Cutting at assembly level

[drawoh]

I am adding cuts to a part at the assembly level. These cuts are not appearing on the drawing. When I click on the view to get back to the drawing, the feature is turned off. It reappears when I hit update.

This would be a really useful feature if it worked. Think about castings. Is anyone out there familiair with this? Is there a work-around?

Thanks.

JHG

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Do you mean an "Assembly Cut" or an in-context cut to an edited part in an assembly? & are you talking about the Part drawing or the Assembly drawing?

If it's an assy cut & you are looking at the Part drawing, the cut will not show up because it exists only at the assy stage.

"When I click on the view to get back to the drawing, the feature is turned off.
Did you mean "get back to the part/assy"?

I may be way off in my interpretation of what you are asking, but I do not get the same problem. What version & SP are you using?


CorBlimeyLimey
Barrie, Ontario
faq559-863

 

[JNR]

CorBlimey is correct (sometimes these ex-Brits can be pretty smart - infact the "Ex-er" we get the smarter we seem to get. Just kidding - I can get a away with that, 'cos I'm one too ..... are you strictly speaking "ex" yet CBL? - I recall you were talking about spelling differences the other day. I've been US so long I only goof on the "s" and "z" thing now and again and when I open my mouth the Brits think I was born US and the Americans still hear the Brit accent!!!. Guess I speak "mid-atlantic"!!

Back to business.... Assembly cuts a - ie: NOT in-context edits of the PARTS, but cuts done on the actual assembly - are intended to mimic real life. In other words, if what you actually do when you manufacture, assemble the parts FIRST and THEN start cutting on the assembly.

Ref your comment on castings, the way we do castings is this:

One part for the casting/machined casting. Two configurations - cast and machined. There is endless debate on whether you should model first as machined (finished part) and then add the machining allowance in the cast configuration - or - Model as cast and remove it in the machined config. I was adamant about it at one time, but I've mellowed with experience. Acutally I don't think there is a hard and fast rule that seems to work best in all circumstances - it depends on the feature you are dealing with. So I'm not about to beat anyone up for their choice on that.

Now if you are like us and include "non-separable" items in the machined part drawing (like press fit pins, bearing, etc.) what we do there is use a SW assembly as the machined "part". We do this because we do not machine product here - it is all sent out.

So I don't see any need for (true) SW assembly cuts in castings per-se.

You could also use a casting part as a Base Part for the machined part file. But we found no advantage for that for our purposes. It does also force you to pretty much model as-cast first. Which, since most design is done as finished, would probably result in you doing a fair bit of to and fro in an assembly or at least the machined part file working on the casting part!!!! ( But I still don't see any assembly cuts..)


I was - and he did. So at least I didn't get coal.....
OK, OK, It's a reference to my holiday sig. "Be naughty - Save Santa a trip..."

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

JNR
I knew there was a reason I liked your style
Yes, I'm definitely an "ex", I have been over 'ere since '81. Lucky for me Canada has officially reverted to the "proper" way of spelling. If you want to compare notes further I can be reached via the email in my profile.

Seeing as you mentioned about "opening your mouth" Mark Twain had a great saying.
"It is better to keep your mouth closed & let people think you are a fool, than to open it & remove all doubt"



CorBlimeyLimey, Ontario, Canada
Don't Take It Personal, Have Fun While You Learn
faq559-863

 

[drawoh]

CorBlimeyLimey,

I am doing the cut and its sketch at the assembly level. The part model and any drawings based on it are unaffected, which is what I want. I want to show modifications at the level of the assembly drawing.

What I am really working on a building floorplan. I want to knock some pieces out of the building, install a workbench and design an optical alignment fixture on top of all this.

This is sort of working on my assembly drawing at the moment, but when I add another section view to the drawing, the assembly level cutting disappears, and I cannot make it active on the drawing. I can go back into the model and make it active by updating, but it disappears again when I update the drawing.

I actually do not have a drawing attached to the part file, so probably, I will have to transfer the modifications to the part file to make everything work. For what I am doing now, this is not a big problem.

Consider what happens when I design a casting. The casting requires a substantial investment in tooling. I machine the casting to provide accurate mounting points and sealing and stuff like that. Later on, I make a modified version of the design requiring different machining, but the same casting. I should not have to release the casting model and its drawing to accomplish this.

By the way, I am down here in Tronna (Toronto). How is the snow up there?

JHG

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Right now the snow is not bad. Just a foot on my gardens. It's the damn cold thats the problem. Still, we are having it a lot better than out East!

Will try to recreate your problem later. Don't have time here. What version of SW & SP are you using?

If the file is not too big, send it to the address in my profile & I will take a look. I have just set it up for use in these forums.


CorBlimeyLimey, Barrie, Ontario.
Don't Take It Personal, Have Fun While You Learn
faq559-863

 

[SBaugh]

Are you using the wrong configuration in the assembly vs. the drawing?

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[JNR]

I note your casting comment, and see the issues - specially if you are using a PDM system - but again in that case you could use the casting part as a base part to start your machined parts.

I see what you are trying to do and it is a bit unusual. Actually in your case it doesn't seem to matter much whether an assembly cut is technically the "right" approach, since you already have the drawings under way. However, I am still not sure that you wouldn't be better off going back and doing in-context editing of the parts in the assembly. It would seem that this would be a quick fix to your problems and would not hurt, since I doubt you are going to saw through the wall and bench at the same time....

BTW: What kind of optics do you do? We make HUD's, wide field, overhead mounted ones for mainly transport type aircraft - no fighters. Mostly we do guidance too, so that we call an HGS (tm) or Head Up Guidance Systems.

I was - and he did. So at least I didn't get coal.....
OK, OK, It's a reference to my holiday sig. "Be naughty - Save Santa a trip..."

 

[drawoh]

JNR,

I just transfered my cut to the building model. This solves my problem for the moment. The fun will start all over again when I want to parametrically model some sort of machine shop modifications.

We do laser remove sensing. Laser rangefinders, airborne surveying systems and cloud mapping. We do a lot of alignment, especially with scanned systems.

JHG

 

[JNR]

Sounds interesting. Nice to talk to someone who understands theodolites are not just for surveyors!!!
Ours HUD displays are conformal. In fact we are certified for manual landings at 600 ft RVR. Mostly stroke display but have raster too. Lots of optical alignment tooling for manufacture and boresighting systems to airframes.

If you have any specific questions we might be able to help with email me (see my profile).

I was - and he did. So at least I didn't get coal.....
OK, OK, It's a reference to my holiday sig. "Be naughty - Save Santa a trip..."