Can I drive equations from a drawing?

[benman]

I have an assembly with overall sizes that are driven by two equations: "overall width"=variable A and "overall height"=variable B. Is there any way that I can drive these variables from the drawing of the assembly, rather than having to drive them from the assembly file itself?

Any help would be much appreciated!!

 

[rgrayclamps]

Make a layout sketch in your assembly models using the equations. Then, import them to your drawing. You will be able to drive your design from the drawing of the assembly. Just make sure that you have "update model from drawing" enabled during your SolidWorks installation.

Alex

 

[benman]

Thanks, I'll give this a go. I assume you just mean draw a "dummy" sketch in the assembly file, and constrain the overall dimensions to variables A and B?

 

[rgrayclamps]

Yes, it is called layout sketch. You can use your dimensions to back drive your models. If you make an assembly drawing, you can only import dimensions belonged to assembly level. In other words, you can not drive your part model directly from assembly drawing. But from the assemby drawing, you can drive the assembly model which can indirectly drive its child parts if you have appropriate design intent.

Alex

 

[benman]

Many thanks, Ive got this working a treat!!