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How do you change the origin of an assembly after the assembly is completed?

Question asked by Kristi Stevens on Dec 3, 2019
Latest reply on Dec 4, 2019 by Dan Pihlaja

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Hello, everyone!

I'm in the difficult position of being the new guy in the office and have been tasked with making new assemblies and models based on existing assemblies and models. It's a mess, as it's clear there is a lot of legacy data that was either imported from elsewhere, or created by an untrained CAD operator. As a result, I find myself often wanting to change the origin in an assembly or sub-assembly. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

YouTube is not helping....

As you can see in the attached, whomever made this one didn't use the origin at all. (that little blue dot is the origin)

Thank you for your time and assistance!

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SWx Origin.png174.9 KB

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Solid Air Dec 3, 2019 3:51 PM
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If the assembly was made correctly, all the parts should be mated to each other. You should be able to float the first part and move it to where you want. If the assembly was not created this way, then each part will need to be moved (then I would recommend mating the parts to each other.
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Glenn Schroeder Dec 3, 2019 4:02 PM
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Assuming the first component is still fixed, and all the others mated to it, then you should be able to just float it and mate it to the three primary assembly planes to get it where you want it. The other components should move with it.
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John Matrishon Dec 3, 2019 4:11 PM
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can you show us the feature tree?
JM
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Matt Juric Dec 3, 2019 4:23 PM
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Are you SURE they didn't use the origin? Lots of people mate planes of parts to the origin and often time the ending result is that the origin of the assembly is not on a part at all.

Also, many times, the origin of an assembly is really a point in some other assembly so that you can just plop all the sub assemblies into the main assembly by their planes.

To answer your question if nothing is mated to the origin or a part is not fixed you would be able to grab a part and move it around. You would also not have any mates that looked like "X" they would all look like "O"
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Frederick Law Dec 3, 2019 4:34 PM
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As long as the origin is not a km away, its good.
I design fixtures from customer part.
So I don't even know which way is up and don't care.
We use vertical and horizontal mill.
We weld the part which ever way easier for us, not which way is "up".
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- Matt Juric @ Frederick Law on Dec 3, 2019 4:44 PM
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  Frederick Law wrote:
  
  As long as the origin is not a km away, its good.
  
  It was common in automotive that all the parts where located and dimensioned from a point in the vehicle. So you'd get a print for a trunk latch and two holes 25mm apart would be dimensioned 2100mm and 2125mm. They would also have all their inspection fixtures with a three tooling balls that would be 2100,1000,500 or some nominal "In car position". You could then inspect the part that was fixtured on that fixture by picking up the tooling balls and translating your origin on the CMM to 0,0,0 car position. The dimensions on the print then matched the numbers from the CMM or layout table back in the way back days.
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  - Frederick Law @ Matt Juric on Dec 3, 2019 4:52 PM
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    Yes, Master Sketch or SSP.
    Ever part use same origin.
    Don't really care where it is.
    
    Just notice the fixture I'm working on is "up side down".
    I'll need to hang the welder
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Frederick Law Dec 3, 2019 4:36 PM
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Select everything, create new sub assembly.
Move it, dissolve assembly.
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Tom Gagnon Dec 3, 2019 4:57 PM
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Providing options and alternatives..
You can also create a reference geometry called a Coordinate System, which can be referenced as a new "Origin" without moving the rest. This does not then create new Front, Right, and Top Planes, but you can create those upon it with new reference geometry planes.

Personally, though, (as Solid Air and Glenn have suggested) I'd Float some components which are Fixed, to which others are mated. Your design, using weldments, likely has Fixed Virtual Components for those parts. It is usually a bad idea to float weldment components. This depends greatly on how it is defined and related.
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Anna Wood Dec 3, 2019 5:01 PM
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I would ask... Do you really need to re-orient the assembly? Yeah, it is a pain and may drive one crazy, but is it really worth the effort?

FWIW....
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John Stoltzfus Dec 4, 2019 6:36 AM
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Kristi Stevens

Here is a read for you

Zero, Zero, Zero - 0,0,0
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Wojciech Paterski Dec 4, 2019 8:20 AM
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Is it maybe that the origin is in parts 'centre of gravity' point?
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Roland Schwarz Dec 4, 2019 8:41 AM
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There's more work ahead. Why do the work that's behind?
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Dan Pihlaja Dec 4, 2019 8:47 AM
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Be careful. First make sure that this sub assembly isn't made so that it can just be dropped into an assembly above it and fixed into place.

In other words, make sure that it wasn't designed "in position" for the assembly above it.
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How do you change the origin of an assembly after the assembly is completed?

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