Can I Use Component Design Table Info In Assembly Design Table?

[charbroil]

I have added a generic design table to my default SW part template. This design table contains five Custom properties that show in the title block when I create a drawing of the part: Material, Internal Job Number, Part Number, Revision Level, and Part Description. I’ve found this works very well when I either create a new part or import one from a customer. I simply edit the design table (whose initial values are XXXXX, etc—can’t be blank!) and the drawing has the information.

That’s for the piecepart. I have all this information tucked away nicely in the SW partfile.

My quandary is that during the course of my work, I invariably take that part and insert it as a component into an assembly, from which I also make shop drawings. I have a slightly more complex design table built into my SW assembly template. It uses the same five pieces of information, along with another field called Operation Type, which is configuration-specific.

Is there a way I can make my Assembly Design Table extract the information from the Component Design Table? Every time I input the same information for the second time, I tell myself there has got to be a way, but I’m not quite sure how.

(During the course of typing this, the 'link-to-file' option occured to me. Perhaps I can Use one Separate Design Table for the whole job. Even if this does serve my purposes, I would be interested if it's possible to do what I was initially asking)

Thank you!

"I'm gonna go get the papers, get the papers."

 

[charbroil]

Incidentally, ‘link-to-file’ doesn’t help me from where I stand because it would cause me to completely rethink my design procedure from the ground up.

(About my procedure: I use many configurations in a “Machining Assembly” file to represent each step in our manufacturing process, which removes material from a raw block to achieve the finished part. Each step in our process is a configuration in my assembly file, which shows the Customer Part (always pristine and unaltered) and another component named ‘stock’ which I hack away at using extrusions, etc to simulate milling, EDM or turning. This way my shop drawings are very accurate, and I can put the “Alternate Configuration” option to good use, which shows what material is being removed at any given operation)

I use a column in the Assembly design table called “$CONFIGURATION@stock<1>” to synchronize the configurations in that component named “stock” with the top-level assembly configuration. (click OP030 in the assembly and the stock configuration switches to OP030 at the same time)

The presence of this column in the single-part design table is very unwelcome, so I'm back to the initial question about extracting component info to assembly.


"I'm gonna go get the papers, get the papers."

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

So your "Machining Assembly" isn't really an assembly ... it's a collection of configurations of the same part ... or to put it another way ... your assembly consists of multiple instances of the same part, where each config shows a different step in the machining process?

Interesting! Confusing ... but interesting!

Are you using the assy BOM as a Manufacturing Process/Operations list?


from (the City of) Barrie, Ontario.

I tried sniffing Coke once, but the ice cubes got stuck in my nose

 

[charbroil]

Oh, it's an assembly alright. With mates and everything!

I work on just about everything in Assembly Context, because I have the part (component) and stock (component) mated together and I extract the geometry from the part into the stock to create my cuts.

For certain operations (configs), I have fixtures and/or vises that are hidden in all but the pertaining operation.

What I may not have explained clearly was that I have a boatload of configurations in my stock component (also created with template). I also have similar configuration names in the Top-Level Assembly. They're tied together when everything is perfect.

Way back when, when I devised this process, I would Right Mouse Click the stock component and pick the configuration from the list in the ("config to use") dialog box. I would do this for every....single.....configuration. Tedious!

The design table was the easy way out, it synchronizes everything.

"I'm gonna go get the papers, get the papers."

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

OK, sorry, bad phrasing of words on my part.
"isn't really an assembly" was supposed to mean not a regular assy of different finished parts making a final product.

I see more clearly what you are doing now, but am still unsure what info it is you need to copy from the component DT to the assy DT & why you need to copy it.

To recap ... the component DT has the 5 standard properties, plus (I assume) the supression state of its features which create the machining stage configurations.
The assy DT has its own 5 standard properties, plus an "Operation Type" column, plus a column which controls the component configurations.
So basically you have only 2 DTs ... 1 for the component & 1 for the assy.

Sorry if I am more dense today than usual, but obviously I am still missing something?

from (the City of) Barrie, Ontario.

I tried sniffing Coke once, but the ice cubes got stuck in my nose

 

[charbroil]

Not dense at all...it's very tough to describe what I'm doing with just words and no example pictures. But you've picked right up on what I'm doing.

Yes, the DT in the assembly has a column that states the config of the stock component.

No, I don't have a column in the component DT that has suppression states, I still do that manually. (sometimes it will take 3 or 4 features to simulate one operation, sometimes only 1, so standardization is a bit difficult there)

The thing is, for each job, the 5 standard (or fixed might be a better term) properties in the component are identical to the 5 in the assembly. I have to either re-type or cut-and-paste them when I create the assembly. I hate repeating information, even if it's cutting and pasting.

Usually, when my shop gets a new job, I'll import the STEP file right away. I'll fill in the DT for that customer part and slap it into a drawing with some shaded isometric views and a few key dimensions so we have an idea of what size material we need. From the very beginning, I've got drawings that display the important information.

Then I'll forget about the job for a few days or so while we come up with a manufacturing strategy. I may make some conceptual operations, but usually at this point, I'm working on a different job.

So it's not right away that I get to the assembly stage. That's when I take the part that already has those fixed custom properties and put it into an assembly. Then, I do a slow burn while I transfer information into the assy DT.

You may have gathered that I use the same Drawing Template for all my drawings, whether they are single-part or assembly.

I assume the property tags I have set up in the Drawing Template will read only the Properties in the Top-Level assembly.

(I've been thinking more about this, and perhaps I can link both my necessary DTs to File and let Excel take care of the linking. I know you can set the contents of a cell to be equal to the contents of a cell in a separate Excel Spreadsheet.


"I'm gonna go get the papers, get the papers."

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I assume the property tags I have set up in the Drawing Template will read only the Properties in the Top-Level assembly.

No, the Assy BOM reads the properties of all levels of components inserted into the assy ... as in an "Indented" BOM. So if you've set the properties in the component, the assy BOM should be displaying them if it is set up correctly.

from (the City of) Barrie, Ontario.

I tried sniffing Coke once, but the ice cubes got stuck in my nose

 

[charbroil]

I wasn’t ignoring your BOM question from earlier--I didn’t see it until last night.

I don’t use Bills Of Material in my drawings (but maybe I should?). That may be in part because they were so cumbersome and daunting in UG. The information I’m trying to feed is in the title block.

I’m going to do some messing around with BOM later and see if that can be of use.

btw, linking both DTs to file and having those spreadsheets share values seems to work.
I kinda ignored your BOM question from earlier because I didn’t see it until last night.

I don’t use Bills Of Material in my drawings (but maybe I should?). That may be in part because they were so cumbersome and daunting in UG. The information I’m trying to feed is in the title block.


"I'm gonna go get the papers, get the papers."

 

[charbroil]

Sorry about the doubled text. I must have cut-and-pastepasted.

I wanted to bring this question back to the top because I haven’t found an answer yet.

My assembly file is a means to an end, really. By that I mean that I don’t have to provide a BOM of components because as far as the machinists are concerned, there are no components, it’s just a drawing of a block. Insertion of a Bill of Material would be very unwelcome (and unnecessary).

Linking to two separate Excel Design Tables doesn’t seem to be the answer, either. (I have to open component, assembly and both Excel files to update a rev level. Not pretty)

What I’m aiming for is: When I update a field in the component level DT, the similar field will change in the assembly DT (upon rebuild of the assembly). When working in the assembly file, both the DTs are right there in the design tree. I’m sure there is a way for the assy DT to inherit the values of the component DT, especially if the properties are named the same.



"I'm gonna go get the papers, get the papers."