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DESIGN TABLE HELP??????????

Question asked by Scott Werner on Jan 13, 2012
Latest reply on Jan 23, 2012 by John Stoltzfus

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I am trying to create a design table for a failry large assembly. I have tried to look at the online solidworks help and can not get it to work for me. Is it possibly for a large assembly or not. I was able to get it to work for a single part as well as a small assembly of a few peices but is there an easy way or is it possibly for a very large assembly. If it is could I get some detailed step by step instructions on how to work my way through it that would be great??

Also I founf Drive Works Express in solidworks and reserched that a bit and found that you can do that same thing basically and it will cahnge the whole assembly with the click of a buttom basically. But once again I tried that with my assembly and it did not work again. Is this a better way if possibly and if so I would need some step by step detailed instructions to get me through this.

I am not very experienced in solidworks and I am trying to figure this out for work and am having some trouble.

Thanks!!

Rajat Jain Jan 17, 2012 12:24 AM

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Scott,

You can also checkout Auto-Configure addin (www.auto-configure.com) for SolidWorks. This addin allows you to create external design tables (in Excel File) for all your assemblies and referenced components. This shall definitely reduce your effort and make it simpler.

Please feel free to mail me at info@auto-configure.com for any help.

Rajat Jain

John: Thanks for referring to auto-configure.

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John Stoltzfus Jan 16, 2012 6:30 AM
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Good morning Scott,

Welcome to the forum,

My experience has been that Design Tables are for parts and Configurations are for Assemblies. There are probably other guys/girls that have better knowledge in using Design Tables for assemblies.

You mention a large assembly, how many components?

Later,

John
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Ray Luck Jan 16, 2012 7:05 AM
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Hi Scott,

You can use a design table for an assembly of any size and complexity. Search for 'Maurico Martinez-Saez' in these forums. He has posted some very useful sample files and will point you in the right direction. I would start with using Maurico's examples and learn how the tables drive the assemblies and the required geometry. Once this has been mastered, apply these techniques to your field, again starting small and work your way up. Unfortunately, there is no real step by step guide to this kind of thing but the last release of solidworks has made this style of modeling a bit easier.

Cheers,

Ray.
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Alan Stoldt Jan 16, 2012 8:27 AM
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As Ray suggested, search for any of the post by Maurico, they are helpful and explain a lot.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish in this large assembly?

Simply 'toggle" part configurations? Show/Hide certain parts for different circumstances? Drive part sizes from the assembly level? A mix of everything above?

For Design tables on the part and assembly level, you can create a second configuartion and manually change the items you'd like the design table to control. Then you can auto generate the design table and it should include all of these difference. Then the design Table can be edited to add more configuarations.

As you have no doubt noticed the included help file isn't very, um, helpful.

At the TLA I usually use a combination of Design Table, Equations and Layout Sketches ( all learned from reading Maurico's posts) and trial and error (mostly error) on my part.

Hope this helps.

regardss,

Alan

Search link for Maurico:

https://forum.solidworks.com/search.jspa?peopleEnabled=true&userID=&containerType=&container=&spotlight=true&q=Maurico+Martinez-Saez
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Scott Werner Jan 16, 2012 9:22 AM
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I will have to take a look at the Maurico post you are saying and see if that helps at all. Basically what I want to do is I have an enclosyre made out of angle iron frame and I have it drawn in solidworks. But it could need to be made for mutiple sizes so instead of redrawing it every time for these new sizes I was told about the design table feature. It has alot pf individually partts probobly over 50 but im not sure on the exact number without going back and counting. But mostly the only values that would be getting changed are height, width and possibly size of the angle iron in differnt applications. But if you are saying that you have to make a configuration with a design table for each part of the assembly and somehow tie that inbto one design table that seems like alot of work for 50 something or more parts. You could just save as everypart and build it from scratch quicker no?? But basically that is what I am trying to do and I will take a look at the Maurico post and see if that helps at all..
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John Stoltzfus @ Scott Werner on Jan 16, 2012 9:27 AM
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Good morning Scott,

Could you up load a simple sketch representing the frame, you don't need to put dimensions to the picture.

Each Assembly consists of how many components?

Sounds like a perfect SW design table application.

