How do you make a drawing of an assembly?

[Figbash]

I have some sheet metal parts that need to be spot welded together, so I need to make a dimensioned assembly drawing of them to show their correct orientation. What's the best way to go about this. I tried creating a sub assembly of the parts that I needed to include in the drawing, but that created a lot of broken mates in the main assembly that took me forever to sort out. There must be an easier way.

Tom

 

[aamoroso]

If these components are a part of a top level assy and you need a sub assy drawing, you can either do what you did and create the sub assy and fix any mates you need to or you can create another config in the top level with all other parts hidden or suppressed.

 

[SBaugh]

To add to aamoroso's comments - you could just make a whole new assembly with those parts, that has nothing to do with the main assembly. Then you won't get any broken mates but your going to be redoing some of your work.

The other thing you could do is highlight the components in hte Feature manager tree and RMB the last one and select "Form new Sub-assembly here". If some mates get broke either suppress them and repair them. Then unsuppres them. Or Just repair each of them.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

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[TheTick]

If you bring in your main assembly to a drawing, you can selectively hide components in the drawing views. Right-click components in a view's model tree and toggle the visibility ("Show/Hide").

You can place individual components on different drawing layers. Right-click the component from within the drawing and select "Component Line Font...". You could place the components you wish to hide on a layer and then turn that layer off.

Another possibility is to make a special configuration in your main assembly that shows just the parts you are interested in. That way, you can also give that configuration special configuration-specific properties for use in the drawing title block, etc.

"When everyone is thinking alike, no one is thinking very much." --Eckhard Schwarz (1930--2004)

http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

 

[drawoh]

Figbash,

I agree with SBaugh and amoroso.

When I design a part out of sheet metal or a soft material like plastic or aluminium, I systematically create an assembly model. I attach the assembly model to my fabrication drawing, and to the final assembly.

My primary concern is that I want to be able to attach thread inserts and other fasteners that I want managed by the fabricator. With sheet metal, I can suddenly decide to weld or rivet a gusset. It does not mess up my drawing.

JHG