Adding Fittings in Routes

[MimiN63]

I'm trying to add a hydraulic fitting to a pre-existing route of tubing. I read in Help that you can manually insert a fitting by editing the 3D sketch and then either dragging it in to the desired location or RMB clicking over the desired point and picking "Add Fitting." Has anyone done this? When I edit the 3D sketch and try to pick "Add Fitting," it doesn't even give me the option to.

Also, whenever I choose to edit the route or the 3D sketch (even if I do not change anything), the tubing disapears from the model and the FMTree.

Has this happened to anyone?

I have SW2005 SP0.0

 

[ctopher]

Are you using "Router" for SolidWorks?

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP0.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

 

[MimiN63]

Yes, we have SolidWorks routing. It's when I exit "edit component" mode that the tubing dissapears. I can't for the life of me figure how to get it back again.

I think we are using "Router" like you say. But just to clear things up, what's the difference between the routing functions in SW compared to the actual "Router"? I have the "Solidworks Routing" Add-in checked.

 

[MimiN63]

I think the root of the problem may be that I saved as the top level assy. I made sure to save-as/chg references also for the route sub-assemblies and the tube parts.

In my FMTree for the top level assy, all the route features of the route sub-assy's have the "->?" after them. They are all out of context. Why is this? Even when I have the top level assy and the subassy's open at the same time. How do I fix this? I've worked a lot with in context features before but not in connection with routes. Are there any little tricks or idiosyncrasies that could help me?

I found it interesting, too, that when picking "references" in the open dialogue box, only the route sub-assy's show up. But when picking "references" in the save-as dialogue box, both the route sub-assy's AND the tube parts show up. What gives?

 

[ctopher]

After you are done with editing component, go to Assembly tool bar and select Edit Component icon. This should bring everything back. Router is an add-on to SolidWorks. Either you bought it separate or it came with SW Office Prem. Go thru the help menus in both SW and Router, they will explain a lot.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP0.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

 

[Mindnumb]

I hope I am not pointing to an too obvious point her, but I think you must add a routing point to the route, if you have not already done so...

Right click the route in the manager tree, choose edit route. In your sketch tools you should have a line with a point on it, this allows you to put "connection points" for new components on the route. Now you can drop components in to this point, provided they have proper routing and connection points themselves.

Hope this helps, Best regards !

 

[MimiN63]

Well, the tube part actually dissapears from the assy *after* I click "edit component" to exit. And there are rout points already. Right now my solution is just to re-do the tubing. Just one of those quirks I guess. I'm getting around it.

 

[MElam]

As far as the "->?" after your in-context parts, right-click where you see the "->?" and select List External Refs...

Is the path at the top of the dialog box current? Has anything been moved or renamed?