Solidworks Router - breaking external references?

[G2daG]

Hi, I'm tasked with making a few wiring harness diagrams, and have just started playing around with the Router. We have SW 2008.

The problem I'm running in to is our company policy is to break all external references before putting a model / assembly in PDM, but it doesn't seem like this is possible. I might be able to convince our PDMWorks administrator to let me have references within the harness assembly itself, but I can't even seem to break references to the top level assembly without screwing everything up.

Any ideas?

 

[drawoh]

G2daG,

You must break external references of fabricated parts. Otherwise, the dimensions on the drawings will be controlled by randomly varying geometry. This can be a disaster, especially if the part is used on more than one assembly.

This is not a problem for routing cables. You need a PDM policy for cable routing. I figure you can have parametric cable routing if the cable is installed in one assembly only.

Investigate flexible sub-assemblies. This will take some fiddling around, but it might work for you.

JHG

 

[G2daG]

Hi drawoh,

I tried making the assembly flexible, which sounded like a good idea, but it doesn't behave as I would expect. It does allow me to place connectors where I want them, but the wire route doesn't update to where it needs to be. There is a stoplight next to the route in the feature tree, but when I rebuild or even close and open the top assembly it still won't update...

I think I'll just edit in context, but then delete all external mates before I check the assembly into PDM. If there's a better way I'd love to know.

 

[EEnd]

At least in SW2009, there is an option to toggle the creation of external references on and off. What happens if you try to create the routes with it off?

Additionally you can lock external references. What happens to the routes if you lock, or even break the external references after it has been created?

Eric