Drawing variants

[Robert2]

Hi,

i have inherited a template for a product that we manufacture. it's basically a template .txt file with user customizable values and a sample asm, prt and drw files that regen based on the values from that file.

the problem is with drawings, they are always either not correctly magnified (too large) or runaway far away from the drawing border. the drawing format is always A3.

i am trying to minimize the time required for editing this template.

can anything be done about this two problems? the first one could be solved with autozoom option, but this produces too small view (we are trying to maximize view area).

the runaway view could probably be repaired by lock view position?

perhaps any other advices? i am on wf3 and probably won't update any soon

i will try to upload an img of the drawing tomorrow.

best regards, Robert

also, if there are any admins here, please edit my first name to robert rob.

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[TomD.inPDX]

I am not sure I understand how you are using the template. Each element will probably need to be address separately. You have formats; you have part drawings, and you have assembly drawings. You also have relations and parameters. It also sounds like you have pre-defined views in your drawing template files (not the format files). And you are saying that all your drawings are done on A3 size formats.

Know that a "template" in WF is an actual thing and where you refer to template, you are saying a "boilerplate" from previous efforts.

If only the views are a problem, delete them from your template drawing file. It sounds like you have too much variation in your product mass to make this useful.

Also, are you creating new models based on the part's 0, 0, 0 origin or some random assembly level origin?

[Robert2]

yes, we have predefined views.

i think they were positioned at some "random" position in the drawing (that looks ok/ conserves space).

there is not much variation, the models are all big axial bearings, it can be addressed with zoom without concerns. the views are also broken so that they don't take much space on a drawing.

here is a picture

http://i.imgur.com/TYqqEYs.jpg

i would currently like to fix that position of the views if possible and try to get it to auto resize, as the drawings are exploded upon regeneration. i will also show such a drawing once i have a new one.

any tips?

is any of this available via relations/ parameters (zoom, view position?

[TomD.inPDX]

That's a tough one. The only tip I can recommend is using datum points in your model to grab view origins to make sure the views are approximately centered where you want. That way to OD can change significantly, but the view origin can always be the ball bearing and the centerpoint of the part for instance.

There are means to automate such efforts but this is way beyond me. It is part of the programming setup that 3rd party services offer when a design is common throughout the product type with small variations or array systems where they are scalable. These require very little input and generate the entire product drawing package required per the client's configuration methodology. This is likely a fairly involved up front effort and some significant resources. If you are drawing that many bearings, you could be eliminated

[dschenken]

In the old fashioned world, the dimesions would just be tabulated with a generic diagram.

There's no advantage in a bearing drawing, and I say this as a long time consumer of such information, to making such drawings even to scale. It is more important that the individual elements are all accounted for and very obvious.

This opinion may differ from that of those who pay you. I've seen some customers (internal ones, not the ones spending money with the company) get all out of shape because the cross-hatching on wire-braid breakaway views on shielded cable drawings did not match actual wire braid.

[Robert2]

i am hoping to auto set the scale so that the drawing views don't go all over the place when creating a new variant. time saving primarily.

[Robert2]

here is an example problem

http://i.imgur.com/n1sZcgt.png

the views are always misaligned like that when i change the dimensions.

[TomD.inPDX]

I can certainly understand the frustration. The only way to automate this is to learn programming that would query internal informaiton and make logical conclusions based on your own rules.

[Robert2]

The only tip I can recommend is using datum points in your model to grab view origins to make sure the views are approximately centered where you want.

how do you do that? you define several hard points (that don't move) in drawing template to use them as view origin?

that and scale are two tasks that i would like to get rid of.

[TomD.inPDX]

You would use them in your models and model templates. That way, those datum points (geometry point can also be created in a sketch) will always remain constant in those views where the origin is no longer the center of the view.

[Robert2]

do you perhaps know how to unlock a view? see image - i would like to rotate it 180°.

http://imgur.com/LskGu7D

[TomD.inPDX]

You should be able to select the angles to change the orientation. I am not sure what dependency is locking the view since it is a general view. Is there prehaps an alignment dependency?

[Robert2]

no.

broken views are defined via fixed points though (i think).