Using Excel Based Configurations In Assembly?

[trekfan]

I have a interesting problem before me. I cuurently use SW 2007, and Sigma Nest. Sigma Nest will pull in a assembly from SW , flatten the parts, and nest them for our laser. sigma Nest will look at an assembly and automatically generate the flat patterns in SW, import the correct number of parts etc. If integrates very well with the shhet metal work I do.

I have a customer that has sent me a spreadsheet of some parts he want me to nest and cut on my laser. The spreadsheet has all the length and width dimensions as well as the quantity required. It is easy enough for me to format the spreadsheet using the length and width columns to make configurations. The next step is to create a assembly to pull ALL the configurations into a assembly with the correct number required (I understand it will be a massive assembly). Sigma Nest doesn't care if anything is mated just as long as it is in the assembly it will pick it up. I have several spreadsheets with approx 1400 items per spreadsheet.

As I said I can easily make a design table for all the configurations, but getting a massive assembly with all configurations and quantities is my current hurdle.

I apologize if this has been answered before, I did skim the forums , and did not see anything.

Thanks,
Rob

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Are the parts literally a rectangle consisting of a width and length? If so, can Sigma Nest simnply read in the Excel file?

If not, would you absolutely have[/b] to create one massive assy? Could you not separate the parts into more manageable assys?

Once the configs have been created, macro's exist which save them as separate parts. Once the separate parts ave been created they can be dragged en masse into an assy.

Save Config macros;

http://www.cadimensions.com/zip/SaveConfigurations.zip

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Here's another one;

http://www.moderntechmech.com/support/mdl/Config Ripper.zip

 

[trekfan]

Those are awesome little macros, and they work like a charm. Thank you very much for those. My problem has been solved, kudos to you

 

[trekfan]

Actually, I apologize I posted that last comment prematurely. There is one step I am missing. In the spreadsheet it also denotes the quantity of each line item to be brought into the assembly. I have now taken this spreadsheet created configs, and am able to import them all into a seembly , thanks to the macros above, but is it possible to have a macro refernce a spreadsheet, link to a config name, and then link to a quantity? If i were dealing with 20 line it would be no problem, but there are over 1400 lines on the first sheet alone, with about 6 total sheets (maybe more).

Also in answer to your question, they are not all simple rectangles most are irregular shapes with only a couple of dimensions changing or flange lengths can vary.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

A more elegant solution may exist, but as a workaround; create separate spreadsheets for the different quantities of parts. (one spreadsheet for QTY 1, another for QTY 2, etc) The above procedure can then be repeated per the QTY required.

Can Sigma Nest read the excel file directly?

Can Sigma Nest read a SW parts custom property? A QTY property could be applied if it can.

 

[handleman]

What kind of quantities do you have? Are you looking at 1, 2, 3 or so each, or do you have large quantities? If you have only a few of each it might be easier to do an Excel macro to copy the rows with multiple quantity an appropriate number of times. However, that will increase your number of part files. If you have high quantities it may be too resource-intensive to do that way.

 

[trekfan]

Quantities vary from 1 up to 340. The number of parts is well in the thousands. This is something that does happen often, and if I could find semi automated way, I could start and let it just run through the night.

 

[handleman]

Here is an Excel macro that will create a copy of any row of the Excel sheet that has a number greater than 1 in the QTYCOL column. You will want to change the constants STARTROW and QTYCOL to the first row of part data and the column containing the quantity. When the macro finishes you'll have to put a unique name in the first column in order to use the file as a design table. And don't run the macro twice on the same sheet!

Sub RowCopy()

Const QTYCOL As Integer = 2
Const STARTROW As Integer = 2


Dim CurRow As Long
Dim EmptyRow As Long
Dim LastRow As Long

EmptyRow = STARTROW
While Cells(EmptyRow, QTYCOL).Value <> ""
    EmptyRow = EmptyRow + 1
Wend
LastRow = EmptyRow - 1


For CurRow = STARTROW To LastRow
    If Cells(CurRow, QTYCOL).Value > 1 Then
        Rows(CurRow & ":" & CurRow).Copy
        Rows(EmptyRow & ":" & EmptyRow + (Cells(CurRow, QTYCOL).Value - 2)).Select
        ActiveSheet.Paste
        EmptyRow = EmptyRow + (Cells(CurRow, QTYCOL).Value - 1)
    End If
Next
End Sub

 

[trekfan]

First I would like to again thank the people who helped with this post. Those macros are awesome and work very well.

Again I have to ask for help though. I have used the above macros to create thousands of part files. Now I have been tasked with creating flat pattern dxf's of all those part files to be imported into a plasma machine. The parts all have flanges on them so I would need to flatten the part, then do a 1:1 dxf of it. If I only had a few to do, it would be no problem to just do them, but at last count I am at 2,800+ parts.