer Parts in Large Assemblies?
You are correct, it is a client issue. The problem is that it is a continual issue with this and other clients, so we want to find the best method available to use SW to design with so that we can (at least for now) more easily adapt as their product changes.
Yes we try to not use any external references if possible, but there's still mates to contend with.
Thanks,
Ken
RE: How do you do Customer Parts in Large Assemblies?
I still fear though that you will have broken mates no matter what you do when you ahve to reimport in their changes.
Jason Capriotti
Smith & Nephew, Inc.
RE: How do you do Customer Parts in Large Assemblies?
RE: How do you do Customer Parts in Large Assemblies?
The next best thing would be to have your client, if possible, do that for you.
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RE: How do you do Customer Parts in Large Assemblies?
Create a new assembly.
In that assembly, create a few skeleton sketches, axes, and/or planes that represent the key geometry of your supplier's imported assembly. This 'skeleton' should only include what is necessary to assemble it into your designs.
Assemble the imported assembly from your supplier into this new assembly.
Now, just use this new assembly with the 'skeleton.' BUT, make certain that whenever you mate something to this assembly, you mate to the SKELETON items and not to the imported geometry.
Thus, you should be able to suppress all imported geometry without loosing any mates.
You can now easily replace the supplier model by just replacing it in the new assembly. You may need to adjust your skeleton components to reflect changes in the supplier model.