Sean Dalton

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Solid Edge Assembly

• Sean Dalton
• www.itsligo.ie/staff/sdalton

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Assembly Topics

• Housekeeping
• Placing parts
• Assembly relationships
• Path Finder
• Assembly part properties
• Creating a part in place
• Part Display
• Explode Environment

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Assembly
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Warning on House keeping

• All parts, assemblies and draftsassociated with
  a given assembly should be kept in the same
  directory or folder.
• Do not attempt to move or rename parts after they
  have been placed in an assembly.
• An assembly file does not contain the actual
  parts themselves. It is simply a set of links to
  parts/locations and a definition of how they go
  together.

The advantage of this is that if an individual
part is modified, the changes are automatically
reflected in the assembly.
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Warning on House keeping

• Everytime an assembly is opened in Solid Edge.
  Solid Edge reads the assembly information,
  gathers together all the parts and reassemblies
  them.
• If a part is renamed or moved solid edge will not
  be able to find it and it will dissappear from
  you assembly.
• The information defining the locations of the
  files are contained in the assembly links (next
  slide)

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Assembly Links

• To check the locations from which files have been
  assembled check the file links under Edit Links

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The Edge bar

• The edge bar serves a number of usefull purposes
  and can be activated by selecting the edgebar
  icon on the main toolbar. Two uses are
• To Display Existing parts within an assembly
• To display the available the construct an
  assembly i.e. the parts library.

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Assembly Pathfinder

• The assembly path finder shows parts and
  subassemblies already contained within an
  assembly
• The lower section shows the assembly
  relationships for the selected part.

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Parts library

• The parts library displays parts available for
  assembly in a specified directory.
• The lower part displays a preview of the selected
  part.
• Assemblies can be created by
• Assembling existing parts
• By creating a part in place

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Placing parts
Place part tool

• Create in place
• Place from file

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Create in place
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Place from file

• To Create in place
• Activate edge bar
• Select parts Library tab
• Select folder containing parts required.
• Drag and drop parts into graphics area.

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Assembly Pathfinder

• Top section
• Parts subassemblies in assembly
• Lower section
• Assembly relationships of selected part

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Part status

• Activate part
• (full part details in mem)
• Inactivate part
• (min rep to save mem)
• Hidden part
• Part removed from view
• Unloaded part
• Part removed from memory

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Assembly Relationships
Mate Align Insert Connect Angle
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Reading the path finder

• Interpreting pathfinder icons.

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Mate/Align/Insert Relationships
Mate Align Insert
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Align with Offset

• Where two faces are require to face the same
  direction but to be displaced from one another by
  a specified amount

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Align with Floating offset

• Where to faces are required to face the same
  direction but are diplaced from each other by an
  unknown amount.

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Assembly Ribbon Bar
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Moving Parts in Assemblies

• Before all assembly constraints are applied a
  part can be move using move part
• Linear, Rotate, and Dynamic
• Blue axis appear appear to use to translate or
  rotate part.

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How to use Connect Relationship?

• Connect relationship should be used in
  conjunction with other relationships, meaning
  they will help define a mate, align or angled
  relationship better (e.g. a pivot point for an
  angled relationship)
• Connecting parts with opposing draft angles
• Consider Connect as a working relationship
  rather than a stand-alone

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The Connect Relationship

• First get the two parts constrained as best as
  possible.

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Connect (cont)

• Place your next critical relationship

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Connect (cont.)

• Firm up the design with connects

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The Angle Relationship

• After defining the two faces to measure too, the
  system will generate the pivot point
  automatically (5th step skipped)
• Axial aligns will dictate pivot point (5th step
  skipped)
• Reference planes can be used!
• Different result if two model edges are used

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The Angle Relationship- 2 surfaces

• The angle is applied to the surfaces according to
  the X and Y orientation
• surfaces may flip (90 may be 270)

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The Angle Relationship - 2 Edges

• User must give a pivot axis perpendicular to the
  selected edges (5th step)
• System ignores X and Y orientation and works off
  a straight coordinate system.
• An axial align must pre-exist or the system will
  prompt for this relationship!

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The Angle Relationship - 2 Lines

• First element is the measure too
• Second element is the origin element
• Quadrants
• 1 is cc
• 2 is c
• 3 is oo / c
• 4 is oo / cc

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Exploding your assembly

• Automatic Explode
• Manual Explode
• Editing the Results
• Un-exploding

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Automatic/Manual Explode

• Automatic
• Select what you do and dont want to explode.
• Users have no control over explode direction
• Unexploded parts and subs stay put.
• Manual Explode
• Users can explode parts in any direction they
  desire.
• User must select every part to explode

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Editing Exploded Assemblies

• Moving
• Re-positioning
• Collapsing
• Adding Joggles
• Un-Exploding

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Part Display Status

• Show Part
• Hide part
• Show only (hides all others)
• Activate part (full part details in mem)
• Inactivate part (min rep to save mem)

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Why de-activated?

• Saves Memory
• Reduces file initialization
• No impact on relationship solving
• No impact on rendering
• New Pathfinder Icons

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Unloading Hidden Parts

• Any part that is hidden can be unloaded from
  memory!
• No effect on solving!

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Using Sketches

• One sketch can be used on multiple parts
• Sketch changes, all related parts change.

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Using Sketches

• Be sure to turn on the link when including an
  edge from a sketch.
• There are limits for parts linked to an assembly
  sketch (coping deleting)
• Use the Break Links command to break the
  associative link to the sketch.
• Each part must be edited separately

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Assembly Variable Table

• What is the real use?
• How hard is it?