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CHCharles Hilton05/10/2011

What is an efficient way to create process drawings for a part?

I am a manufacturing engineer at a 5-Axis CNC machine shop.

Problem:

A turned (revolved) part is split into halves, using the top plane. The two havles are saved into seperate .SLDPRT files, and features unique to each halve are added them. The two halves are then used in an assembly, with the intention of using that assembly to create a final machining drawing, so as to detail each halve.

My own method for creating final drawings and in-process drawings, involves using "Model Dimensions", so that I can bring in dimensions from the model to make sure that all the required dimensions to make the part are in place. Within a part file, I dimension and tolerance everything within the sketches and features, making sure that each sketch is fully defined.

When I try to create a final drawing, or an in-process lathe drawing of the part using the aforemention assembly, the problem I encounter is that dimensions in the orignal part file (the one used to create the two halves) don't come in, because only the solid bodies, not the dimensions and features, are brought into the two part files generated by the split feautre for the halves. To prevent myself from having to dimension the whole thing over again and having to updated multiple instances of the same dimensions relating to the same feature in the event of a design change, how would I bring in dimensions existing in parent files?

The enclosed ZIP file contains an example of my current situation.

PN001.sldprt is used to generate the files PN001A.sldprt and PN001B.sldprt, which are then used in the assembly, PN001.sldasm. PN001.sldasm shows the parts at their final state.