Assembly Configurations like in Solid Works?

[SS65SuperNova]

Good Morning all!

I am trying to create suspension assemblies in one main file. I want to show jounce, rebound, and design positions of different components but not all at once. I used to do this easily in Solid Works by setting up configurations by suppressing certain models and mates. I could then select each differ config to see a different suspension position. Is there any way to do this in ProE?

 

[dgallup]

You can do this with Family Tables

 

[fighterpilot]

dgallup is correct. In your family table, add components and then in the table, just specify what components you want showing for a certain configuration of your assembly.

This assumes of course, each of your individual models in the assembly are in family tables themselves.

--
Fighter Pilot
Manufacturing Engineer

 

[SS65SuperNova]

Thanks, For example I created Jounce, Rebound,and Design instances for my Suspension assy. Now I am inserting in s spring in design, and axle, and shackle; then the same for rebound etc. Now the first set of components mate accordingly with now problems but when I add the second set, lets say for jounce for example none of the constrains will work. Is there something in ProE that is not allowing this? What do I need to change to get it to work?

 

[acciardi]

I've been trying to do something similar. The problem is that you cannot add assembly constraints to the Family Table to supress or unsupress them for a given instance.

The closest I could get to moving components around by instance was to add the assembly mating dimensions to the table and edit them. If you keep it at 0, it's a mate. If you want to move the part, then enter the offset value.

Oddly, WF 4 does allow you to display mate folders under each compinent, ala Solidworks, but you can't seem to do anyting with them. Maybe WF 5 will have the ability to add them to the FT.

 

[davidinindy]

The only way I found around this is to have duplicate components in the assembly with their own cronstraints. for example, I hade one copy of a hood in the open position, and one in closed. Add them to a family table, and there you go. It's cumbersome, but works OK. It can be a pain down the road. If you for example, swap out the hood with a different part number, you have to swap all of them out. I also used to use Solidworks, and it was much better at this sort of thing. I think it was "Assembly states" or something, and you just put in constraints and angles. It's been a few years.

David

 

[acciardi]

Yep, this is one thing that SW definitely does very well. It can be tricky supressing the right constraints by configuration, but I have been giving the constraints the configuration name to make them easier to identify.

I agree with your method - add a second instance of the component with its own constraint set and swap it in and out.

 

[seymours2571]

To swap out different components within an assembly using family tables those components you are swaping out need to either be instances/generic of a family table themselves or you will need to place the two different components within an interchange assembly first.

When you assign a constraint to a part surface ProE associates that constraint you applied with the internal surface ID number associated with the component. By inserting in a different component with differnet surface ID numbers (this is not the case for family table parts) you will need to somehow tell proE that although these two surfaces on two different parts are the same they will need to be treated the same with respect to assembly constraints. To do this: place the two components within an interchange assembly and tag the surfaces. Then you can swap out those parts all day long without issue.

Steve