Next Assembly - Enhancement Request

[macduff]

Hello,
I'm thinking of submitting this as an enhancement request. Let me know your thoughts.



Colin Fitzpatrick (aka Macduff)
Mechanical Designer
Solidworks 2010 SP 5.0
Dell T5500 XP Pro SP 3 (32-bit)
Xeon CPU 2.53 GHz 3.00 GB of RAM
nVida Quadro 4000 2 GB
3D Connexion-SpaceExplorer

 

[Eltron]

Explain how this would be beneficial. What if each assembly had multiple subassemblies, or a subassembly is used in multiple assemblies?

Dan

http://www.eltronresearch.com

Dan's Blog

 

[macduff]

I'm thinking a dialog box would open and you would select the file you want from there from there. You would benifit by not having to know the next assy or go to "file" open to search for the file. It would know the the link automatically.

Colin Fitzpatrick (aka Macduff)
Mechanical Designer
Solidworks 2010 SP 5.0
Dell T5500 XP Pro SP 3 (32-bit)
Xeon CPU 2.53 GHz 3.00 GB of RAM
nVida Quadro 4000 2 GB
3D Connexion-SpaceExplorer

 

[macduff]

let's try this again....
I'm thinking a dialog box would open and you would select the file you want from there. You would benifit by not having to know the next assy or go to "file" open to search for the file. It would know the the link automatically.

Colin Fitzpatrick (aka Macduff)
Mechanical Designer
Solidworks 2010 SP 5.0
Dell T5500 XP Pro SP 3 (32-bit)
Xeon CPU 2.53 GHz 3.00 GB of RAM
nVida Quadro 4000 2 GB
3D Connexion-SpaceExplorer

 

[handleman]

So... If you clicked on "descending" it would bring up a list of all of the subassemblies in the current top level assembly? What would happen if you clicked Ascending? Subassemblies don't actually contain links to the assemblies they are used in. That's why SW Explorer has a "where used" search function. Would you want it to run a "where used"?

-handleman, CSWP (The new, easy test)

 

[macduff]

Yes...it's like a where used, but it's an on the fly where used function. It's all about its parmetric link to the next assembly. It would work just like "open drawing" or "Open Part" yada yada yada.This would help eliminate the need to search for data using SW open or opening explorer to find stuff.

Colin Fitzpatrick (aka Macduff)
Mechanical Designer
Solidworks 2010 SP 5.0
Dell T5500 XP Pro SP 3 (32-bit)
Xeon CPU 2.53 GHz 3.00 GB of RAM
nVida Quadro 4000 2 GB
3D Connexion-SpaceExplorer

 

[handleman]

So you are asking SW to add a parametric link (which is currently nonexistent) from components up to their containing assemblies?

-handleman, CSWP (The new, easy test)

 

[PhoenixDynamometer]

The more tools at my disposal the better.

http://www.phoenixdyno.com

Home of the world's most accurate and repeatable dynamometers, dynamometer accessories, and data acquisition & control software.

 

[macduff]

Thanks PD....

handleman....ok, the word "parametric" is not the right term for this, but the word "reference" is. My idea is just adding more capability to assembly to an assembly (ascending/descending) on the functionallity SW already has. You're in a drawing...you can open a part or assembly when you RMB click. When you have a part or assembly open, you can open it's drawing with a RMB click. So in this case...you're just pathing from assembly to assembly.

Did that make sense?



Colin Fitzpatrick (aka Macduff)
Mechanical Designer
Solidworks 2010 SP 5.0
Dell T5500 XP Pro SP 3 (32-bit)
Xeon CPU 2.53 GHz 3.00 GB of RAM
nVida Quadro 4000 2 GB
3D Connexion-SpaceExplorer

 

[Updraft]

Colin,

If I understand what you are looking for it would be to easily see and therefore open the files that use the part or assy.

Just to be clear, the automatic links you refer to in your last post are not the same in both directions, though to us users we usually do not care, we just want it to work. For instance, drawings and assemblies are linked to other part and assembly files and this is written in the "meta data" of that file. This is easy to see in an assy file by virtue of the parts and assemblies shown in the tree. It is important to note that these parts and assemblies can be anywhere including spread across directories all over your system, yet the assembly or drawing file knows where the file is and is directly linked to it (them).

However, as you referenced above about being in a part and opening its drawing, this only works when two conditions are met: 1) the drawing is in the same directory as the part, 2) that directory is the most recent (therefore the current one) that SWX has been in. If you open Part-1 (and it has a drawing in the same directory as Part-1) and then open Part-ABC that is in another directory then go back to Part-1 and now try to open its drawing SWX will prompt you to create a new drawing. This is because it is "assuming" things (1 and 2 above) about the location of the drawing since it is not hard linked with data. In the example above the assumption fails even though the drawing and part are in the same directory. Oh, there is a third condition: 3) the drawing must be the same file name as the part.

All that said and done I think I understand what you are asking for, i.e., a "where-used" link that allows the user to open the files that reference the ones you are pursuing. I like it! I wonder if it could be done by keeping a file of links somewhere in the system that is dynamically kept up to date. How it is done I don't care, but I can certainly see the value of easily having the "where-used" available through the feature tree.

We are now getting in the habit of making parts from our stock materials by inserting the stock material part as the first feature. It would be very nice to have this "where-used" capability built into SWX rather than having to use SWX Explorer to track this stuff down.

About the only thing we use SWX Explorer for is the "where-used" feature. It is slow since it has to go out and do its search and all that crap. Shoot, SWX tries to get us to use the Windows index and junk like that. I sure don't use that and it seems that most of the users on here disable that as well due to not enough advantage for the nuisance/resource consumption involved, hence the idea that the "where-used" information could possibly kept in a file that is updated as new file relationships are established/broken.

Sorry for the long post. I have been working toooo many long hours this past month. Some of the "personal filters" don't work so well after awhile I guess.

- - -Updraft

 

[ctopher]

Colin,
I think it's a great idea.
There were times I think this would have been useful.

Chris
SolidWorks 10 SP4.0
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[macduff]

All,
Thank you all for your comments/feedback. I'll be submitting this as an ER.

Updraft,
I know about working about the long hours. Nice reply!

I hope you all had a great holiday!

Very best,


Colin Fitzpatrick (aka Macduff)
Mechanical Designer
Solidworks 2010 SP 5.0
Dell T5500 XP Pro SP 3 (32-bit)
Xeon CPU 2.53 GHz 3.00 GB of RAM
nVida Quadro 4000 2 GB
3D Connexion-SpaceExplorer