Assembling a deck of cards

[pugap]

Looking for tips on how to create an assembly of something analagous to a deck of cards. It would essentially be one card inserted X number of times, with different configurations being the number instances. What I'm looking for are tips on creating the mates without repeating the steps dozens and dozens of times. Fortunately there would only be three mates for each pair of cards, but after a while it gets monotonous.

 

[dgowans]

Can you not use a linear pattern?

 

[cnova]

Try using Mate Reference.

<Insert><Referenece Geometry><Mate Reference>

Stupidity is the basic building block of the universe. F.Z.

 

[J-C]

I think the linear pattern is the way to go, then expand it and change the config for each instance.

Jason

UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2005 SP5.0 on WinXP SP2
SolidWorks 2006 SP3.0 on WinXP SP2

 

[pugap]

There's an "oh by the way" (isn't there always?). One of the mates is a relationship between planes so that as a card is added, it is rotated or skewed at some angle from the previous, kind of like a spiraling staircase. Linear pattern falls short.
My mates are 1)concentric for a hole in the middle of each card 2)coincident for front to back faces 3)angular relation between top planes of each card.

 

[Nwaune]

I have never actually done this, but it makes sense in my head:

Try creating a layout sketch in the card part file which incorporates the angular relationship. Then, create a mate reference which references the angled line in the sketch and an edge of the hole in the middle of the card. Once complete, fully constrain one card part file in the assembly. Then drag in the card part file and it should "snap" into place - repeat.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Take a look at the Spiral Stairs example in the SW Parts section of

http://mysite.verizon.net/mjlombard/

Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions FAQ559-1091

 

[brengine]

You could write a macro.

Or you could...
[ol]
[li]Insert a few cards in the stack and mate them.[/li]
[li]Save.[/li]
[li]Then do a SaveAs Copy of the assembly to some temporary name.[/li]
[li]Insert the copied assembly and mate its bottom card to the main assemblies top card.[/li]
[li]Now Dissolve the Subssembly. Notice that you just doubled the number of cards in your main assembly by only adding 3 mates.[/li]
[li]Repeat the last 4 steps, each time doubling the number of cards in your main assembly (and all you had to do was a SaveAs Copy and then define 3 mates each time).[/li]
[/ol]

Ken

 

[yanceman]

Create a helix and use a sketch point on the corner of the card (that is in the same corner on all cards). Add a PIERCE relation to the helix and coincident relations between the card faces. The Helix will give you a uniform spread on the cards.

Yanceman