To fully utilize the assembly features, the user must familiar with the features that are available in assembly. If users seldom use this assembly for their projects, in result they may face a problem when it comes to assembly. Apart of that, it is very important to understand the real function of the features, so user would not be spending more time to figure out which features they can use.
Understanding the Mate Options
Most of the user are confused the mate options and the condition of mate. Therefore they are forced to allow SOLIDWORKS to decide the assemble process for them.
Standard Mate
Advanced Mate
Mechanical Mate
The majority of the user are confused the difference between standard and advance mate. The standard mate is the basic mate that is use for basic attachment usually involving between two points, planes and point to surface. Simple operation would not need to have any technical experience to use this mate feature.
Advanced and mechanical mate are mostly for organized assembly system or the prediction of the system behavior. These sections of advanced mate are difficult compare to standard. Certain concept and theory are needed to ensure the features work correctly for your assembly.
A wrong selection of planes or point may cause errors in your assembly you will unable to complete the mate. You may require to test and trial a bit on the selection plane or point before you apply this mate for your assembly
A mechanical mate is the mate for robotic or mechanical movement control. You may need to do some minor calculation. For example in gear mechanical mate, you may need to do calculate a pitch diameter and radius of the gear. This is to ensure that the gear can turn accurately in your assembly. A wrong setting wrong setting may create visualizes overlap effect in your assembly.
Analysis tools that can be found in assembly
These are few tools that we usually used to measure mass properties, to check on the size of the component, to measure the length and height and to double the error in terms of design precision. Meanwhile using the interference detection and distance tolerance allows us to check the error between the components and the gap between these components.
Interference detection allows you to check the overlapping component in your assembly. With the color highlighted this will make it easy to identify which components are crashing each other.
Clearance verification is the feature which allows you to get the gap distance between the components in assembly and can increase to mille distance.
Hole alignment allows SOLIDWORKS to realign the hole wizard holes and to align in a same row on the component.
The most common feature that user use is measure. This feature allows you to measure the edge, distance between two planes, two points, surface area and perimeter of the plane.
The most common feature that user use is measure. This feature allows you to measure the edge, distance between two planes, two points, surface area and perimeter of the plane.
Section properties allow user to select partial component to do mass analysis instead of the whole assembly.
Assembly visualization allow user to identify which component is critical part for the whole assembly, using color to differentiate the component.
Open assembly more on the software performance tools, allows you to identify the feature that caused your software slow in startup.
Features or module that actually using assembly
Piping module and simulation premium are the few modules that use assembly for design modification and simulation.
As seen in the SOLIDWORKS add on, those are the feature can be used in SOLIDWORKS assembly. For more information, do not hesitate to contact us.
Part feature that can be use in assembly, the differences you use in assembly
You also can use the SOLIDWORKS part feature to do your modelling design simultaneously. However, you will need to take few more steps to create the component.
Instead of inserting component one by one, click the arrow option allows you directly create the new component in the assembly. The edit component feature in SOLIDWORKS, allows you to create new component within the SOLIDWORKS assembly.
For those who want to understand more on Assembly, stay tune for part 2.