Assembly Strategy: Part in Master Assembly or Part in Subassembly in Master Assembly

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1

Hello 

When working on a large assembly (in terms of the number of parts), is it better to work by inserting the parts directly into the master assembly or is it better to insert the parts into sub-assemblies that are inserted into the master assembly?

In terms of "is it better", I'm talking in terms of speed of reconstruction, SW performance, efficiency.

I think that the "part in a sub-assembly in master assembly" methodology is the best, but why? 

Thank you

2

Hello

I use the sub-assembly technique  all the time in a master assembly. Depending on the complexity I can have different types of combinations.

The main advantage for me

  1. to be able to easily make changes in a subset without doing it in the "Meta master" because it's very slow if you only have one very large file
  2. This makes it possible to make MEPs sub-assemblies for assembly. The assemblies are simpler for the workshop which first assembles the sub-assemblies.
  3. This makes it possible to subcontract sub-assemblies, for example mechanically welded on the one hand, and the rest elsewhere, or when I don't want the subcontractors to have an overview of the system. I use subcontractors from all over the world or in France.
  4. Subsets also offer shorter creation trees and constraint management is easier and above all response times are faster on subsets
  5. finally the thing that Solidworks will never admit is that when you put everything in a big assembly and the file goes awry, well you have it in the bather, because you don't get anything back in general. On the other hand, if you work with N subsets, then you can start from an earlier version of your large asm and you only have to change the subsets that have had a modification.
  6. the sub-assemblies allow to better manage the "flexible" function because I do a lot of kinematics with sub-assemblies that move in all directions.
  7. Loading times are shorter because they are parallelized.

That's why I do a lot of subsets of ASMs included in other ASMs.

Kind regards

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3

Hello

Here, we work on the design in terms of assembly and delivery. If a piece is to be delivered on its own, it will go into the master on its own. If we have a series of operations to carry out in the factory, we do all the necessary sub-assemblies . When the assemblies are really large, we open them in a lighter way. 

4

Thank you for your answers.

Indeed, I have adopted the philosophy of sub-assembly in the master assembly. I try to limit as much as possible the assemblies in the sub-assemblies. If necessary I create a new assembly, except for the cylinders otherwise it is too complex.

I have also noticed in terms of speed and reconstruction time, that it is more efficient to do a symmetry and then a linear repetition rather than to do a linear repetition and then a symmetry. I noticed a gain of about 5% in terms of time.

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