Later,

John
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Scott Werner Jan 16, 2012 9:48 AM
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I didnt see a spot to upload the file so I just took a screen shot. The way I drew it was each pannel was a different assembly. And then I took all those assembly to make one large assembly that you see here which is the final assembly. But it you have to do a design table for each individual part if I starting to understand this corectly that is 50 something parts here??
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Scott Werner Jan 16, 2012 10:15 AM
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Is there a video on youtube or something that kinda shows how to do anything cause I looked at those Maurcio post that were mentioned above and I see what he did but it still doesnt explain how to do that. Some type of video whre you can see it being done would be awsome??
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John Stoltzfus @ Scott Werner on Jan 16, 2012 10:18 AM
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Good morning Scott,

Bare with me but I got one more question,

How many different Main Assemblies do expect to have?

Later,

John
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Scott Werner @ John Stoltzfus on Jan 16, 2012 10:30 AM
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That picture right there is the final assembly but it consistes of many sub assemblies and 50 or so differnt parts.
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Jeremiah Feist @ Scott Werner on Jan 16, 2012 10:34 AM
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you need to use the "advanced editor" to attach files (upper right of the repy dialogue).

for your original question, an assembly design table can control any size assembly, but it only controls the assembly. i.e. what parts are suppressed, what mates are supresssed, what configs of parts are used, assembly level features, etc. it cannot (directly ) control features of parts.

so, in the simplest case, you would only need configs in the parts that you will need multiple version of (not ALL of the parts). but this only works if you know all of the different sizes you want beforehand.

if you add in some in-context (sometimes called top-down) modeling, you can get arround the part configs, and (indirectly) have the assy design table drive the parts. this is the way Maurico Martinez-Saez does it.

given your image of the assembly, I would also look into using weldments - even if thos pieces get bolted together.

dirveworks should also work for you, but you really should not mix driveworks with design tables.

talk with your VAR about the specifics of your needs/desires - we will not be able to give you a step-by-step without more detail than you should post to a forum like this.

good luck - design automation is a lot of work to set up, but it does pay out big
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John Stoltzfus @ Scott Werner on Jan 16, 2012 10:36 AM
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Good morning Scott,

What your saying is you have one assembly, which is the one you uploaded the picture.

The only time I would consider design tables is if I have the potential of 5 - 10 or more Main Assemblies.

The other reason to do design tables for parts is if you have a lot of different components that are similar except a few dimensions.

Later,

John
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Scott Werner @ John Stoltzfus on Jan 16, 2012 10:42 AM
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You mean 5-10 modifications to what I have or you mean 5-10 assemblies making up one main assembly. I dont know exactly how many modification that I would need. My boss just told me to figure out how to set up a design table for the assembly I attached so that you can change the whole assemblilies length width etc. That is basically what I am trying to figure out if it is possibly and then how to go about figureing it out??
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John Stoltzfus @ Scott Werner on Jan 16, 2012 10:43 AM
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Good morning Scott,

I am working on a AMEC Pulley library and below is a snap shot of the part design table,

If your needing Design tables for parts, it would look similar to my picture and the Assembly Design table that Jeremy is referring to would look similar except you would have the components listed and then you would suppress or un-suppress what you need or don't need.

Later,

John
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John Stoltzfus @ Scott Werner on Jan 18, 2012 9:32 AM
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Good morning Scott,

The way "I" do it here, (other guys would possibly approach it differently), is based on the attached PDF, which is a presentation I am planning to present to our local user group in Feb,

Later,

John
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- Skeleton Sketch Presentation.pdf3.1 MB
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Scott Werner @ Jeremiah Feist on Jan 16, 2012 10:48 AM
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So are you saying that in order to set up a design table for what I need you need to know all the new sizes that it is going to be??

Also I did hear about the drive works express in solidworks and that almost sounds like that could do what I am looking for. Would that be better for this application that I can just change the length and width with ease?? If that is what that can do idk??
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Scott Werner @ John Stoltzfus on Jan 16, 2012 10:57 AM
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The pdf you attached only looks like it shows how to do a sketch??. I see the deign table that you posted is that for a whole assembly. And if it is how to you set that up for each of the parts in the assembly??. Somebody else in the post said that in order to make a design table you need to know that values of the new assembly. You cant just set up that table so that you can put in values at a latter date which I think is what my boss is looking for....
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John Stoltzfus @ Scott Werner on Jan 16, 2012 11:18 AM
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Good morning Scott,

The design table is for a part file and the $PRP info is directly from the part sketch name or a user defined custom property that goes with the drawing.

