Manning the technical support line for technology solutions provider Designfusion, I often deal with questions related specifically to assembly creation. Usually the call starts out with, “There has to be a faster way to do this.” Often there are faster methods. However, the support line is a lousy way to train someone and is a poor surrogate for real training. So we often direct our customer to help documents, tutorials or articles to assist them but strongly advise them to take an advanced assembly course. Having taught this course, I thought it would be beneficial to highlight some its more efficient methods. Hopefully, users will see the benefit, as demonstrated in the tools listed below, and decide to take the full course.
For this article, I've chosen to focus on a common question or concern raised on our technical line: What’s the fastest way to place and position components into an assembly?The answer to this question depends on what kind of part you are placing. Is this a one-off part, or is it more of a standard part that you commonly use and usually use the same relationship to place? If it’s a one-off part, FlashFit is the fastest way to place the component. If it’s more of a standard component, Capture Fit is the best method.
- FlashFit
Simply put, FlashFit looks at the element selected from the added part and tries to accurately determine the correct position and orientation. The element selected on the target part defines the final relationship.
- Planar Face Selection
- Cylindrical Face Selection
- FlashFit, for bolts and screws When using the FlashFit option to place assembly relationships, you can select the bottom cylindrical edge of the bolt head and the top cylindrical edge of the hole to fully position the fastener.
If you select a planar face from the newly added part, the command assumes either a mate or planar alignment relationship. When you select the planar face, on the target part, the command will place the relationship based on that face. If the faces are closer to being a mate relationship, as in Figure 1, the command assigns a mate relationship.
If the faces are closer to being a planar alignment relationship, as in Figure 2, the command assigns a planar alignment relationship.
The nice thing about this command is that you can hit the Flip button, on the command bar, or hit the F key (Tab key for pre-ST8 versions) to toggle between the two solutions.
If you select a cylindrical face from the newly added part, the command assumes an axial alignment relationship. The command automatically filters the target part selection to allow you to pick only cylindrical faces, edges or points. Once you pick the corresponding cylindrical face, edge or point, the axial align relationship is placed.
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FlashFit example using circular edges. |
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Resultant relationships are Mate and Axial Align with rotation locked.
Note: To select the cylindrical edges, you have to have the Circular Edges option turned on in the Assembly Relationship options.
- Linear Edge Selection
If you select a linear edge from the newly added part, the command assumes an axial alignment relationship. The command automatically filters the target part selection to allow you to pick only cylindrical faces, edges or points. Once you pick the corresponding cylindrical face, edge, or point, the axial align relationship is placed.
- Point Selection
If you select a point from the placement part, the command assumes a connect relationship. The command automatically filters the target part selection to allow you to pick only edges or points. Once you pick the corresponding edge or point, the connect relationship is placed.
Section from assembly options dialog.
- Controlling Placement Orientation
A little-known fact about Solid Edge is that you can predefine the orientation of the placement component before you drag it on to the display screen. When you select a component from the Parts Library tab, you see the preview in the lower pane.
If you place your cursor in the preview window and hold down the scroll wheel/middle mouse button, you can dynamically rotate the component. Holding down the scroll wheel/middle mouse button along with the Shift key puts you in pan mode. Double clicking the scroll wheel/middle mouse button fits the component in the preview window. The orientation of the component in the preview window will determine the orientation of the component when it is first added to the assembly. The only exception to this is if the component is the first component placed in an assembly. Then it aligns with the assembly base reference planes.
Predefining the orientation can assist in aligning the components when using FlashFit, saving you from having to use the flip option.
- Capture Fit
Ideal for hardware or commonly used components, Capture Fit remembers what relationships and geometry you used to originally place your component. When you place the component again, it will prompt you only for the target geometry.
To use Capture Fit, you must first place the component into an assembly using the assembly relationships that you plan to capture and then select the Capture Fit command and save the relationships in the dialog box.
When you place a Capture Fit component into the assembly, the assembly relationship command reads the saved relationships. For example, in the image below, I have two mate relationships and one axial aligned relationship saved to the angled bracket part. When I place the bracket into the assembly, I am automatically prompted to select the target face to align the first mate relationship.
The first relationship is assigned and I am prompted to select the target face to align the second mate relationship.
System prompt for target face for second saved relationship.
I select the face on the target part.
The second relationship is assigned and I am prompted to select the target face to align the axial align relationship.
If you've been counting, I have fully positioned this part with only three mouse clicks. Because I have assigned Capture Fit to this part, I will only need three mouse clicks to fully position it into any other assembly. If you extend this technique to all your commonly used parts, you can save a significant amount of time.
- Duplicate Component
There is one more relatively new method that can accelerate the placement of components. This is the Duplicate Component command that was introduced in Solid Edge ST7. The Solid Edge help documents describe this command as follows: “The Duplicate Component command duplicates one or more assembly components into a duplicate pattern. The orientation of the duplicated part is determined by the relative orientation of the base coordinate system of the selected component to that of the base coordinate system of the target components.” Let me try and illustrate what they mean in the following example.
In Figure 3, notice the existence of four motor mounts.
Note: The front-left motor mount already has several components placed and positioned relative to it.
I select all the components that I want to duplicate and then I select the Duplicate Component command from the Pattern group.
The next step in the command is to select the “From” component, so I select the mount, highlighted in yellow.
The next step is to select the “To” component, so I go to the opposite side and select the same piece that was selected in the previous step.
Notice the preview.
Now I select the All Matching components option and let the command quickly do the work for me.
Note: The front two mounts are at a different angle but still get duplicated.
The last step is to accept my selection and hit finish.
Notice that all the selected components from the first mount are placed and positioned on the remaining three mounts, matching the relative position and orientation of each individual mount.
The methods discussed here are very handy in speeding up the creation of assemblies. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. To truly see significant improvement in the quality of your assemblies and reduce design time, I encourage all users to get proper training.
Knowledge of the software is key to mastering it. For available courses, check with your local Solid Edge reseller or visit the Designfusion Technical Training page.
Siemens has sponsored ENGINEERING.com to write this article. It has provided no editorial input. All opinions are mine. —John Pearson
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