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Ketan_Lalcheta1-Visitor
1-Visitor
May 6, 2019
Question

External Reference

  • May 6, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 5312 views

Do we use external reference into design? AFIK, one should avoid it. Another question is where I can find that my feature has external reference. I donot want to use reference viewer to check as it ask to check for all features individually.

 

If external references are not good, why to use copy geom and publish geom? Is this just available and one should not use it or there is no harm using the same?

3 replies

B
BHOoi16-Pearl
16-Pearl
May 8, 2019

There are some good reasons to use external references in design:

1. top- down approach to allow the control of critical design criteria to flow from top level to down stream.

2. Centralized location for design parameters to ease cross and consistent referencing.

3. Promotes reuse hence reducing modeling time/errors.

 

A simple example : 2 external parts referencing to a common ID surface. It would be much easier to have the ID surface stored/created in one common reference part(this can a skeleton or so called "master") and then copied over to that 2 external parts.

what we really need to avoid is referencing to weak or too many dependencies such as referencing to a big assembly. The common practice is to use skeleton/master files. 

Hope this helps.

  

    B
    BHOoi16-Pearl
    16-Pearl
    May 8, 2019

    Instead of using reference viewer which gives you a detailed breakdown of external references in your file, you can make use of model tree columns for a quick glance :ext.jpg

    K
    Ketan_Lalcheta1-VisitorAuthor
    1-Visitor
    May 8, 2019

    Thanks for responding on this.

     

    Let me try to replicate an issue I am focusing right now.

     

    I created three parts. Assembled them in an assembly. Activated first part. Placed one hole on part 1 with reference edge of part 3. Activated assembly and saved it.

     

    Now when I open assembly, everything looks fine. But individual opening of part 1 says external reference missing into message window and that hole feature is also not defined. This is not in case we open assembly as it got reference from part 3.

     

    Can anyone show me how to identify from assembly window that part1 has one feature that is hole which has external references. I do not want to go to reference viewer for each feature of each part.

     

    Attaching sample CAD data for easy and quick reference.

     

    B
    BHOoi16-Pearl
    16-Pearl
    May 8, 2019

    Try this if this solves your issue:

     

    1. In the assembly, add "Dependency Status" to the model tree. You will see the word "dependent" next to prt0001:

    dep1.jpg

     

    2. When you open up prt0001 w/o assembly, you can always right click to retrieve its reference part/assembly:

     

    dep2.jpg

      J
      jbob12-Amethyst
      12-Amethyst
      May 10, 2019

      Add Parents Details column to your model tree, if you open the part that has external reference that is not in session, you will see Out of Session. Now RMB on that feature and select Edit References, the Edit References window will show external reference.

       

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