In some assemblies I don't want to add all the fixing nuts in my modeling, I put at least one to have the reference in the nomenclature (In the example attached they are aluminum profile fixing nuts).
3 good reasons not to put them all in my blend:
- as a good cartoonist I'm a bit "lazy"!!!
- it unnecessarily weighs down the size of the assemblies, and therefore alters the performance and my boss is not hot to buy me the latest high-end HP workstation available on Mycadstore !!!!
- It takes a long time to assemble, and time is money!!!
However, via SmartBOM, I need the right amount of nut in my BOM.
What I'm doing today is that manually (but I'll grant you: it's not very !!!!) I modify the quantity of nuts after Excel extraction.
If I duplicate my assembly for another thing, I have to do the same thing again (in fact think about doing !!): "tinker with the quantity" after extraction.
Like the assignment of the weight for a part file, I wondered if there was not a way to assign, in an assembly, a quantity for a component.
Anyone have an idea about assigning a quantity?
Or if someone has another idea, I'm interested of course ..........
Attached is a small assembly for example: I assembled the nut (EC1122) 1 time, but I need 10 on the nomenclature.
First of all, which version of SolidWorsks do you have :P renium, Professional or Standard?
If you have the toolbox? So the assembly of a dozen nuts takes only a few seconds. Otherwise, with the "smart fasteners" the result is almost identical. This will save you a lot of hassle related to "manual" modifications. Moreover, if there are several of you in your company, it's also much simpler...
In terms of performance, I don't think I'm wrong in saying that a repetition of a dozen nuts will only slightly alter the opening and handling of your assembly.
I'm even lazier for my screws, nuts and washers, I create an empty assembly with 3 empty parts and I assemble them and then repeat them in my assembly to manage my quantities!
Of course, in each file all my properties are entered (designation, material, mass, price,...)
I work by configurations. For example, at the moment I am working on a wood pelleting line. Each machine sub-assembly has a normal configuration (with screws) and a configuration without screws. In my general layout, I insert my sub-assemblies with the configuration without screws (and other unnecessary parts). On the other hand, for my sub-assembly MEPs, I keep the "normal" configuration so that the quantity of screws appears well in the nomenclature.
Admittedly, I waste a little time inserting the screws in the assemblies (even if with constraint references it goes quite quickly). I also try to avoid repetitions as much as possible.
In the assembly I repeat my nut, screw, washer etc assembly according to a function
which means that in the nomenclature the quantity is good. On the other hand, it is necessary that at least one of the parts has been made with the drilling function
I alternate between toolbox and screws from my library (it allows me to have different colors for my assembly plans)
We also use a simple configuration without screws to lighten the 3D, and a default configuration for the drawing (which can also be used for the bill of materials).
And the function-driven repeat function is very convenient!
You can also use copy with constraints by selecting several constrained parts (to have the minimum of external constraints), such as a screw, a washer and a spacer, and place them wherever you want with only 2 clicks (right click to validate), if you can't use the repetition driven by a function.
I foresee at the beginning of the conception, as Gerard and Prieur say, the repetition by function
The nomenclature is up to date
The question to ask yourself: if I only have a dozen screws to do, this is good, on the other hand if I have a hundred.... This will weigh down the file
I use the configurations more for kinematics, but I'm going to test the idea of creating an MEP configuration with all the screws: in this case I'll just have to remember to do the Smartbom only on the MEP configuration.
We already use the "function-driven repeat function" to the maximum but as you can see on the attached Edrawing, there are several different mechanical parts that come to attach to the aluminum profile, so several fixing nuts to assemble anyway.
To take a little bit of everything that has been said and I work a bit like this:
-work with configs
-for the screw, create stress references (coaxial, coincidence) to put it directly in position when I insert it at the level of my drilling in the assembly.
-Another thing that is practical is to create a folder that I call "screws" for example in my feature manager creation tree and in which I put all my screws elements.
-And don't hesitate to use the component repeat functions, very convenient.
A priori, there is also the solution of tinkering with the quantity of the component(s) you want.
I guess you use smartproprties to fill in your properties, you would have to fill in for example a property named "number" which would represent the amount of fasteners you need for your order and then in the file, property window, use the drop-down menu "quantity to use in the nomenclature" to choose the "number" property there we would have the right number of nuts and if we duplicate the project It's the same, no problem.
Major disadvantage of this method is that if you want to change the quantity you impact all the bills of materials where you use this component!