Assembling by Pattern

[merrill.rosenow]

Hello everyone,I tried searching for another post on this, but did not find anyone with the same type of problems.The assembly I am working on is basically a storage unit with shelves that slide out. The main unit is a shell with a structural frame inside which the suspensions attach to. The slots for the suspensions in the frame were made using a pattern. One slot for one shelf, two slots for two shelves and so on. To ensure parts are kept up to date, the left components on the left hand side of the unit were made using mirrors of the components in the right.The problem: when I assemble the suspensions on to the shell and frame, I can only assemble patterns of suspensions on the right hand side (the original model). I cannot assemble them on the left hand side (the mirror of the right hand parts).I believe this may have to do with the fact that in the right hand (original) parts, the pattern exists so that I can assemble parts in a pattern on to. On the left hand side, since the model tree is only the part name followed by the mirror feature, the assembled components do not have a pattern to assemble on to and thus fail. Is this correct? It is very frustrating trying to solve this since when you open up the different versions of the left hand frame all of the slots are where they are supposed to be in the correct quantities.

Is this truly the problem? Is there a way around this? I find it hard to believe a tool with such powerful potential is limited by something which should form the basis of how it functions. My last resort is to assemble the model as the largest version and have a large family table (one column for each extra suspension and shelf at each level). I hope that I can avoid this, assembling using patterns is much faster, and leaves a much cleaner model tree and family table. Thank you in advanced for your input.

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[merrill.rosenow]

I should clarify that the frame is made up basically of four components, a top, bottom, left and right hand side. It is the left hand side of the frame that is mirrored and geometrically dependant on the right. It is also the left hand side I cannot assemble using a pattern and is what seems to be causing all of the trouble.

[dgschaefer]

It's always challenging trying to follow 3D geometry in words, but I
think I've got it.

I would think that you can assemble the LH side components in such a way
as they follow the pattern of the RH components. Since it sounds like
the LH components are used 1:1 with the RH, why not assemble the LH to
the RH where ever possible? Then the pattern of the RH components would
drive the LH. I would thing that your front to back and top to bottom
references could be tied to the RH components leaving the side to side
reference which you'd use to place the LH components on the LH side of
the unit.

Does that make sense?

Doug Schaefer

[merrill.rosenow]

That is an excellent idea, however I am not sure it is possible.

I only found out about pattern assembly recently. You have to place component that references only pattern features. Then, when you select the component and use the pattern feature, instead of the typical dashboard for pattern placement, you get a greyed out pattern with "Reference" as the type. When you accept, the pattern is placed. It is a seemingly very powerful tool. Instead of enormous family tables to turn each specific feature on and off, Pro/E automatically adds that specified part whenever that type of pattern exists. This cleans up the model tree and family table up a lot and makes it <u>much</u> easier to understand.

The problem I am having is not with the part that was patterned using the original right hand side of the frame. The problem is with the mirroed left hand side. Since it is mirrored, the only feature on the model tree besides the part number is the mirror feature. Sadly, I know that Pro/E realizes the feature is there, or else the feature wouldn't regenerate properly in each case.

More on how the mirror was made: The frame in question has different sizes and is driven by a family table. The right hand portion of the part has different instances for one, two, three, etc. number of shelves. In order to make a family of mirrored parts, I created the generic mirror then selected the part as the feature in the family table. In each instance, I inputted the correct instance of the original part to mirror. The model is not truely changing the size of the part parametrically, but is actually mirroring different lengths of the actual parametric (original) part.

Do people use this tool? Are they aware of it or do they not use it for its quirks? I am surprised that this isn't a standard way of creating assemblies. It is one thing to use the quick assembly feature. However, you still have to assemble each component, with this method you only have to do it once, even for 10,000 parts in a pattern. What's more, is you do not have to manually change the number of parts in a family table to get them to work properly.

[merrill.rosenow]

Victory is mine!

I was able to assemble the left hand components based on the right hand model (in this case I used the suspensions). In order to properly place the components on the left hand side, I used a relation to automatically determine the distance from the right hand side. I would much rather use the left hand geometry to have more clear placement conditions, but this is what I have to work with.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I was very surprised to learn how many people avoid using mirror geometry.