FIGURE 1A. The CAD process is to vary the subassembly into a component. The drawing for this meeting will probably be affected. The drawing for the lid will change as effectively.
Designs change. Consequently, revisions to documentation are required. When the design change entails the hierarchy of information within the CAD database—that’s to say, which is the guardian of what—a couple of pointers come to thoughts.
As an instance what the CAD workflow can contain, we current the meeting proven in Determine 1A. Our tank lid meeting includes a sheet metallic lid, which is a subassembly. (It’s to confuse tank lid with simply the lid.) Altering that sheet metallic lid subassembly right into a sheet metallic lid half is our process at hand.
In overview of this CAD mannequin’s historical past, captive nuts had been as soon as swaged into the sheet metallic lid. Mounting bolts are aligned with the nuts for varied gadgets. The present design replaces the nuts with tapped holes.
The present drawings on this challenge are simply superb. They present the change from nuts to tapped holes adequately. All views on the 2D drawings and BOMs are acceptable.
The one cause to vary this CAD mannequin is to keep up nearer constancy to the real-world manufacturing merchandise. The coverage in our CAD store is to keep up constancy—maintain the mannequin tidy so the subsequent CAD jockey doesn’t must surprise why.
As we conclude the overview, we notice that the meeting for the sheet metallic lid has just one element in it—Determine 1B. In different phrases, the lid’s subassembly is an pointless little bit of legacy within the CAD mannequin.
Heads Up
Our process entails altering pointers and not less than one filename. There are inner Customized Properties for Half Quantity and Revision that will probably be affected, as effectively.
One to-do is to handle pointers within the drawing for the sheet metallic lid. The drawing at the moment references (has a pointer to) the sheet metallic lid meeting. We wish the slddrw to level to a sldprt, not a sldasm. Determine 1C exhibits the outcomes of File>Discover References.
That’s not the one factor we wish to do. We wish to change the filename (and inner half quantity) of the sheet metallic lid, as effectively. By an arbitrary commonplace, the -1 within the filename (and half quantity) implies that it’s a element of an meeting, not a stand-alone merchandise. In impact, we’re renaming the lid-as-a-part to be what the lid-as-an-assembly was.
Notice that this need relating to the which means of punctuation in filenames is completely arbitrary and never a CAD operational requirement, per se. We embody the renaming process right here for completeness.
FIGURE 1B. The duty is to switch this unrealistic assembly-of-one with a extra lifelike single half and to rename the half. The -1 not belongs within the filename.
One other to-do is that the tank lid meeting (see Determine 1D), which at the moment references the out of date lid meeting and may level to the (renamed) sheet metallic half as an alternative. When that pointer change is accomplished, the drawing for the tank lid meeting will probably be outdated till it’s opened and re-saved.
Rename the Half
In Determine 2A, the CAD software program instrument for renaming CAD information that preserves pointers is used. The sheet metallic half is renamed from SM-0027-1 to SM-0027. In Determine 2A you would possibly have the ability to see that the file SM-0027.SLDDRW is up to date as a result of it’s pointing to an meeting that has a renamed element. We nonetheless want to tell the drawing that it ought to level to a component, not the out of date meeting.
We’re utilizing Home windows Explorer in Determine 2A. Proper-click on the filename, choose see extra choices, choose Solidworks, choose Rename. Notice that on Home windows 10, skip the see extra choices.
Level the Drawing to the Half
In Determine 2B, the SLDDRW is up to date to reference the brand new sldprt as an alternative of the previous sldasm. With the slddrw open, right-mouse-click on any view within the drawing. Choose Exchange Mannequin. Then navigate to pick out the will file.
Level the Meeting to the Half
In Determine 2C, the top-level tank lid SLDASM is up to date in a way much like that used on the lid’s SLDDRW. Proper-mouse-click on the meeting to get replaced, choose Exchange Element. Then navigate to pick out our newly renamed sheet metallic tank lid.
Level the Patterns to the Half
The tank lid meeting makes use of gap patterns within the sheet metallic lid to align fashions for the bolts with the tapped holes. When the sheet metallic lid modified from an meeting to a component, the opening patterns went into dangle. It’s a small nuisance.
To restore the dangles, a useful workflow is to isolate the seed element and the merchandise that has the opening sample, which occurs to be the lid (see Determine 2D). Edit the sample, choose one of many desired holes within the lid, and the sample not dangles. Repeat for the opposite two patterns, on this instance.