The pdf only outlines how I approach an assembly similar to the one used as an example. I would still suggest to you to use a Skeleton Part to begin your overall design intent.

It is a little difficult to layout exactly what you need without getting into it in detail etc..

The only thing is it takes time and money to automate and your company needs to weigh more automation or less automation, you may want to check into this; http://www.auto-configure.com/

My e-mail and contact info is in the pdf and I wouldn't have any issue if you contact me that way and if I can answers some simple question great, if not, you can always throw it back up here or contact your SolidWorks reseller (VAR),

Later,

John
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Alan Stoldt @ Scott Werner on Jan 16, 2012 11:22 AM
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Scott,

At the link I will post below, I had previously posted a simple frame (Part file) that is driven by a design table. Perhaps this would be of help to you as well.

https://forum.solidworks.com/message/262960#262960
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Scott Werner @ Alan Stoldt on Jan 16, 2012 11:54 AM
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Alan, Yes that is essentialy what I want to do except you have it drawn as one complete part and mine is many parts and sub assemblies inside one main assembly which I am not sure how to do. That is what I want but I dont know if its possibly on a whole assembly like I have?
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Alan Stoldt @ Scott Werner on Jan 16, 2012 1:48 PM
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Scott,

Yes, it is possible, but you will spend time on the front end setting things up.

You will want to study the Layout Sketch coupled with design tables.

I may have posted a drills huttle example previouslly. I will post a link if I can find it, if not it will likely take until tomorrow for me to prepare the example for posting. (Same basic prinicple with a different system.)

Each part that changes sizes will have certain dimensions that are controlled from the TLA (Top Level Assembly), typically by an Assembly Design Table that controls a sketch that you link dimensions to between the parts and the TLA.

Ok, so I will have to upload an example tomorrow.

Edit:

Added simplified shuttle assembly. Check Equartions, Design Table and Configurations.

In the DT there are rows that are hidden.

This is an older example and not the final product. Some items have beenremoved to protect the guilty.

Hope this helps a bit.

Message was edited by: Alan Stoldt
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- Drill_Shuttle.zip2.7 MB
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Jeremiah Feist @ Scott Werner on Jan 16, 2012 12:05 PM
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as I said above:

"if you add in some in-context (sometimes called top-down) modeling, you can get arround the part configs, and (indirectly) have the assy design table drive the parts. this is the way Maurico Martinez-Saez does it."

use Maurico's methods or Driveworks - either should get you what it sounds like you are asking for. but do not mix them. either will take a significant investment to learn and set up.

also, I still think you need to look at re-modeling this with weld-ments.
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Scott Werner Jan 16, 2012 2:23 PM
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Okay so what I plan to do then is to look into Drive Works Express and see if that will work for assembly. Than way I can change basic things like length width etc of the entire assembly. If I cannot get that to function properly then I am going to have to make a seperate configuration for each part and make a new assembly based on those configurations. If I can still not get that to function properly then I am just going to modify each part as needed and create a new assembly from those parts..
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Rajat Jain @ Scott Werner on Jan 17, 2012 12:24 AM
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Scott,

You can also checkout Auto-Configure addin (www.auto-configure.com) for SolidWorks. This addin allows you to create external design tables (in Excel File) for all your assemblies and referenced components. This shall definitely reduce your effort and make it simpler.

Please feel free to mail me at info@auto-configure.com for any help.

Rajat Jain

John: Thanks for referring to auto-configure.
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Scott Werner Jan 19, 2012 4:40 PM
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Okay so I am trying to do this with eather Drive Works Express or Auto-Configure cause they seem to be the only two ways to do this with any ease...

I am playing around with Drive Works Express right now and if you look at the whole assembly I posted a pic earlyer in the forum post here I took one of the sub assemblies in there just so it was less parts to see if I could get it to work.

I was able to get drive works to modify the dimmentions of parts land they all changes fine. Cause those dimmentions are selected by clicking on the part and getting the dimmention that way. HOw do you go about internal dimmentions from when you made the assembly like spacing between parts that were set when the assembly was made. Also the distance between like holes and the size of the holes. Is that able to change at all or is it just lengths of parts that can be changes with Drive Works????
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Scott Werner @ Scott Werner on Jan 20, 2012 12:25 PM
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Okay so I am going to be using Auto-Configue to do what I need. It seems to be the easiest way to go about this and get what I need.
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DESIGN TABLE HELP??????????

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