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Complex Part Assembly Modeling Techniques

Question asked by Justin Fuller on Jul 11, 2016
Latest reply on Jul 19, 2016 by Justin Fuller

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Most all of my modeling career has consisted of making really complex shapes using sheetmetal. Not until the past 6 months or so have I been really trying to make my modeling practices much more efficient using layout sketches and in-context relations.

I would like to post an example of one of my latest assemblies for some of you guys to pick through. One thing I do know is that there are almost always multiple ways of accomplishing the same end product in this software, so I would like to show you the techniques I have adapted and maybe someone out there will have a different solution. What I have done is created a 3D sketch to layout the basic shape, and used the geometry produced by it to drive the dimensions of various parts. Its not totally dialed in, but enough to get the basic idea across.

Thoughts?

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ShellLayout.SLDASM.zip785.3 KB

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Romel Cumare Jul 19, 2016 10:26 AM

Hi Justin,

Many approaches come into mind but another good one would be to create a part of the "final shape" which should not be difficult to do, then split it into separate solids. Finally, use the convert to sheet metal tool on the different solids. You could even do this as a single part file to not over complicate things

Regards,

Romel

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John Stoltzfus Jul 19, 2016 10:54 AM

Good stuff - Justin

Everyone goes to their own comfort level - What I try to accomplish is a parametric assembly where you can delete any part within the feature tree and have no errors except a few mating errors. Over the years I have had so many issues with incontext part to part modeling that I won't do it any more.

Delete the Pass Wing and see what happens, your end caps will have sketch errors.

Suggestion - tie all your part sketches to another sketch part, or when you create a new part you can insert the sketch part right into the part file.

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Justin Fuller @ John Stoltzfus on Jul 19, 2016 2:53 PM

Your right. I would have liked to have just dropped those sketches into the main layout sketch to keep my tree a bit more clutter free, but for some reason I have been getting a serious lag when in the 3D sketch tool. Particularly when turning on the smart dimension tool it will take almost 10 seconds to activate! The program seems to run solid any other time, even in large assemblies.

I just started toying with the solid modeling approach last week and it certainly has its perks. There is a lot less work in defining each individual flange, but I'm still dialing in my techniques.

Any time I can get solidworks to do more of the work for me I'm all in. The in context method is much more efficient in the development stage, allowing all components effected in a change to auto update...but I do feel a bit uneasy leaving all of the parts in that state. I used to have a world of trouble with chasing down references that were built in context, but now that I have a better understanding of the program I may just leave it and see how it works out later on down the road.

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Mark McMullen @ John Stoltzfus on Jul 19, 2016 1:31 PM

X2, John for the same reasons.

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Romel Cumare Jul 19, 2016 10:26 AM
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Hi Justin,

Many approaches come into mind but another good one would be to create a part of the "final shape" which should not be difficult to do, then split it into separate solids. Finally, use the convert to sheet metal tool on the different solids. You could even do this as a single part file to not over complicate things

Regards,

Romel
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John Stoltzfus Jul 19, 2016 10:54 AM
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Good stuff - Justin

Everyone goes to their own comfort level - What I try to accomplish is a parametric assembly where you can delete any part within the feature tree and have no errors except a few mating errors. Over the years I have had so many issues with incontext part to part modeling that I won't do it any more.

Delete the Pass Wing and see what happens, your end caps will have sketch errors.

Suggestion - tie all your part sketches to another sketch part, or when you create a new part you can insert the sketch part right into the part file.
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- Justin Fuller @ John Stoltzfus on Jul 19, 2016 2:53 PM
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  Your right. I would have liked to have just dropped those sketches into the main layout sketch to keep my tree a bit more clutter free, but for some reason I have been getting a serious lag when in the 3D sketch tool. Particularly when turning on the smart dimension tool it will take almost 10 seconds to activate! The program seems to run solid any other time, even in large assemblies.
  
  I just started toying with the solid modeling approach last week and it certainly has its perks. There is a lot less work in defining each individual flange, but I'm still dialing in my techniques.
  
  Any time I can get solidworks to do more of the work for me I'm all in. The in context method is much more efficient in the development stage, allowing all components effected in a change to auto update...but I do feel a bit uneasy leaving all of the parts in that state. I used to have a world of trouble with chasing down references that were built in context, but now that I have a better understanding of the program I may just leave it and see how it works out later on down the road.
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- Mark McMullen @ John Stoltzfus on Jul 19, 2016 1:31 PM
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  X2, John for the same reasons.
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Complex Part Assembly Modeling Techniques

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