Mass Properties in Assembly help!

[Navark]

Hello all! I have been having a problem with Solidworks and need some desperate help... How can I export mass properties of Parts used in an Assembly? What I would like to eventually get is a table of mass, volume, density, and XYZ locations of each part in an assembly. The only XYZ locations I can seem to export are the Assembly's XYZ or the individual Part by itself - not located in the Assembly. Any ideas???

Thanks,

-Tim

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Mass, Volume & Density can be easily read into a custom BOM and the information "saved as" a CSV or TXT file.
By XYZ locations, I assume you mean to the origins of the individual parts ... I don't know of a way to read that info into a BOM.
However all this info could probably be obtained by an API or similar macro. Unfortunately I am not knowledgeable of API, but maybe others can help.


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[Navark]

Yes, I do mean origins of individual parts but where they are located in the assembly. I can get the weights/volumes/densities, but not the XYZ.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Just curious ... why do you need the parts XYZ info anyway?


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[Heckler]

The location of the Cg can be obtained from the free Macro located on this forum. It places a 3D point and would have to be run on the assembly and the idividual parts. But I'm sure you can modify this existing macro to do what you want it to do at the assembly level. I've done this very same thing in Pro/e but haven't had the need to do it with my SolidWorks data but I know it can be done.

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 4.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NIVIDA Quadro FX 1400
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"There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea" Bernard-Paul Heroux

 

[Heckler]

Check this thread thread559-97884 this is a great start

Best Regards,

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SW2005 SP 4.0 & Pro/E 2001
Dell Precision 370
P4 3.6 GHz, 1GB RAM
XP Pro SP2.0
NIVIDA Quadro FX 1400
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

"There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea" Bernard-Paul Heroux

 

[Navark]

Thanks for the inputs - no luck though...

The volumes are necessary for balancing underwater vehicles, especially at deep depths. Currently, I check the mass properties of each component, nut and bolt individually, then transpose them into Excel. Very time consuming, and not very dynamic!

-Tim

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

If you use the Excel style BOM (customised to suit), you will be able to "save as" directly into an Excel file. The saved file will not be dynamically linked to the SW assy though.

Are the parts XYZ (origin) points needed for CoG calcs? If so the assy could be saved as a part and then, maybe, the CG macro at

http://mysite.verizon.net/mjlombard/

could be run to find the overall CoG.


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[Navark]

Yes, I have also tried exporting the whole thing as a part to get the center of buoyancy- it takes almost a full day of crunching to complete that though.

Maybe hand typing into Excel is the best way to go!

 

[engAlright]

Could you not just use the CofG from the mass properties of the assembly? If you are breaking them out individually because only certain ones appear in the calculation, could you not create an assembly config of only that parts you want then find the assembly CG of that config?

As for volume, mass, density, those can be added to a BOM by first specifying a custom property in each part (see "Summary Info – Custom and Configuration Specific" in the help).

Then, add a column to the BOM manually (using the Solidworks BOM, not the Excel one) and under column properties, select the appropriate custom property from the drop down list.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Unless your assy is huge (MB &/or number of parts) or you have an old computer, it should not take "almost a full day" to run the Mass properties.

It sounds like you are doing a lot of manual calcs, which SW could easily do for you.


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[TateJ]

If the masses of the individual parts are correct - you can open your main assembly & read the center of gravity from TOOLS > MASS PROPERTIES. Is this the info you need? I'm not sure how ro export this info to Excel & not sure why you'd need to anyway.

BTW - I bet you have a real cool job. I'm designing wastewater treatment equipment... yawn.

SolidWorks 2005 SP04.0, SpaceBall 4000 FLX, Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer, Windows 2000 Professional & a Lava Lamp