Creating a mold problem 3

[SDO]

Hi guys,

Sorry for the rookie question, but here it is: I am trying to create a simple mold design in SW 2000 and I run into a problem. After creating the interim asembly with the cavity then the two derived parts (upper and lower half molds), I created a new assembly where I want to build my mold with all the required parts. In this new assembly I need to be able to edit the mold halves, making external references. Of course SW doesn't let me to do that, bombarding me with the warning message that these parts were created in the interim assembly and I can not use external references. So the question is: how can I edit the two mold halves making external references?

Thanks in advance.
Sorin

 

[SnowCrash]

I have a similar deal where I create a part, then put it in a virtual assembly with hundreds of pins which are used to make holes. At one time I tried what you are doing, move the modified part to another, real, assembly for additional work. That is not good. Now I just keep it to one assembly and everything works fine. I put all the pins into their own subassembly and hide them or even suppress them to speed things up.

Crashj 'cavities give me a hollow feeling' Johnson

 

[MDowney]

I don't remember if this option existed in SW2000 or not but in SW2001 and SW2001+ you can select an option that will allow for multiple external references. Under Tools/Options/External References. Select the option to allow multiple contexts for parts when editing in assemblies. This will allow you to create external references in parts to more than one assembly and more than one part in an assembly. This can make a part very complicated to maintain so use it cautiously. It is best to go back and delete any unnecessary external references and define the sketches in each part where possible.

Good Luck

Mark Downey

 

[SBaugh]

The last mold I made was in SW99 or 00. It was the only one that I made next to using the tutorials back in 96 when I started using SW. Anyhow I found the help that SW provided helped me through my only production mold. So my advice is to read the help and check out the SW knowledge base.

Not a lot of help, but this is good advice to practice.
Regards, Scott Baugh, CSWP
George Koch Sons,LLC
Evansville, IN 47714
sjb@kochllc.com

 

[SDO]

Hi all,
I am little late with my reply cause I had to take a day off.
Thanks a lot guys for the feedback, all ideas were useful, especially Mark's option in the Tools menu. I can work now on my design. Still, I am a little confused because this seems to me like a 'workaround' solution, not the SW intended working way. And there seems to be no other way!!! And I can't easily accept that, since I like and admire SW a lot. Anyway, I got your point Mark, and I understand that this working with multiple references is a risky one, and I will use it carefully.
Great help guys, great forum!
Sorin

 

[APPENG]

MDowney is absoulutely correct.

Set your system options to allow multiple contexts for parts when editing the assembly. As installed it is setup by default to disallow this option

Jon Benavides
Applications Engineer
Fisher Unitech
Troy MI

 

[SDO]

Thanks for the confirmation Jon. I did take the tip and it works just fine.
Thanks again guys,
Sorin