Assembly Modelling File Management

Brian Marr

I am looking for some help/advice on managing the File Hierarchy when using assembly modelling in Bricscad. In the early days of Cad we were admonished to draw once and copy/paste ad-infinitum. This seemed to work well for 2d. Not sure if this applies to a Bricscad assembly. Is it better to keep all of your files together in a Folder for a mechanical assembly, and simply copy parts out of there for creating a new model or machine ? Naturally this will keep files together in one place but result in multiple copies of a part. If on the other hand we stay with one design file and import this into multiple projects we have fragmentation of files - they are coming from elsewhere on you cad system. You cannot look up a particular Folder containing an assembly and hope to find all parts.

I remember a time when I made changes to a part in Inventor only to find that those changes filtered through to some assembly drawings that were unintended. The part was used in many other assembly drawings that were not clear at the time.

What works for you?

Scott McKenzie

I think duplication of parts is worse than a broken hierarchy, I have a common parts folder, off the shelf and custom components live in there and are referenced by multiple models.  Anything unique lives in the same folder as the main model.  If I need to reuse a part that was initially designed for on project on another I make a copy of it in the parts folder and use it from there.  If a common custom part needs to change, I copy that part and make a new part from the copy in the common parts folder so that old parts don't end up changing and making a mess of old drawings.  The mechanical browser makes it really easy to see all of the parts that a specific model references, and if you ever do need to send your model out (or make a backup before a major revision) use etransmit.  That being said, etransmit will show you a list of all drawings/references

Brian Marr

@Scott McKenzie:

I think duplication of parts is worse than a broken hierarchy, I have a common parts folder, off the shelf and custom components live in there and are referenced by multiple models.  Anything unique lives in the same folder as the main model.  If I need to reuse a part that was initially designed for on project on another I make a copy of it in the parts folder and use it from there.  If a common custom part needs to change, I copy that part and make a new part from the copy in the common parts folder so that old parts don't end up changing and making a mess of old drawings.  The mechanical browser makes it really easy to see all of the parts that a specific model references, and if you ever do need to send your model out (or make a backup before a major revision) use etransmit.  That being said, etransmit will show you a list of all drawings/references

Thanks Chris, your post has clarified things for me. In short - copying in some cases, along with dedicated parts common to a number of drawings that largely stay the same. Managing files in Assembly Modelling is a big issue. You generate so many - each small part can be a separate file and different designs and different versions come into play. I tend to keep everything. In the past I have lost files or data, so you tend to er on the safe side. Keep it just in case. Naturally this results in large numbers of files hanging around. I guess a part may start off as unique and live in the folder with the main model - but this may change. It may get copied and re-used. Some discipline is required to keep track of parts and maintain the integrity of your system. I want to take this up with a client.