Features within assembly environment

[james78]

Hi all!
I model a wide range of things, I model the odd cast component and do this in the part environment, as I have this machined in different ways the casting has a number and so do the parts that I can have machined from it. Rightly or wrongly I bring the casting into the assembly environment where I do the material removal i.e. extruded and revolved cuts, sometimes I need to put in a chamfer or radii, these functions are disabled on the features tool bar in this environment. I like to do things this way as it's clean and simple. Is there something I can do to activate these commands?
Thanks
James

 

[dgowans]

James,

You can insert your base part (as-cast) into another part instead of into an assembly and add your machining features there. You will have all the feature functionality that you normally have instead of being limited by what you can do with an assembly feature.

If your as-cast part changes, it will be associative to the machined part.

 

[NL8]

You also have the option of doing as cast and as machined configurations, storing all the data in the same part. Doing the as machined part as a derived configuration will also maintain the associativity.

Joe Hasik, CSWP/SMTL
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