Bounding Box for an Assembly 1

[jzecha]

Does anyone have a Bounding Box code that works on an Assembly that does not use the Inertia Values?

I am trying to figure out a way to create a Bounding Box relative to an existing Axis System or a Flat Surface.

This is a tool for my Tool Builders and Shipping Department to figure out Size of Box needed for Tools and Shipping Size.

The issue I have ran into is the only way I can create a Bounding Box is that the part that the Box is in copies every part body in the assembly into it.
I want to avoid hundreds if not thousands of bodies in a part on large assemblies.

 

[Little Cthulhu]

Most efficient way to do this is with CAA by tessellating geometry of an assembly.

With Automation you may build a wall body (large pad) in a temporary part and place it in a temporary assembly along with the assembly to be measured. Then by moving the wall part iteratively and calculating clashes you can deduce a size of a bounding box.

 

[jzecha]

This sounds exactly what I am after, can you give me a little direction on how to use the CAA Tessellating?
I tried to look into it and I didn't quite understand it.

 

[itsmyjob]

another solution... using measures

bring your assembly into a top level product
inside this top level, create a second product in which you will create a part with a planar surface
move the part away from the original product
measure the distance between the 2 sub level product

if you know where the planar surface is, you will be able to have 1 extremum point of your assembly.

repeat for the 6 other faces

using 3DX I could manually do this, I have the feeling VBA could support this process, but you could easily create a master product with predefined sub products (6 of them) in which you drop your assembly, get the measuring tool and voila...
I cannot use plane for measurement, so I had to create a planar surface, make sure the surface is large enough to get proper result

Eric N.
indocti discant et ament meminisse periti ​

 

[Little Cthulhu]

Are you proficient in CAA and do you have an appropriate license?

 

[jzecha]

@itsmyjob,
I figured out how to make this work and will probably modify my existing BoundingBox tool to work with this strategy.
Kind of a pain since the only way to get a measurement is by clicking the assembly and then the part, where it would be easier if I could just click an individual feature like a plane.

@Little Cthulhu,
I do not know anything about CAA, I am fairly proficient in VBA and such though.
I do not believe I have the advanced Knowledge ware license either.

 

[Little Cthulhu]

Forget about CAA then.

Why clicking on an assembly when you can select any geometrical feature and retrieve it's product with Selection.Item(1).LeafProduct ?

 

[jzecha]

This is the only way I could get the measure feature to work between the assembly and my 6 sides of a box in different parts.

But when I try to automate this, I run into an issue getting the dimension between the Assembly and one of my box sides.
From all my Googling, I was unable to find a way.

Do you have any recommendations on a way that will work for an Assembly Bounding Box without CAA?

 

[Little Cthulhu]

Use Distances instead