Mon 5/15/2000 Tip #7

Building parts in the context of the assembly, using in context references to drive features on your parts, is very cool... Unfortunately, the two things are mutually exclusive.  For instance, if you build a part for a door in the context of an assembly, you can choose to make the door so the frame it sits in drives the door's size and shape.  However, if you then use assembly motion to open the door, the geometry of the door part will change! The door will try to access the driving geometry (the frame) from the vantage point of its new position, altering the shape of everything. The work around for this is to leave the door in its original position, RMB click it, and choose to 'hide' it. Then you CTRL drag another instance of the door component from the assembly manager into the assembly window, mating the copy in place (concentric to the hinge, with it's bottom some distance from the threshold of the door). Now this second instance can be
moved all over without altering the in-context relationships of the door part!  In SolidWorks 2000, you can freeze in-context relationships as another work around for this problem, but if you update the geometry of the doorframe, the door part will not change. Using two instances of the door component in the assembly allows you to have your cake and eat it to.

Submitted by:

Ed Eaton
RTC Industries
eeaton@rtcind.com

Thank You Ed!!!