Constraints of a part in several assemblies?

3D Design Assembly
1

Hi all

I am faced with a problem of " propagation " of part stresses through several assemblies and I do not understand what is blocking.

For context, I've been self-taught for 9/10 months (and it's starting to be a problem) under Solidworks after 15 years under Creo. This sometimes plays tricks on me in the design intention, which is not always transposable to SW.

My problem is to represent a cable that connects 2 connectors in red:

Cablage

My 1st attempt was to create a " cable " sub-assembly with the green connectors whose 1st shaft connector is totally constrained, then to assemble this S/E " Cable " in my head assembly. By wanting to position the connectors by constraints at the 2 ends, SW constrains the 1st connector but impossible to move the second, I have an error message asking me to break links or to constrain it. What for? Did I miss something? This 2nd connector was not constrained anywhere...

My 2nd attempt was to assemble the 2 connectors where they need to be in the head assembly and then to create an S/E (function in the context menu). It worked physically but all the constraints in place blew up! I left it at that, but the situation is not sustainable.

What do I do wrong in SW to not benefit from this flexibility of constraints regardless of the part, regardless of the level of assembly?

2

Hello @Nicolas_PECHBERTY

In what I understand and reasoning solidworks you have at least three parts concerned regardless of the ASM you do.

1st hypothesis you have five rooms
a) The grey box on the left
b) the green electronic turntable
c) the green connector on the left
d the cable
e) the green connector on the right.

Whatever way you go about it, you have to consider your cable as if it were a 4 mm piece of round, made of steel, so completely rigid (like a wire or piano wire). After each connection is made by a plan.
Once your cable is made, you have to have the sides that fit well on the female part.
This means that you need to know the 3D dimensions on the connectors that are attached to the turntables. The cable automatically adjusts by changing the dimensions as shown on the attached drawing.

Note that we have a Master Es-cable (Hello @DoubleL) and if he goes through this he will give you a better construction tip especially if you work on 3 planes instead of two as in my example made in a hurry.

Be careful if you have several ASMs with the same cable, you need to find a naming rule for each global ASM.

Kind regards
Cable coté