Assembly Features, Frames and Parts Lists
Hello:
I am quite new to the BricsCAD Mech. tool set following a hiatus of about 5 years, in this time have been using another software package. I have a few questions in regards to the use of the BCMech tools.
Is it possible to apply features to an assembly? Let's say you have welded up a bunch of plates and parts (machined bushings, or cast steel items), or frame elements. Once welding is completed on the assembly the fabricator is to make some cuts or drill some holes through the various parts to mount a pump or an engine. How would one represent these cuts and holes in the assembly? I do not want these holes to show up on the individual parts comprising the assembly as these holes and cuts need to be in a precise location relative to each other. As an item is welded together warping will cause the holes to move out of alignment if the holes are drilled / cut into the parts prior to welding of the assembly. The plates and parts making up the assembly would need be exported to .DXF so that the steel supplier can burn the plates or the casting company can make the blanks, they need a part number of some sort associated with them so that when a truck load of parts arrive at the shop we can keep them all organized and correlate them with a bill of materials. What are others doing in similar situations?
For the frames if one is to take a piece of W section it must be dissolved before holes and cuts can be added and then reformed into a part again - how do you retain the length and other information relevant to the W section between dissolving and reforming the part? The goal here is for this part to have its parts lists show the W section's raw initial length, size and other pertinent parameters so that we can order this from the supplier.
Thank you!
Scott
Comments
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As an update I have come up with the following solution if it helps anyone in the absence of assembly features:
- Insert a standard part representing the stock steel that you are intending to modify - for instance a AISI W8x31.
- Copy the block and explode it to create a 3D solid. Take the new 3D solid and completely constrain it to the block, place the block onto a construction layer.
- Set the solid via its properties to be excluded from the BOM, where as the block representing the W8x31 should be included in the BOM.
- Changing the parameters of the original W8x31 to say a W12x16 will update the solid and update the BOM, Now assembly features such as holes, cuts, fillets, etc. are added to the 3D solid.
- The 3D solid will be used in the generated drawing views while the block of the steel shape is excluded when creating views (turn layer off when selecting entities for the view).
0 - Insert a standard part representing the stock steel that you are intending to modify - for instance a AISI W8x31.
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Thanks for the update, not an ideal situation but hey if it works..
How about the assembly feature problem, did you get anywhere with that?0 -
I also would like to know the answer on assembly features, I have created two parts and assemble them together, now I need to drill holes cut through two of them. I followed the cue of BMLINK command, but I couldn't do it successfully, anybody can shed a light?0