3D "Parts" vs Blocks
Although I have done very few ACAD 3D exercises in the past, I'm new to 3D in Bricacad.
All my drawing has been in 2D. I upgraded to Pro on Friday & started some tutorials.
Looking at "Parts" and Assemblies offered in Platinum they look like blocks to me.
We have the Parts in Pro but not Assemblies and BOM.
I'm attempting to draw raised steel walkways (catwalks) with raceways as well.
There will be lot's of welded parts & railings as this will be a "Shop Drawing".
I'm starting to think that Assemblies and Bill Of Material offered in Platinum is the way to go.
Is there a big advantage for Assemblies over blocks?
Comments
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Hi Charles,
Torn between posting here and in the newbie thread which is following a similar theme now. My direction of travel is in the world of product design/manufacture where parts and constrained assemblies in Creo and Soldiworks are normal. I have come to Bricsad with no usage of Autocad previously so blocks are fairly new to me.
I my mind parts represent real world individually identifiable objects from which products are assembled. Again my experience each part will exist as an inventory item somewhere in manufacturing or its supply chain. The CAD design workflow I follow has the objective of producing the information (specification) manufacturing use the make / buy individual parts or assemblies. Therefore parts, assemblies and BoMs in mechanical fit the world I am used too. With the usage of CAD parts being pretty close to the usage of physical parts in manufacturing
As I say I am new to Bricscad and still learning, but I see blocks as a productivity aid for repeating and reusing features in the CAD workflow, rather than the reuse of pre-existing physical parts. Although I see on the other thread its seems common to use them to represent components within an assembly. I guess different industries have different practices.
As for advantages as I said over in the other thread I tend to use constraints to simulate the intended assembly operation to get some confidence it all can go together as expected. As was discussed they can be unforgiving to apply where you know tolerances will allow for not aligning to the n'th degree of precision. But, V17 is sufficient for my needs at the moment and mechanical fits my design workflow. I have never explored using blocks in this way so don't even know if it possible to achieve the same, if it is its probably horses of courses which you use.
No right or wrong whatever get the job done efficiently to the satisfaction of the end user of your output, is golden.
AK
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In v14, you could not apply constraints to blocks. I am curious if v17 is able to do this. Please someone test it and report back.
Though, the functionality and ease of use of SolidWorks and Inventor is certainly much greater for 3D work, SolidWorks has now allowed the marketing department to take over the company, and thus they have decided to follow in AutoDesk's footsteps in turning against their users. Staying with a better company, like Bricsys, will pay dividends beyond just the lower cost of ownership.
-Joe
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- No 2D blocks:
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_gccoincident
Select first point or [Entity/Autoconstrain] :
Select an entity:
Invalid input. Please select a line/circle/arc/ellipse/polyline.
Select an entity:
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In testing, I can constrain 2 lines but the 3D constraints do not appear to be working even with solids.
I'm using a Trial Key for 30 days but 3D Constraints may not be working at all.
Let me check with the BricsCAD people about that.0 -
@Joe Dunfee said:
Staying with a better company, like Bricsys, will pay dividends beyond just the lower cost of ownership.
-JoeThat's why I'm on Bricscad, even if I have to learn some new tricks to get the most out of it. Spent to much time working with big name vendors with eye watering licensing / support /consultancy charges who act like they are doing you a favour just by turning up.
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Joe,
You can apply 3D constraints to blocks. I was not using the selection method required, i.e. hold down CTRL to make the selection.
The command sees the 3D objects in the block.0 -
Also found out my SELECTIONMODES was set to 0 and needed to be set to 3.
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