Assembly-level features?

[Steve]

Hello all!

I am a new Solid Designer user. Coming from a strong Unigraphics and Pro-Engineer background, one of the functionalities I really liked was the ability to have "assembly level features". That is, I can model a casting, save it as one file, and then use that casting in another file where I can machine it to its finished state by adding features to the casting. The assembly-level features to not show up on the casting (obviously), but changes to the casting do propagate up to the machined part.

Is this possible with Solid Designer?

Steve

[gmatelich]

We have been searching for a way to do, and many of us would love to have the capability, but at this point the closest I've seen may be to make an assembly that holds the orginal casting, and a 'tool' for boolean creation of the machined part.

The occassions I've had to deal with this problem, I've made and maintained two separate parts - the cast and the machined.

[tom kirkman]

We handle castings by adding a container to the final mahcined part and have the cast part held in the container. This accomplishes loading the casting simultaneously with the part. The casting will be loaded but not be shown any assemblies. The casting will not show up in annotating the machined part. The casting will not show up in the annotation of the assembly, unless forced.

Thanks

Tom Kirkman

[Steve]

Hi Tom!

Sorry for my ignorance, but what is a container? I'm brand new to the software so I hope you will bear with me.

Does using the container make it so that changes to the cast part are propogated to the machined part?

Steve

[tom kirkman]

Containers are created similar to creating a part or an assembly. The command is located in the Parts & Assy menu.

A container can be placed under a part the same way a part can be placed under an assembly.

The containers can contain parts , sub assemblies and workplanes. Basically anything you would like to be able to reference for the creation of the part.

Anything that is in the container will be loaded with the part, but will not be displayed. You have to manually turn them on in the structure browser.

If you are using workmanager, it must be configured to load the contents of the container with the part.

Anything in a container will not show up in the annotation of the part unless, you force it using the view->contents->manage parts feature.

Good Luck

Tom

[Jim McKim]

Originally posted by Steve
Hi Tom!

Sorry for my ignorance, but what is a container? I'm brand new to the software so I hope you will bear with me.

Does using the container make it so that changes to the cast part are propogated to the machined part?

Steve

No, the container will not make changes to one propogate to the other. The only way I know of making changes to one part affect another is to have them be "shares", but then they are identical.
-Jim