Assembly - Part placement

[Runz]

When placing a part within a Product, it is placed at the origin of the assembly part model. Is this because each part model is created about the part origin?

Is there any way to have each part placed somewhere other then the origin? It is very time consuming, not to mention a pain in the butt, to move each component manually and then assemble them.

Thanks,

 

[jec3300]

It all depends on the use of the components. If the components are more than likly only going to be used in this assembly then create the parts in "model space" of the assembly, but if the part is used in many assemblies than it is better to create at 0,0,0. You can use the compas to quickly position parts and then use constrains to final location.

Hope this helps

 

[Runz]

I was afraid of that. We model all our components about the origin (0,0,0), because many can be used in numerous assemblies. It becomes very frustrating when you have to manually move 50 or so components when they are placed.

thanks for the response.

 

[jec3300]

Are a lot of the parts nuts and bolts? If so do you use pattern? This should speed up the process.

 

[solid7]

In a parametric CAD system, you shoudln't have to manually move much, if you set your assembly up properly, and use good modelling practices in your models.

Of course, there are always exceptions, but proper feature definition and assembly constraints are a fundamental subject, that should be some of the first to master, IMHO.

The better you set it up initially, the less painful it will be later on.



---
Professional and reliable CAD design engineering services - Specializing in Catia V4, Catia V5, and CAD Translation. Catia V5 resources - CATBlog.

 

[catiajim]

In R14 you have the ability to place an existin component with position. It's the icon right below the "Insert Existing Component".

 

[Abaddon]

Only the first 10,000 components you place are frustrating... After that its easy...

 

[catiajim]

If you have a series of points in one of your parts and you want to place your components on those parts, this is a pretty simple script to write. Here's an outline of the one I wrote:

Place the initial part in your assembly. Location doesn't matter at this point.
Execute the script. The script then asks you:
Select the Product you want the parts in
Select the Part you want placed
Select the points you want the parts placed at (you can multi-select here)
Select a surface for orientation (i.e. all of the bolts should be normal to this)
Select a curve for secondary orientation (this will set the allignment of the bolt heads - this is required, even if you don't care)
The script then creates some dummy geometry in a dummy part (to extract the vectors), copy/pastes the components into the assembly, orients them, and deletes the dummy part.

I can't post the code here, but I can help if you get stuck while writing your own script for this.