Hi Guys,

I'm interested in your advice, or thoughts on this problem I'm facing.

I'm creating a fairly large assembly and I often have the choice of inserting a part two or three times or creating a linear pattern. I always choose to insert the same part more often and mating them with "distance". This because I feel it makes my assembly more organized, I can put the parts in different folders (too bad I can't make sub-folders though) and if somebody else would have to work with this assembly in the future it would be a lot easier to understand how it's organized. Linear patterns always show up below the mates in the feature manager and I can't reorganize it or put it in a folder (eg. "Structural Members").

Now I'm creating this assembly and I have a part which is patterned 27 times. Should I stick to my rule of inserting 27 parts and mating them (creating many many mates) or creating 1 big pattern.

What are the pros and cons to each method? Also in terms of file size and load on the video card or would there be no difference?

Thank you for your thoughts!

Robert