Assembly Tip and Time Saver
Assembly Tip and Time Saver
(OP)
Problem:
You have a large assembly and you need to modify a part that is a parent for almost all the other parts in you assembly. Doing so will cause the other parts to fail and you may need to redefine them all.
Solution:
Determine which parts are children of the part that you wish to modify. Then redefine these parts and replace the assembly constraints with the FIX option.
Now go ahead and modify the part and then redefine each child to new or modified references. The FIX constrant will lock the parts in their last position, but relative to their origin CS and the assembly CS. So you will not see the FAIL REGEN window, and this is a big advantage, since you also keep the parts in their original locations.
Steve
You have a large assembly and you need to modify a part that is a parent for almost all the other parts in you assembly. Doing so will cause the other parts to fail and you may need to redefine them all.
Solution:
Determine which parts are children of the part that you wish to modify. Then redefine these parts and replace the assembly constraints with the FIX option.
Now go ahead and modify the part and then redefine each child to new or modified references. The FIX constrant will lock the parts in their last position, but relative to their origin CS and the assembly CS. So you will not see the FAIL REGEN window, and this is a big advantage, since you also keep the parts in their original locations.
Steve





RE: Assembly Tip and Time Saver
I personally go through the trouble of freezing what I can and supressing what I can't... then what happens "most times" for me is once you redefine the first frozen object... all the rest "unfreeze" because of they are related to the first... and then I resume the rest... (I'm doing alot of piping right now and I have to do this ALL the time *sigh*)...
Of course this doesn't always work... but it does make sure that your model continues to update as you would expect it to...
(I just don't trust most others to go and fix the "Fixed" objects after changes... they'd probably think it did it automatically... as Pro/E is *cough* famous for)...
Daniel Pro/E Specialist
http://www.torgon.com/
RE: Assembly Tip and Time Saver
Your comments are correct, in that the FIX option does not always update the part locations as you may want to since your are only placing the part w-r-t the part default CSO and assembly default CSO.
I mentioned the FIX option because this allows you to keep the previous assembly constraints (like MATE and INSERT) but UNSELECTED. It is possible to have MATE, INSERT and FIX all together. So the FIX actually prevents items from being Packaged. And we all know the ramifications with Packaged parts.
Steve
http://www.3dlogix.com
RE: Assembly Tip and Time Saver
I was only making my comment because some people may not be aware of the the ramifications to using "fix"... I know that people here (at the site I am at) have used it thinking that it actually "fixed" (corrected) the problem... and then later on were complaining that the models were not behaving correctly and blaming the software...
I never said it was a bad tip...
Daniel Pro/E Specialist
http://www.torgon.com/
RE: Assembly Tip and Time Saver
ProE years under someone's belt doesn't mean anything, it's the quality of their experience. I am sure you see the same with your client's.
Steve
http://www.3dlogix.com
RE: Assembly Tip and Time Saver
im4cad
RE: Assembly Tip and Time Saver
- analysis > measure > transform
- select two coords (one from a top level assy and one from the assy that you want to fix).
- write the transformation data to a file (from the analysis window)
- then within the top level assy, create a coord system > from file, and type in the name of the saved transformation data file.
- rename that coord, ex. 'powertrain_csys'
- the assemble the powertrain subassy to powertrain_csys.
if that made any sence, i hope it is useful. its a good way of breaking top down associativity between subassys that don't really need it.
RE: Assembly Tip and Time Saver
RE: Assembly Tip and Time Saver
(I'm aware that part to part referencing can be valuable or even indispensable in some cases - so what I'm suggesting is not a "universal" solution)