Full movement of sub assemblies? 1

[PEU]

I'm drawing a router:

When I started I drawn the whole unit in a single assembly, and I can see all the axis movements without problems.

Then when the assembly grew complicated I decided to separate every axis into its own subassembly, and now I have this problem:

1st axis assembly and 1st part in the new assemble is the X which includes the base and the supports for Y movement

2nd axis assembly is the Y bridge, which when properly mated to the x axis moves ok along the guides

and here comes my problem:

when I add the 3rd axis assembly, and mate it to the Y bridge I cannot move the moving part of the Z, it seems to be fixed.

This was not a problem when I used only one assembly for all.

What am I missing?


Thanks

 

[ctopher]

How did you create the subassy's? Create new or create subassy with parts from the orig assy in feature mngr?
SolidWorks version/SP?

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP2.0 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site
FAQ371-376
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-1091
FAQ559-716

 

[PEU]

SW 2005/SP0

I tried both ways, 1) using the initial assembly to extract the parts and 2) rebuild all the sub-assemblies from scratch, but none worked.

Thanks

 

[CADGemini]

Any time you insert a sub assembly into another assembly it will remain as last saved in the new assembly, even if you you are able to move the parts in the sub-assembly you will not be able to move them in the main assembly unless you set each sub-assembly to Flexible.

To do this you right-click on the sub-assembly in your feature tree and go to properties. There you will find the option to set as flexible or as rigid.

Hope this helps.

Best Regards,
Jon

Challenges are what makes life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.

Solidworks 2005 SP3.0

 

[PEU]

BIG THANKS JON

You hit the nail in the head!!!


That solved it!!!

 

[ctopher]

Sorry for getting back to you so late. Jksolid is correct.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP2.0 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site
FAQ371-376
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-1091
FAQ559-716

 

[ongybill]

Thanks jksolid

I've wondered if that were possible, and been told repeatedly it wasn't.

We often use models with several linear/rotary axis. Of course each slide is brought in as a sub-assembly, but if I wish to move it in the overall assy I have to seperate the carriage out of the sub and then set up motion constraints in ea. assy it's used in.

Now I'll have to experiment as I'd like to draw a slide once, set up motion constraints, then use those in every assy in which I use the slide. Maybe now I can make it work.

Again thanks, I never would have thought to look in the properties box for this, and had had no luck when I attempted to search for it.

 

[ShaggyPE]

ongybill,
You will run into problems having multiple instances of the same configuration of a given subassembly when you set it flexible. SW will actually give an error message.

You will need to create a separate configuration for each instance you have in the main assembly. Typically I will name these "Flexible_1", "Flexible_2", etc.

 

[rgrayclamps]

Shaggy18VW and Ongybill:

With SW 2005, multiple configurations are no longer needed for a flexible sub-assembly.

Alex

 

[MElam]

Keep in mind . . . if ALL of your sub-ass'ys are flexable, the main ass'y will be just as slow as it was before creating the subs. The main speed increase you get from having subs is because the mates inside the subs do not have to be solved at the main ass'y level. As soon as the sub is made flexable, it's internal mates are being solved at the main ass'y level again.

(I'm not saying don't do it, just know it's an issue)