×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

How do you do Customer Parts in Large Assemblies?

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

RE: How do you do Customer Parts in Large Assemblies?

Sounds like you're running into more of a client issue than a SW issue.  Can they firm things up or will they continue to change things throughout the project?

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?

(OP)
Theophilus,

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?

Would working on the their assembly as a part file rather than an assembly be any faster? Try the save as part file options.

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?

I would do as Gildashard stated, create parts, but take it a step further to reduce the mate problems.  Create specific mate planes and axis in the part file.  When the new revisions come, recreate the mate planes and axis before replacing the part in the assembly.  It may not work perfect but is should help.

RE: How do you do Customer Parts in Large Assemblies?

I second aamorosos suggestion. That's exactly what I would do.

The next best thing would be to have your client, if possible, do that for you.


Making the best use of this Forum.  FAQ559-716
How to get answers to your SW questions.  FAQ559-1091
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of.  FAQ559-520

RE: How do you do Customer Parts in Large Assemblies?

We do this often:

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.

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources